The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place this past weekend in New York City. As it usually does, the latest batch of inductees (especially ABBA) stirred up a bit of controversy, causing writers and bloggers across the web to create their own lists of artists that are not in the Rock Hall but should be. Included in most of these lists and often at the top is our favorite Canadian power trio, Rush. This post on CNN's The Marquee Blog titled Most shocking Rock & Roll Hall of Fame snubs (thanks Sean) includes Rush as does this list from the Boston Globe (thanks Brian). Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement even tweeted about the exclusion of Rush, saying:

I'm sick for one day and WT heck? ABBA in the R&R HofF?? And no Rush? This world is just so confusing...

Rush also topped the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's list of 12 acts that deserve induction (thanks Brian S):

It took a while for this Toronto band to really hit its stride, and by then it had already built up a large pool of critical disfavor. The original Rolling Stone Record Guide gives each of its first three albums one star and calls Rush a "poor man's Led Zeppelin." It wasn't until the influence of second drummer Neil Peart kicked in that the band started to reveal its grand potential. To this day, Rush is still loved by some, hated by others -- largely because of Geddy Lee's siren voice -- but it's hard to deny it on musicianship, influence, popularity and longevity.

This past Sunday the We Will Rock You Blog broadcast a special two-hour episode of Long Live Rock on Blog Talk Radio titled The Top 10 Bands That Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (But Aren't) and Rush topped their list as well:

... Every year when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame holds its induction ceremony, we’re reminded all over again of some of the strange choices the Hall makes - and the legendary bands that continue to get snubbed year after year after year. So this year we took a poll of real rock fans, asking one simple question: what are the bands that rock music fans think should be in the Hall of Fame?

The results of our poll are mostly the same bands I expected, the same bands that people talk about over and over and over and nobody can believe they aren’t in there already. There are also a couple of surprises. Here’s our Top 10:

10) Jethro Tull
9) Emerson, Lake and Palmer
8) Judas Priest
7) Styx
6) Journey
5) Alice Cooper
4) KISS
3) Deep Purple
2) Yes
1) Rush

We were joined by some very special guests. Charlie Brusco is the head of Alliance Artists; he manages Styx and Lynyrd Skynyrd among others, and he is on the Cleveland board of the rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Charlie shared with us an insider’s view of how the process works, and why it tends to be exclusive of popular success. We also had comments from Gregg Rolie of Journey, Dennis Dunaway of the original Alice Cooper group, and Rick Wakeman of Yes. ...

If you are at all interested in how the induction process works and why so many deserving bands are excluded, I highly suggest that you give it a listen. You can hear the entire program online at this link. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.