Chubby Checker is finally joining the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 65 years after “The Twist” became a No. 1 hit and an international dance craze.
Checker, 83, who has campaigned for decades to be admitted to the pantheon — at one point taking out a full-page ad in Billboard magazine that said “I want my flowers while I’m alive” — is part of the 40th annual crop of performer inductees. He is joined by Joe Cocker, the White Stripes, Outkast, Cyndi Lauper, Bad Company and Soundgarden, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced on Sunday evening, after a Rock Hall-themed segment on ABC’s “American Idol.”
Those artists — a lineup that mixes classic rock, hip-hop, 1990s-vintage alternative rock and a female pop icon — will formally join the hall on Nov. 8 in a ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles that will stream live in Disney+.
Checker, Cocker, Outkast and Bad Company were all accepted on their first nomination.
The induction of the White Stripes, the stylish garage-rock minimalists whose “Seven Nation Army” has become a stadium-rousing standard, could lend some anticipatory drama to this year’s ceremony. Since the band broke up in 2011, Meg White, its drummer, has become one the great recluses of 21st-century pop, rarely seen in public and declining all interview requests — which would make any possible appearance by her a major coup for the Rock Hall.
Among the other honors this year, Salt-N-Pepa, the pioneering female rap group, and the singer-songwriter Warren Zevon will receive the musical influence award. The musical excellence citation will go to the keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, the studio bassist Carol Kaye and the producer Thom Bell, a key figure in Philadelphia soul. Lenny Waronker, a producer and longtime executive at Warner Bros. Records, will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Among the nominees who failed to make the final cut this year are Oasis, the Britpop standard-bearers who have reunited for perhaps this year’s most in-demand world tour, and Phish, the veteran Vermont jam band. Phish won the hall’s fan ballot — a single vote, entered alongside those submitted from the hall’s voting body of more than 1,000 music historians, industry professionals and previously inducted artists.
Other nominees who didn’t make the cut include Mariah Carey, the Black Crowes, Billy Idol, the Mexican rock band Maná and the linked British groups Joy Division and New Order.
The Rock Hall has come under close scrutiny over the makeup of its inductee classes, receiving particularly harsh commentary over its low numbers of women; as of 2023, women made up just 8.8 percent of inducted individuals, according to one scholar’s count. The hall has pledged to address those disparities, even revising its definition of rock ’n’ roll as “a spirit that is inclusive and ever-changing.”
After some gains in recent years — with lauded inductions of Janet Jackson, Sheryl Crow, the Go-Go’s and Kate Bush — the latest crop of performer inductees may draw more complaints. It includes just two women: Lauper, who rose to fame in the 1980s with hits like “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time,” and Meg White of the White Stripes.
Artists become eligible for nomination to the hall 25 years after the release of their first recording.
