Sideshow: Close on 'Voice,' but ...

Matt McAndrew, of Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore, who had been one of the favorites all season, finished second on The Voice, NBC's singing competition, Tuesday night. Country-music specialist Craig Wayne Boyd was the winner, based on fan votes and downloads.

McAndrew's self-penned "Wasted Love" had been atop the iTunes singles charts all day Tuesday. "It's one of the best songs I've ever heard in my life," McAndrew's coach, Maroon 5's Adam Levine, gushed Monday night.

McAndrew's local ties are deep.

The 24-year-old had to quit day jobs at Trader Joe's on Market Street and at the Bach to Rock music school in Wayne to compete on the show. Several weeks ago he returned to the area with TV cameras in tow, paying a visit to Penn Vet's Ryan Hospital, where his mother, Brenda, works.

McAndrew grew up in Barnegat Light, on Long Beach Island, and graduated from Southern Regional High School in Ocean County.

The 2015 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced Tuesday. The winners are: California pop punk band Green Day, "I Love Rock 'n Roll" femme-rock trailblazers Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, 1970s soul man Bill Withers, 1960s standouts the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, 1980s Texas bluesmen Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, and songwriting giant Lou Reed, who's already in with the Velvet Undergound, but will be inducted as a solo. Butterfield, Vaughan, and Reed are posthumous inductees.

It's always good to have a Beatle at the induction ceremony, to be held in Cleveland in April, and Ringo Starr will get a special award for "musical excellence." Also, The "5" Royales, the 1950s North Carolina vocal group whose songs "Think" and "Dedicated to the One I Love" were later hits for  James Brown and the Shirelles, respectively, are in as an early influence.

Here's your local connection: Jett was born at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, and spent the first six months of her life in Philadelphia before moving to Rockville, Md.

Nominees left out this year include Kraftwerk, Sting, the Spinners, the Smiths, N.W.A., Nine Inch Nails, Chic, the Marvelettes, and War.
- Dan DeLuca