You did it Philly: Hall & Oates in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Philadelphia-area natives and Temple alums Hall & Oates will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year, along with Nirvana, Kiss and Peter Gabriel.
Hall & Oates' entry comes after a last minute push by fans that helped them climb into the top five fan favorites, a list the Rock Hall pledged to weigh in voting - although it wasn't clear how much. Still, it was the first time the duo was nominated.
Also to be inducted are Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens.
In addition, Bruce Springsteen's The E Street Band will get the Award for Musical Excellence.
Artists were only eligible for induction 25 years after their first song release. Nirvana won in its first year of eligibility. In fact, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of Nirvana's debut "Bleach" and 20 years after Kurt Cobain committed suicide. He was 27.
The Rolling Stones manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, and Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, will earn Ahmet Ertegun awards, a non-performing honor.
More than 700 Rock Hall voters determined the 2014 class. They also considered the top five fan favorites through online voting. Hall & Oates had lagged at sixth place, then surged within the last week after a Philly.com article made note that they were failing to make the fan cut.
However, it is also difficult to tell how much the regular Rock Hall voters weighed the fan vote since the process was not disclosed.
The induction ceremony – the 29th for the Rock Hall - will be held at Brooklyn's Barclays Center on April 10th. For the first time, it will be open to the public with tickets to go on sale in January. The event will air on HBO in May.
Philly gets a special mention in their Rock Hall biography:
"Over the course of their career, they have recorded six Number One hits and put 34 songs in the Billboard Top 100. Deeply rooted in lush Philly soul, Hall and Oates mixed smooth vocal harmonies and the romantic vulnerability of soul with edgy hard rock and new wave riffs to create some of the finest pop music of the 1980s."