Introducing Rock Hall Rewind

A new blog series celebrating the greatest songs by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees.

For most episodes of my podcast Rock in Retrospect, I invite a guest to join me for an informal conversation about the career and legacy of an important figure in rock history. I usually end each episode by asking them to create a mixtape of essential songs by that artist and explain why those songs mean so much to them. It’s a fun exercise that lets us reexamine our passion and fandom for that artist.

Although I’ve hosted a podcast for several years now, I miss writing regularly — but I’ve struggled to come up with something new to write about. I wanted to focus on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but generating original, fresh ideas for blogs can be challenging. After much consideration, I decided to start a new series: Rock Hall Rewind. In each installment, I’ll randomly select an artist who has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and highlight what I consider to be their best songs.

If the artist was inducted in their first year of eligibility, I’ll select 15 songs. If not, I’ll choose 10. Some artists will be tougher than others, but it’ll be a fun challenge to condense someone’s legacy into 10 or 15 songs! To make things even more interesting, I’m also going to challenge myself to be as concise as possible — limiting each song description to about 100–150 words, and explaining why they are emblematic of the artist’s musical legacy and worthiness for Rock Hall induction. I’ll also briefly discuss their Rock Hall induction and share a few interesting tidbits along the way.

This installment’s first spotlighted artist is… Isaac Hayes.

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