NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — The Songwriters Hall of Fame announced the slate of potential nominees for induction in 2020 that includes Patti Smith, Annie Lennox, Vince Gill and Michael Love and the members of the hip-hop duo Outkast.
Other performing nominees included Mariah Carey, David Gates, Steve Miller, Gloria Estefan, the members of R.E.M., Jonathan Cain and Ernie & Marvin Isley.
Nominees will be selected by vote for induction into the Hall during its 51st Annual Induction & Awards Gala on June 11, 2020, in New York City.
To be eligible, songwriters need to have a ‘notable catalog’ that includes songs that are at least 20 years old after their first significant commercial release.
Eligible voting members will have until midnight on December 16, 2019, to turn in ballots with their choices of three nominees from a songwriter and three from a performing songwriter category.
Non-performing songwriters who were nominated for 2020 include:
- Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty who wrote numerous Broadway show tunes, including scores for Ragtime, Anastasia, Seussical, and Rocky.
- Tommy Boyce (d) / Bobby Hart who wrote hits for The Monkees, Paul Revere and Jay & The Americans.
- Russell Brown & Irwin Levine (d) who penned more than 40 hits, including songs such as “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” “Knock Three Times,” and “Candida.”
- Kye Fleming & Dennis Morgan – the country hitmakers behind Barbara Mandrell’s “Years” and “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” and Ronnie Milsap’s “Smoky Mountain Rain.”
- Tony Macaulay the English songwriter who wrote hits for Herman’s Hermits (“I Can Take or Leave Your Lovin’”), The Hollies (“Sorry Suzanne”) and “Here Comes that Rainy Day Feeling Again” (The Fortunes).
- Jerry Fuller who wrote hits such as “Traveling Man” for Ricky Nelson, and discovered the pop group Gary Puckett and The Union Gap, for whom he wrote the big hits “Young Girl,” “Lady Willpower” and “Over You.”
- Bob McDill, a prodigious songwriter who penned country hits for Don Williams, including “Say It Again,” “She Never Knew Me” and “Amanda,” as well as a host of other country artists, including Anne Murray, The Kendalls, Alan Jackson and Bobby Bare.
- Chad Hugo & Pharrell Williams, AKA The Neptunes, who wrote hits such as “Rump Shaker,” for Wreckx-N-Effects, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got Your Money,” Jay-Z’s “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me),” Usher’s “U Don’t Have to Call,” and Britney Spears’ “I’m a Slave 4 U.”
- Roger Nichols, the A&M Publishing songwriter who co-wrote The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “I Won’t Last a Day Without You” and “Rainy Days and Mondays,” Art Garfunkel’s “Traveling Boy,” Barbra Streisand’s “I Never Had It So Good” and Three Dog Night’s “Out in the Country” among numerous others.
- Rick Nowels, who started writing at 13 and produced 60 Top 20 singles in the U.S, including Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth” and “Circle in the Sand” as well as hits for John Legend, Colbie Caillat, Nelly Furtado, Santana, and Madonna.
- William “Mickey” Stevenson who partnered with the late Detroit songwriter/producer/singer George Ivy Hunter to co-write Motown classics such as Martha & the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street” and the Four Tops’ “Ask the Lonely.”
