Rock & Roll Hall of Fame takes a chance on ABBA, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, Stooges, Hollies

Rock Hall takes a chance on ABBA, Genesis, Stooges

CLEVELAND — ABBA is dancing its way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, The Hollies and The Stooges.

The list of the next class of inductees was released Tuesday by the Cleveland hall. ABBA and The Stooges made it in this time after being nominated previously but not making the cut.

ABBA, a Swedish pop group that became one of the most successful acts in pop history, continues to sell millions of records each year and has been finding new fans through the popularity of “Mamma Mia,” a stage musical and film incorporating its songs, including “Dancing Queen,” ”Money, Money, Money” and “The Winner Takes It All.”

ABBA’s name is an acronym formed from the first names of band members Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Annifrid Lyngstad. They broke up in 1982 and have resisted reunion offers.

Genesis began in the late 1960s as an art-rock act fronted by Peter Gabriel and evolved after his 1975 departure into a more mainstream act, with drummer Phil Collins taking over as lead singer. Some of the band’s more familiar songs include “Follow You, Follow Me,” ”Tonight Tonight Tonight” and “Invisible Touch.”

Cliff, a Jamaican singer, is credited with introducing reggae music to a broader audience through his album “The Harder They Come” and the movie of the same name, in which he starred in the early 1970s.

Part of the British Invasion, the Hollies had a long string of pop hits in the 1960s characterized by the three-part harmonies of original members Allan Clarke, Graham Nash and Eric Haydock.

Led by the Iggy Pop, The Stooges came sneering out of Ann Arbor, Mich., in the late ’60s with a primal, growling sound that paved the way for punk, new wave, grunge and other, edgier music genres.

The Rock Hall also announced that its Ahmet Ertegun Award for non-performers would go to music industry executive David Geffen, the songwriting teams of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, and individual songwriters Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell.

Ertegun, the founder and chairman of Atlantic Records, died in 2006.

The hall’s 25th annual induction ceremony is scheduled for March 15 in New York City.

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