Elvis Costello, Tom Petty to Be Inducted Into Songwriters Hall of Fame

Other inductees include Marvin Gaye, Chip Taylor

tom petty elvis costello songwriters hall of fame
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Elvis Costello, Marvin Gaye, Tom Petty, Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards, and Chip Taylor will become the latest inductees of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the organization announced Wednesday.

“The 2016 roster of Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees is a beautiful mosaic of the best of late 20th Century popular music,” Hall of Fame co-chairs Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff said in a joint statement. “With creators of Rock & Roll, Soul/R&B, Country and Funk/ Dance represented, we are looking forward to an unforgettable and extremely exciting event and evening at the Marriott Marquis on June 9th.”

Elvis Costello wrote his first song, “Winter,” at the age of 15. He has written close to four hundred songs to date. His 1977 debut album, “My Aim Is True,” began an unbroken run of U.K. chart success, with hits including “Watching The Detectives,” “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea,” “Pump It Up,” “Radio Radio,” “Oliver’s Army” and “Accidents Will Happen.”

Soul singer, songwriter and musician, Marvin Gaye, helped shape the sound of Motown when he burst onto the scene in the 1960s.

Often referred to as the Prince of Motown and the Prince of Soul, Marvin wrote and recorded major hits such as “What’s Going On,” the Billboard No. 1 and platinum single “Let’s Get It On,” and his biggest career hit, “Sexual Healing,” which won two Grammys in 1982.

Tom Petty and his band The Heartbreakers released their debut album in 1976 and have since sold over 80 million records. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, their first year of eligibility. In recent years, they have continued to build on their already legendary success.

Between the Heartbreakers’ recordings, his solo work and his membership in The Traveling Wilburys along with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty has received 18 Grammy nominations and been honored with lifetime achievement awards including Billboard’s Century Award, ASCAP’s Founders Award, MTV’s Video Vanguard Award.

Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards formed a life-long friendship and musical partnership when both were working with The Big Apple Band.

They went on to form CHIC in 1976, infusing song with the principle of DHM (Deep Hidden Meaning), or understanding a song’s DNA and relaying it through different levels, yet still preserving its fundamental truth. The burgeoning disco movement catapulted CHIC to the pop charts with Rodger and Edwards writing hits such as “Everybody Dance” and the Grammy-nominated Top 10 hit “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah).”

Chip Taylor’s songwriting accomplishments began with two of the biggest and most popular songs of the past 50 years, “Wild Thing” and “Angel Of The Morning.” These classic songs were huge chart hits and have become two of the most covered songs of all time.

Taylor’s songwriting cut across genres, with pop hits “I Can’t Let Go” (The Hollies, Linda Ronstadt) and “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)” (Janis Joplin); R&B hits “Welcome Home” (Walter Jackson, Dusty Springfield) and “I Can’t Wait Until I See My Baby’s Face” (Baby Washington); and country hits “Sweet Dream Woman” (Waylon Jennings), “Just A Little Bit Later Down The Line” (Bobby Bare) and “Springtime” (the Brown Family).

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