NEW YORK (AP) — A comet will need to have landed on the 2024 Songwriters Corridor of Fame induction ceremony. The members of R.E.M. had joked solely hours earlier than it could take “a comet” to get the band to carry out collectively one final time. But there they had been, reunited in the course of the gala on the Marriott Marquis Lodge in New York Metropolis Thursday night time.
The annual occasion celebrated a proficient group of songwriters that included R.E.M., Steely Dan and Timbaland, who performed a medley of his large hits.
R.E.M.’s Invoice Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe had been behind quite a few alt-rock hits comparable to “Everybody Hurts” and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” On Thursday, they shocked audiences with the undisputed spotlight of the night time: reuniting for an acoustic model of “Losing My Religion.”
“We are R.E.M.,” Stipe mentioned. “And this is what we did.”
Stipe highlighted their energy as a gaggle and early endeavors to personal their grasp recordings and cut up songwriting credit equally. “There are a lot of people who believed in us,” he mentioned.
Jason Isbell coated the group’s hit, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” Afterward he joked, “I’ve never said that many words that quickly in my whole life.”
L. Busacca by way of Getty Pictures
L. Busacca by way of Getty Pictures
Nashville hitmaker Hillary Lindsey, who helped write “Girl Crush” for Little Large City and “Jesus, Take the Wheel” for Carrie Underwood, was inducted together with Dean Pitchford, who helped Kenny Loggins with the megahit “Footloose” and co-wrote “Fame” and “Holding Out For a Hero.”
The Bacon Brothers, the folk-rock duo of actor Kevin Bacon and Michael Bacon, launched Pitchford with a rambunctious tackle “Footloose,” tambourine and all. Denise Williams eliminated her sneakers to bop whereas belting her Pitchford-penned hit, “Let’s Hear It For the Boy.”
“It’s been 40 years, can you believe it,” Pitchford mentioned. “I’m deeply grateful … Above all, thank you for hearing me.” He then sang his composition, “Once Before I Go.”
Irving Azoff led the celebration of Steely Dan, telling a narrative concerning the legendary band submitting a clean shiny picture as their promo paintings.
“To say they had a great sense of humor would be an understatement,” he mentioned.
Co-founded by Donald Fagan and the late Walter Becker, Steely Dan are recognized for his or her basic rock songs together with “Do It Again” and “Hey Nineteen.”
“I’d like to thank my partner Walter Becker wherever he may be,” Fagan mentioned in his acceptance speech.
Phish frontman Trey Anastasio coated Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne” into “Reelin’ in the Years.” Their “real genius” is their songs, Anastasio mentioned.
L. Busacca by way of Getty Pictures
Nile Rodgers offered SZA with the Hal David Starlight Award for “gifted young songwriters who are making a significant impact in the music industry.”
“There would be no music industry if there were no songs,” Rodgers advised the artists and business professionals within the room. “Everything begins with a song.”
Rodgers acquired roaring applause when he veered off the prompter to remark, “Spotify we need you to make a point of songwriters being your priority.”
“This means the most to me,” SZA mentioned in entrance of the gang that included her mother and father. “I struggle at the artist thing. But writing is where I felt like a person, that I had value … it was beyond, was I pretty, was I liked.”
Receiving the award “validates my entire career,” she mentioned earlier than main the gang in a stripped down model of her hit, “Nobody Gets Me.”
Carrie Underwood honored Lindsey, certainly one of her longtime songwriters she referred to as “the queen of modern Nashville songwriters,” earlier than leaping right into a full-band rendition of the tearjerker, “Jesus, Take the Wheel.”
Lindsey joked that the primary tune she wrote “was probably about poops and boogers and things,” later describing a childhood spent singing into something in the home, together with “my mom’s tampons.”
“Country done come to town y’all,” she mentioned, earlier than enjoying a brief medley of songs she co-wrote, together with Girl Gaga ’s “Million Reasons” and a duet with Keith City on his “Blue Ain’t Your Color.”
Missy Elliott shouted out the late rapper Magoo for introducing her to Timbaland in an lively introduction to her longtime writing and manufacturing associate, noting he had “a gift.”
“Timbaland literally changed the cadence of the time, because he also treated hip hop records like R&B records,” she mentioned. “He would take the hooks and put a different sound.”
Timbaland advised the viewers the songwriting recognition was the perfect award he might get.
“I don’t really talk too much. I just talk with my music,” he mentioned, centering his speech on his collaborators and his household, together with his grandmother who allowed him to work in her residence to write down “One in a Million” for the late singer Aaliyah.
“I want to thank baby girl, rest in peace, I hope you’re watching,” he mentioned.
He performed a gaggle of musicians in a medley of a few of his most recognizable songs together with Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody,” Ginuwine’s “Pony,” Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” and “Suit & Tie,” Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On,” Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love” and Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous.”
ANGELA WEISS by way of Getty Pictures
Paul Williams offered Diane Warren with the Johnny Mercer Award, the very best honor bestowed by the occasion, joking that synthetic intelligence “worries about Diane Warren.” Andra Day carried out “Stand Up for Something,” written by Warren, who beforehand was inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame in 2001.
“I have to thank my mom for being the first one I had to prove wrong,” Warren mentioned. “Songwriting isn’t something I do, it is who I am.”
The night time ended with a efficiency marking the fortieth anniversary of one other tune written by Warren: DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Evening.
Forward of Thursday’s festivities, nation star Cindy Walker was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame. Walker wrote songs carried out by a few of the largest names in nation music historical past and past, together with Johnny Money, Merle Haggard, B.B. King, Cher, Glen Campbell, Gene Autry, Bing Crosby and Roy Orbison.
The Songwriters Corridor of Fame was established in 1969 to honor these creating common music. A songwriter with a notable catalog of songs qualifies for induction 20 years after the primary business launch of a tune. Some already within the corridor embrace Gloria Estefan, Carole King, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Brian Wilson, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Lionel Richie, Invoice Withers, Neil Diamond and Phil Collins.
