BY KAREN BLISS
Three Canadian songwriting legends — already in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame — are up for possible induction into the U.S. Songwriters Hall of Fame. Bryan Adams, Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings were all nominated this year.
Voting members have until Dec. 27 to pick three artists from each category, performing and non-performing songwriters. The Induction & Awards Gala will be held in New York City next June.
Adams, Bachman and Cummings are, of course, in the performing category. Their names are listed along with five hits, which the Hall makes clear “are merely a representative sample of their extensive catalogs.”
For Adams, it’s “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” “Heaven,” “All For Love,” “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?” and “Summer of ’69,” and for Bachman and Cummings, as The Guess Who, it’s “These Eyes,” “American Woman,” “Laughing,” “No Time” and “No Sugar Tonight.”
The three, of course, are in the performers category, all still very active, making music and touring.
Also in that category are Blondie’s Debbie Harry, Chris Stein & Clem Burke; Tracy Chapman; George Clinton; Tom Johnston, Doobie Brothers’ Patrick Simmons & Michael McDonald; David Gates; Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson; Kenny Loggins; Public Enemy’s Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (Chuck D) and William Jonathan Drayton (Flavor Flav); R.E.M.’s Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe; and Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen & Walter Becker.
The U.S. Songwriters Hall of Fame “is dedicated to recognizing the work and lives of those composers and lyricists who create music around the world. A songwriter with a notable catalogue of songs qualifies for induction 20 years after the first significant commercial release of a song.”
In 2022, Adams was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside main writing partner Jim Vallance. Bachman and Cummings were inducted back in 2005.
The U.S. Songwriters Hall of Fame’s ongoing mission is to celebrate and honour the contributions and legacies of songwriters of all genres of music while developing and nurturing the next generation of songwriters through Master Sessions, songwriting craft forums, scholarships and digital initiatives.
