Chuck Yarborough | Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — If Rock Hall voters follow the their counterparts on public polls at cleveland.com/Plain Dealer and the Rock Hallitself, three bands are shoo-ins for induction in New York City ceremonies next spring.
Those three are Nirvana, KISS and Deep Purple.
The biggest surprise, though, is that KISS has overtaken Nirvana – thought by many to be the lock for the Rock Hall for the ground-breaking influence of Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic and grunge music — in the Rock Hall’s poll.
A month ago, the Rock Hall announced a list of potential members of the Class of 2014 that included Nirvana, KISS, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oates, Link Wray, the Replacements, Linda Ronstadt, Yes, the Zombies, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, LL Cool J, N.W.A., the Meters and Cat Stevens.
In the cleveland.com/Plain Dealer poll, Nirvana remains atop the heap with 14.94 percent of the more than 30,000 votes, followed by KISS, Deep Purple and (shocker) Hall and Oates.
The Rock Hall’s poll has KISS in the lead over Nirvana, 15.2 percent vs. 14.87 percent, out of more than a million votes cast. Deep Purple comes in at 11.89 percent, and Yes is fourth with 10.52 percent.
New Orleans-born Meters are last in both polls, with 0.74 percent in the Cleveland.com tally and 1.38 percent in the Rock Hall’s.
Controversial hip-hop choice N.W.A. is faring better in the Cleveland.com poll, with 5.89 percent vs. 3.28 percent in the Rock Hall’s, but remains far down in both.
The Rock Hall’s official poll will be used to create a single online fan vote. That will be matched against about 600 voters consisting of artists, historians and members of the music business.
“Those performers who receive the highest number of votes — and more than 50 percent of the vote — are inducted,” the Rock Hall says in its official explanation of the selection process. “The Foundation generally inducts five to seven performers each year.’’
The nominees are likely to be announced in mid-December.