Continuing its ongoing commitment to preserving and celebrating timeless recordings, the Recording Academy has announced the newest inductions to its distinctive GRAMMY Hall Of Fame^®. The latest additions recognize a diverse range of both singles and album recordings at least 25 years old that exhibit qualitative or historical significance.

Each year recordings are reviewed by a special member committee comprised of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts, with final approval by the Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. With 25 new titles, the Hall, now in its 45th year, currently totals 1,063 recordings and is on display at GRAMMY Museum^® L.A. Live.

“The GRAMMY Hall Of Fame strives to embody the changing climate of music throughout these past decades, always acknowledging the diversity of musical expression for which the Academy has become known,” said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of the Recording Academy. “Iconic and inspiring, these recordings are an integral part of our musical, social, and cultural history, and we are proud to have added them to our growing catalog.”

Representing myriad tracks and albums, the 2018 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame inductees range from David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” to Jimi Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsys. The highly reputed list also features Nirvana’s Nevermind, Gladys Knight & The Pips’ “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power,” Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” Queen’s A Night At The Opera, Linda Ronstadt’s “Heart Like A Wheel,” and Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home To Me.” Other inductees include recordings by Aerosmith, Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five, Johnny Cash, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Dr. Dre, Thomas Alva Edison, Four Tops, Billie Holiday, the King Cole Trio, Hugh Masekela, Mike Oldfield, Parliament, Billy Paul, the Rolling Stones, Leon Russell, and Andy Williams. 

LISTEN TO THE 2018 GRAMMY HALL OF FAME  PLAYLIST: GRAMMY Hall of Fame Playlist

2017 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inductees

BAND OF GYPSYS
Jimi Hendrix
Capitol (1970)
Album

“BRING IT ON HOME TO ME”
Sam Cooke
RCA Victor (1962)
Single

THE CHRONIC
Dr. Dre
Death Row (1992)
Album

“DREAM ON”
Aerosmith
Columbia (1973)
Single

“FIGHT THE POWER”
Public Enemy
Motown (1989)
Single

“FLASH LIGHT”
Parliament
Casablanca (1978)
Single

“GRAZING IN THE GRASS”
Hugh Masekela
UNI (1968)
Single

HEART LIKE A WHEEL
Linda Ronstadt
Capitol (1974)
Album

“I CAN’T HELP MYSELF”
Four Tops
Motown (1965)
Single

“I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE”
Gladys Knight & The Pips
Soul/Motown (1967)
Single

“(I LOVE YOU) FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS”
The King Cole Trio
Capitol (1946)
Single

“I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU”
Whitney Houston
Arista (1992)
Single

JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON
Johnny Cash
Columbia (1968)
Album

“MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB”
Thomas Alva Edison
N/A (1878)
Single

“ME AND MRS. JONES”
Billy Paul
Philadelphia International (1972)
Single

“MOON RIVER”
Andy Williams
Columbia (1962)
Track from Moon River & Other Great Movie Themes

“MY MAN ”
Billie Holiday
Brunswick (1937)
Single

NEVERMIND
Nirvana
DGC (1991)
Album

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
Queen
Elektra (1975)
Album

“PAINT IT, BLACK”
The Rolling Stones
London (1966)
Single

“SAVOY BLUES”
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five
Okeh (1927)
Single

“A SONG FOR YOU”
Leon Russell
Shelter (1970)
Single

“SPACE ODDITY”
David Bowie
Mercury (1969)
Track from Space Oddity

“THAT’S ALL RIGHT”
Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup
RCA Victor (1949)
Single

TUBULAR BELLS
Mike Oldfield
Virgin (1973)
Album

For more information about the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame or the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards^®, which will be broadcast live on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network, please visit GRAMMY.com.

Eligible recipients receive an official certificate from the Recording Academy. For a full list of recordings inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, visit:www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/hall-of-fame.

The post 2018 Grammy Hall of Fame inductions include classics by JOHNNY CASH, JIMI HENDRIX, BILLIE HOLIDAY, DAVID BOWIE, THE ROLLING STONES, PARLIAMENT and more appeared first on WE SPEAK MEDIA.

Two-time Grammy nominee Andra Day covers iconic song to join Google in support of the Equal Justice Initiative’s “Lynching in America” initiative.

NEW YORK, September 15, 2017 – Andra Day, the award-winning singer, songwriter, and philanthropist, released today a recording and music video for Strange Fruit, the historic song originally recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The recording is available on the Lynching in America site (lynchinginamerica.eji.org/strange-fruit) and Andra Day’s YouTube channel. Andra will also be performing Strange Fruit as part of her set at the Global Citizens Festival in NYC on September 23rd.

The goal of Lynching in America, which brings EJI’s multi-year investigation into more than 4,000 reported racial terror lynchings that took place in the United States during the period between Reconstruction and World War II to life, is to spark a national conversation about the connection between America’s painful history of racial violence and the forms of injustice that exist today, including racially-biased capital punishment, excessive sentencing, disproportionate sentencing of racial minorities, and police abuse of people of color.

As part of Google’s focus on Inclusion, the company has given more than $2MM in grants to the Equal Justice Initiative. In addition, Google volunteers have been working with the organization to digitize the Lynching in America research and ensure that as many people as possible have access to the information and content. The Equal Justice Initiative firmly believes that until we face the truth of our past, we cannot heal the deep wounds of our present.

Bryan Stevenson, the Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative says, “In this collaboration between Andra Day, EJI, and Google, we use music to express a painful and difficult truth about our nation’s history of racial inequality. Inspired music has the power to expose and confront injustice differently than research, data and words alone.  It can heal and uplift us, it’s critical for human rights. Justice work needs a soundtrack that inspires the struggle, it’s energizing that talented artists like Andra rise to the challenge.”

Andra Day says, “Billie Holiday is one of the greatest inspirations for what I do now. She used her music as her platform and her voice to speak for people who were not able to speak for themselves. I am equally inspired by the work of Bryan Stevenson and EJI and I hope this song ignites new conversations about the connection between our past and present.” In the same spirit of music as activism, Andra also performed Stand Up For Something, the title track off of the upcoming film, Marshall, about Thurgood Marshall, the first African American United States Supreme Court Justice.

We loved this cover of Strange Fruit, what do you think?

The post LEGACY OF BILLIE HOLIDAY’S ‘STRANGE FRUIT’ ENDURES WITH IMPASSIONED COVER BY ANDRA DAY appeared first on WE SPEAK MEDIA.