Rock Hall Tourney Round 1: Lionel Richie vs. Dionne Warwick
This may be one of the harder pairings to justify as rock, but if you look at the history of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a majority of the early years inductions featured legendary artists who leaned more toward R&B and soul than the rock that we know today, mostly because the rock we know today wasn't as fleshed out yet. So in this matchup we give you two Rock Hall nominees that carried on the sound of those early soul and R&B pioneers — Lionel Richie and Dionne Warwick.
Lionel Richie's career started as a member of the Commodores, who signed their first record deal in 1972, issuing their debut album two years later. He would record nine albums with the band over the next seven years, first hitting with "Machine Gun," dropping the disco hits "Brick House" and "Too Hot to Trot," but finding their romantic easy listening groove with "Easy," (later covered by Faith No More), "Three Times a Lady," "Sail On," "Still" and "Oh No."
Richie would break out solo in 1982, recording 10 studios albums in the time since but finding his biggest success in the early-to-mid '80s with songs such as "Truly," "Hello," "All Night Long," "Running With the Night," "Stuck On You," "Say You Say Me" and "Dancing on the Ceiling." These days Richie remains in the spotlight as a judge on American Idol and making a cameo in the recent Foo Fighters film Studio 666.
Lionel Richie, "All Night Long"
Dionne Warwick has the distinction of being the second-most charting female artist of the rock era, with 56 singles making the Hot 100 between 1962 and 80 songs in all hitting the Hot 100 that featured the singer as a performer. It all started in late 1962 with the song "Don't Make Me Over" from her 1963 debut album Presenting Dionne Warwick.
She counts such well-known singles as "Walk on By," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Do You Know the Way to San Jose," "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" and "What the World Needs Now Is Love" among her hits, while she also appeared on The Spinners' "The Came You" and with Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight on "That's What Friends Are For." We're betting even the most hardened of metalhead could recite a few lyrics from some of these songs.
Dionne Warwick, "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?"
So who gets your vote? Would you rather see Lionel Richie or Dionne Warwick rocking the Rock Hall? You can vote through March 22 And be sure to click the button below if you'd like to revisit these matchups and vote again.