Songwriters Hall of Fame 2025 Nominees: ‘How Are They Not Already In?!?’
by Best Classic Bands Staff
The Songwriters Hall of Fame has revealed a full slate of nominees for induction to its Class of 2025. And as so often happens, many of the names on the list—revealed on November 12, 2024—elicit a “how is s/he not already in?” response. Steve Winwood, Janet Jackson, David Gates (best known for his years with Bread), Tommy James, and the Doobie Brothers’ Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald and Patrick Simmons are among those nominated.
Want more? Sheryl Crow, Bryan Adams, George Alan O’Dowd (p/k/a) Boy George, funk legend George Clinton, Mike Love, Alanis Morissette, are also on the nominees list, among many more.
The complete 2025 performing songwriters list (with some of their best known compositions) includes Adams (“Heaven,” “Summer of ’69”), O’Dowd (“Karma Chameleon”), Clinton (“Atomic Dog”), Crow (“All I Wanna Do,” “Everyday is a Winding Road”), Johnston-McDonald-Simmons (“Listen to the Music,” “What a Fool Believes”), Marshall Mathers (p/k/a) Eminem (“Lose Yourself”), Gates (“Make It With You”), Jackson (“Black Cat”), James (“Crimson and Clover,” “Mony Mony”), Love (“California Girls”), Morissette (“You Oughta Know,” “Hand in My Pocket”), N.W.A.’s Dr. Dre, Easy E, Ice Cube, Mc Ren and DJ Yella (“Straight Outta Compton”), and Winwood (“Gimme Some Lovin’,” “Higher Love”).
The non-performing songwriters list includes Walter Afanasieff (“All I Want For Christmas Is You”), Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan (“Eve of Destruction,” “Secret Agent Man”), Mike Chapman (“Love is a Battlefield,” “Stumblin’ In”), Sonny Curtis (“I Fought the Law”), Tom Douglas (“I Run to You”), Franne Golde (“Nightshift”), Ashley Gorley, Rodney “Darkchild” Jenkins (“Say My Name”), Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter (“One Tin Soldier [Theme From Billy Jack]”, “Don’t Pull Your Love”), Tony Macaulay (“Build Me Up Buttercup,” “Love Grows [Where My Rosemary Goes]”), Roger Nichols (“We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays”), Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham (“Cry Like a Baby,” “I’m Your Puppet”), Narada Michael Walden (“How Will I Know,” “Freeway of Love”).
Songwriters Hall of Fame is dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the exceptional work and lives of composers and lyricists who make an indelible impact creating music around the world. A songwriter with a catalog of notable songs qualifies for induction 20 years after their first significant commercial release of a song. Eligible voting members will have until midnight ET on December 22 to turn in ballots, with their choices of up to three nominees in each of the songwriter and performing songwriter categories. The induction ceremony will take place in New York City.
Related: Jeff Lynne and Gloria Estefan were among those inducted in 2023
1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationYou are right. Many great songwriters have been overlooked for lesser entities. It looks as shameful and inaccurate as the rnr hof.