Using VH1's Top 100 Artists of All-Time as a Predictor for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Now that Rolling Stone's list of 100 Immortals has been thoroughly parsed, here is another "greatest of all-time" list to chew on.

Back in 1998, VH1 asked 600 musicians to list what they felt were the greatest artists of all-time. As you might expect, the list included many artists who were already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the time, but it also includes a whopping 26 artists who weren't in the Hall, but have subsequently been inducted.

There are only twelve artists from the list who are not in the Rock Hall: Nirvana, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Kiss, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Coltrane, Tina Turner, Devo, Iggy Pop, T. Rex, Carole King and Tom Waits. (Sting, Tina Turner and Carole King are already Hall of Famers, but not as solo performers.) So, when the list was created, 62 of the 100 artists were already Hall of Famers, and of the 38 that weren't, 68% were inducted within ten years. That's a pretty good track record.

We would love to see a new poll of musicians which would rank the top artists since 1980, and see how well that would predict future Hall of Famers.

Here is the complete list:

  1. The Beatles
  2. The Rolling Stones
  3. Jimi Hendrix
  4. Led Zeppelin
  5. Bob Dylan
  6. James Brown
  7. David Bowie
  8. Elvis Presley
  9. The Who
  10. The Police *
  11. Stevie Wonder
  12. Ray Charles
  13. The Beach Boys
  14. Marvin Gaye
  15. Eric Clapton *
  16. John Lennon
  17. Elton John
  18. Prince *
  19. Pink Floyd
  20. The Doors
  21. Aretha Franklin
  22. Fleetwood Mac
  23. The Eagles
  24. Bob Marley
  25. Van Morrison
  26. Chuck Berry
  27. Bruce Springsteen *
  28. Sly & the Family Stone
  29. U2 *
  30. Neil Young
  31. The Clash *
  32. Joni Mitchell
  33. Queen *
  34. Buddy Holly
  35. Otis Redding
  36. Little Richard
  37. Al Green
  38. Elvis Costello *
  39. Miles Davis *
  40. Michael Jackson *
  41. Janis Joplin
  42. Nirvana #
  43. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers *
  44. The Jackson Five
  45. Crosby, Stills & Nash
  46. The Sex Pistols *
  47. Creedence Clearwater Revival
  48. Van Halen *
  49. Roy Orbison
  50. R.E.M. *
  51. B.B. King
  52. Cream
  53. Peter Gabriel #
  54. The Grateful Dead
  55. The Byrds
  56. The Kinks
  57. Steely Dan *
  58. Sam Cooke
  59. Bo Diddley
  60. Earth, Wind & Fire *
  61. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
  62. Paul McCartney *
  63. Sting ##
  64. Frank Zappa
  65. James Taylor *
  66. Talking Heads *
  67. Kiss #
  68. The Allman Brothers
  69. Pretenders *
  70. Stevie Ray Vaughan #
  71. Rod Stewart
  72. Simon & Garfunkel
  73. Muddy Waters
  74. The Velvet Underground
  75. Curtis Mayfield
  76. The Bee Gees
  77. John Coltrane #
  78. Billy Joel *
  79. Aerosmith *
  80. Tina Turner ##
  81. The Band
  82. Devo #
  83. Iggy Pop #
  84. T. Rex #
  85. Carole King ##
  86. Madonna *
  87. Santana
  88. Ramones *
  89. Johnny Cash
  90. Tom Waits #
  91. Gladys Knight & the Pips
  92. The Temptations
  93. The Four Tops
  94. Diana Ross & the Supremes
  95. Robert Johnson
  96. Lynyrd Skynyrd *
  97. Fats Domino
  98. Traffic
  99. Parliament/Funkadelic
  100. Paul Simon *

* Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after 1998
# Still not a Hall of Famer; Nirvana is the only artist listed who is not yet eligible because of the 25 year rule
## A Hall of Famer, but not as a solo performer

Update: This list is now next to the "Immortals" list too.

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