Lou Reed, Green Day, Ringo Starr, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joan Jett will be welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the 2015 class of inductees along with influential blues bandleader Paul Butterfield, R&B singer-songwriter Bill Withers and, for the annual early influence inductee, doo-wop group the “5" Royales.

The results lined up closely with the outcome of the latest round of fan voting, even though the millions of ballots cast by fans resulted in just a single vote for each of the top five vote-getters. The public went for Vaughan, Jett, Withers and Butterfield, along with industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails.

The 700 members of the hall of fame’s voting committee bypassed Trent Reznor’s band this year. Instead, Green Day, the Bay Area trio that helped make punk’s defiant attitude safe for shopping malls nationwide, will be inducted in its first year of eligibility, which under the hall’s bylaws require that 25 years have elapsed since a performer’s first recording was released.

Vaughan, who died in a helicopter crash in 1990, will be inducted with his band Double Trouble, as will hard rocker Jett and her group, the Blackhearts.


Reed’s already a Rock Hall member as part of the Velvet Underground; this time he’s being inducted for his long and varied solo career. The Chicago-based Paul Butterfield Blues Band, a caldron for such breakout rock and blues stars as guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, was among the performer inductees chosen for 2015.

Starr, already in the Rock Hall as a member of the Beatles, becomes the final member of the Fab Four to also be inducted for his solo career. John Lennon was inducted in 1994, Paul McCartney and Beatles producer George Martin entered in 1999, and George Harrison was voted in five years later. Beatles manager Brian Epstein was chosen last year, along with Rolling Stones early producer and manager Andrew Loog Oldham, as the hall’s first manager inductees.

The “5" Royales, the North Carolina vocal group whose music blended doo-wop, gospel and jump blues, recorded songs such as “Dedicated to the One I Love” and “Think” that subsequently became hits when recorded by the Shirelles, the Mamas & the Papas and others.

Next year’s ceremony marks the institution’s 30th anniversary; it will bring a new program of interactive exhibits, special events and introduction of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame visitor experience.


The induction dinner and ceremony, which will be recorded and shown in a highlights TV special, will take place April 18 in Cleveland, the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

randy.lewis@latimes.com

Twitter: @RandyLewis2