The Memphis Music Hall of Fame officially crossed the century mark Friday night as the organization inducted its 2024 class, bringing the total number of artists, songwriters, producers, players and behind-the-scenes figures enshrined to 106 members.
The ceremonies, held at Downtown’s Cannon Center for the Performing Arts saw deep soul singer James Carr, hitmaking garage band The Gentrys, session musician/songwriter Spooner Oldham, prolific rap producer Jazze Pha, R&B legend Wilson Pickett, opera star Kallen Esperian and famed vocal group Rhodes Chalmers Rhodes all inducted. Memphis music businessmen Jack Soden, head of Graceland/Elvis Presley Enterprises, and Kevin Kane, head of Memphis Tourism, also joined the Hall.
The nearly 3-hour ceremony was hosted by veteran music figure Pat Mitchell Worley and Memphis Tourism executive Marcus Cox, and featured live musical backing by the Kurt Clayton-led Memphis Music Hall of Fame band.
Here are some of the highlights from the event.
Neil Young’s vibrations
The night’s biggest bit of star power came with the appearance of Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer and music icon Neil Young, who was on hand to induct his longtime collaborator and friend Spooner Oldham.
Greeted by a standing ovation, Young began his speech by talking about hearing Oldham play for the first time, in the mid-'60s, on Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Young noted how deeply and physically he was affected by Oldham’s signature organ intro to the song.
“My heart started swelling,” Young said. “I couldn't figure out what it was. How could that affect me so much? My body was getting bigger and smaller and all kinds of things. And I was listening, seeing people from my past and from my future, feeling things.”
Years later, Young recalled, “Friends of mine put together a band, and Spooner was playing a Hammond B3, and he was playing the changes, and I started hearing that sound [again]. That’s soul music, the way the same changes can be played by so many different people, and then someone walks up and plays them and blows your mind and your body starts vibrating.”
Young added, “That’s Spooner Oldham. That's what he is. [And] that's why I'm here. I'm here because of that.”
After Young’s speech, Gary Talley of Memphis pop-soul band The Box Tops performed the group’s 1968 hit, “Cry Like a Baby,” written by Oldham and Dan Penn as part of a musical tribute, before Oldham accepted his award.
A family affair
The induction of hip-hop producer Jazze Pha was a family affair, as his father — Bar-Kays founder and fellow Memphis Music Hall of Famer — James Alexander inducted him, praising and chiding him during a hilarious roast-like speech.
A video message from several of Pha’s collaborators — including Snoop Dogg and 2 Chainz — was also played. A musical tribute to Pha brought a medley of his hits, spun by DJ Howard Q, as a troupe of dancers performed. The segment came to a close with a live performance by Pha along with Memphis hip-hop legends 8Ball & MJG .
The inductions of soul legends James Carr and Wilson Pickett also had a deeply emotional family feeling. Carr — who was honored by Italian soul festival promoter Graziano Uliani — was remembered by his several members of his family, and was paid musical tribute by his son Vincent Carr and grandson Doozy Carr, who performed a set of his hits, including “Dark End of the Street” and “Freedom Train.”
Pickett, meanwhile, was inducted by his longtime friend, former bandmate and fellow soul great Eddie Floyd. The Stax hitmaker and Memphis Music Hall of Famer brought out Pickett’s children to accept the award on their father’s behalf.
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Garage rockers The Gentrys get their due
The Gentrys, the Memphis band that kicked off the city’s garage rock explosion 60 years ago, were given a well-deserved, and perhaps somewhat overdue, welcome to the Hall of Fame. Noted Memphis music photographer and longtime Gentrys proponent Pat Rainer recounted how the Treadwell High School students played a crucial role in bringing Memphis into the 1960s beat band boom era with their national hit, “Keep on Dancing.”
The Gentrys leader Larry Raspberry was recovering from a hip surgery and unable to attend, but sent a video message. Raspberry’s fellow Gentry, WWE Hall of Famer and wrestling icon Jimmy Hart, was on hand, along with the other surviving Gentrys, to accept the award.
Hart, famed as the “Mouth of the South,” was his usual fast-talking and funny self, as he pulled out a series of The Gentrys' original vinyl LPs. “This is our greatest hits album — how can we have a greatest hits album with only one hit?” said Hart to much laughter, before paying heartfelt homage to his bandmates.
Gentrys trumpeter Jimmy Johnson, who went into the medical field after the band ended, quipped that he was “the only heart surgeon with a gold record, and I still have to follow Jimmy Hart.”
Rhodes Chalmers Rhodes 'stay together'
Vocal group Rhodes Chalmers Rhodes offered one of the evening’s most exciting musical performances, as they celebrated their induction with a rousing rendition of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” the 1972 hit that they sang on originally.
Saxophonist/singer Charlie Chalmers and sibling vocalists Sandy and Donna Rhodes were responsible for the distinctive backing vocals on nearly all of Green’s '70s hits, as well as other familiar Hi Records classics from Ann Peebles, Syl Johnson, O.V. Wright and the many other acts in producer Willie Mitchell’s stable.
Mitchell’s son Boo Mitchell and Hi Rhythm organist the Rev. Charles Hodges were among those on hand to induct the group into the Hall of Fame.
More memorable moments
Opera singer Kallen Esperian was inducted by veteran tour manager Ed Sargent — who also happens to be her cousin. Esperian offered only a brief acceptance speech, but wowed the audience with performance, unaided by an microphone or amplification, as her voice filled the Cannon Center, and the audience exploded in applause.
Longtime Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises executive Jack Soden was also welcomed to the Hall of Fame. After a video message from Priscilla Presley was played, veteran Tennessee musician Andy Childs inducted Soden, praising his commitment against all odds in making Presley’s home a place of pilgrimage for millions since Graceland first opened to the public in 1982 . Soden noted that “this whole adventure is more than I could have imagined 42 years ago.”
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Memphis Tourism head Kevin Kane was also inducted, with Royal Studios’ Boo Mitchell and longtime Jerry Lee Lewis tour manger J.W. Whitten welcoming him to the Hall of Fame.
Kane talked about the power of Memphis and its greatest asset: its music.
“Sometimes we're hard on ourselves. We spend a lot of time talking about what's wrong with Memphis,” he said. “But we have people that have told stories that have changed people's lives all over the world. And that's why so many of the 13 million-plus people come here literally from all over.
“They don't come here just to look at the river or to eat ribs. No, they come here because they want to touch something that came out of Memphis, was exported out of Memphis. The music. It picked them up out of a dark place. It made them feel good. It got them to where they said, ‘Man, I want to someday go to that place. I want to feel that place and experience that.’”
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Music Hall of Fame: Neil Young, Jimmy Hart & the induction ceremony's top moments
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