DAILY DIRT: Will Cher change her mind about Hall of Fame after being one of the new inductees?

My favorite Cher song as a solo performer? You’ll have to keep reading … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 962 of The Daily Dirt.

1. The lineup is complete for the 39th annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Of the 16 artists and/or other musical figures to be recognized, the headline category — as always — consists of the performers selected. This year’s cast includes:

• Cher
• Foreigner
• Peter Frampton
• Kool & The Gang
• Ozzy Osbourne
• Mary J. Blige
• Dave Matthews Band
• A Tribe Called Quest

Five out of the eight voted in this year were first-time nominees: Osbourne, Cher, Frampton, Foreigner and Kool & the Gang.

The most interesting name on the list of eight might just be Cher, who was long overdue for the honor. And, yes, she is probably still bitter about being snubbed for so long.

“One question mark now is how Cher will react to her induction,” writes Chris Willmann of variety.com. “Just last December, in an appearance on ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show,’ she said, ‘You know what, I wouldn’t be in it now if they gave me a million dollars … I’m never going to change my mind. They can just go you-know-what themselves.’

“At that point, though, she had never received so much as a nomination, so the odds favor her changing her tune on that vow, now that she got voted in her first time actually appearing on the ballot.”

Three other big names to be inducted in the area of  “Musical Excellence” are Dionne Warwick, Jimmy Buffet and Norman Whitfield. The talents of Warwick and Buffet are well known to most, but Whitfield may be a question mark to many.

Whitfield, who died in 2008, was a songwriter and producer whose impressive catalog of hits in the ’60s and ’70s included “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Just My Imagination,” “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” “War,” “Ball of Confusion,” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “(I Know) I’m Losing You,” “I Wish It Would Rain,” “I Can’t Get Next to You” and “Car Wash.” 

The induction will take place on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024 at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Disney+ and will also air on ABC at a later date and be available on Hulu the following day.

2. Keeping with today’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame theme, we provide our favorite hits from Cher (as a solo artist):

Gold medal: “If I Could Turn Back Time’ (1989):The famous video features Cher and her band on the U.S.S. Missouri battleship, surrounded by real-life Navy personnel, with the top brass thinking it could help recruitment. They didn’t count on Cher rocking up in a tiny one-piece swimsuit covered with a fishnet bodystocking that got the video banned on MTV before 9 p.m., before a “less-saucy” version of the video was cut.

Silver medal: “Believe” (1998):This classic topped both the U.K. and U.S. charts, going platinum in Great Britain and QUADRUPLE platinum in the states.

Bronze medal: “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” (1990): Cher covered this effort for her hit movie “Mermaids,” taking it to No. 33 in the U.S. and all the way to No. 1 on the U.K. singles charts.

3. If you’re wondering, the performers who failed to make the final cut for this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, but will be favorites a year from now, include:

Mariah Carey, Jane’s Addiction, Sade, Sinead O’Connor, Oasis, Lenny Kravitz and the duo Eric B. and Rakim.

Steve Thought O’ The Day — The Cher video aboard the U.S.S. Missouri never gets old. Never.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. The unconditional surrender of the Japanese to the Allies, officially ending World War II, took place on the U.S.S. Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945.