The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has added another inductee to its Class of 2016, this time in the non-performer category. Bert Berns, a prominent songwriter and producer in the early days of rock’n’roll, has been selected as the sole recipient of this year’s Ahmet Ertegun Award for Lifetime Achievement which annually honors “songwriters, producers, disc jockeys, record executives, journalists and other industry professionals who have had a major influence on the development of rock and roll.”
Berns co-wrote such enduring classic rock songs as “Twist and Shout,” “Hang on Sloopy,” “Piece of My Heart” and “I Want Candy,” among numerous others. He produced such recordings as the Isley Brothers’ version of “Twist and Shout,” the Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk” and Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.”
Berns joins previously announced honorees in the performer category: Cheap Trick, Chicago, Deep Purple, N.W.A and Steve Miller. The 2016 induction ceremony will take place on April 8, 2016 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York for the second time. With so many prominent names, Rock Hall 2016 tickets are expected to be a hot item.
Tickets will go on sale to Hall of Fame members beginning January 29th. A Citi cardmember presale begins February 1st. Seats for the general public go on sale February 5th at 9 am EST. Click here for the Ticketmaster page. HBO will broadcast the ceremony sometime in April (exact date TBA).
Among the guest performers at the event are The Black Keys, Rob Thomas, and Lars Ulrich of Metallica. Exact lineups of which members of the induction class will be performing haven’t been announced. Best Classic Bands has written about original Chicago member Peter Cetera’s suggestion for his former band’s lineup.
Berns spent several years in the early 1960s as an Atlantic Records in-house producer where he worked with Solomon Burke, Ben E. King and the Drifters, among many others. He later formed Bang Records, which became home to the McCoys and Neil Diamond. He died in 1967 of heart failure at just 38.
Previous recipients of the prestigious award include Phil Spector, Berry Gordy Jr., Dick Clark, Bill Graham, Quincy Jones and George Martin.
