With her quiet subdued voice and poetic lyrics, Suzanne Vega neither looked nor sounded like a Rock star, yet there she was. Vega helped usher in a new series of female Singer/Songwriters and showed record companies that not only were they culturally relevant, they could be commercially viable. As much as her first big hot, Luka was a surprise hit seemingly out of left field, her Hall of Fame induction could come out of the same place.

An AM staple, Poco was often in the shadows of fellow Country Rockers, the Eagles. Throughout the 70’s Poco quietly amassed a series of minor hits that reached the Pop, Country, and Adult Contemporary Charts. Their melodic Soft Pop gained a lot of respect as it was deeper than other AM offerings at the time, and though carved out a nice career chances are it won’t be enough to gain then a nomination.

Although their songs were somewhat consistent, the 5th Dimension has been categorized as everything from Psychedelic, Adult Contemporary, Sunshine Pop and Soul. As diverse as those styles may be, all those designations seem accurate. With rich harmonies and a monster hit “Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” that helped define an era, the 5th Dimension may have done enough to at least get a look from the Hall.

It may be forgotten just how big Wham! was in the 80’s though we suspect that many thirty something women remember. The duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley (or just George Michael and some other guy riding off his coat tails) had a series of Pop success that few could rival. As bubblegum as it sounded, the carefully constructed Pop was actually good for what it was. Still, we don’t see any reason for Ridgeley to book that flight to Cleveland to give that induction speech.