I attended the dinner last year, and quite the event it was! The evening kicked off with Chairman Hal David announcing plans for a new SHOF museum site and climaxed with a stage full of songwriter-stars riffing to Leiber and Stoller’s "Stand By Me" and "Kansas City."
An enthusiastic Hal David, who was inducted into SHOF in 1972 and received the Johnny Mercer Award in 1996, described final-stage plans with NYU to establish a museum at NYU's new building site on 14th Street in New York City, in a 6000-plus square foot space with a separate entrance. SHOF is also working with the NYU Center for Advanced Technology on an official Web site and virtual museum that is expected to be online by the end of the year. David said the Web site would showcase each of SHOF's inductees with separate and distinct exhibits and would be the "ultimate resource" regarding popular song, which he described as "the most important export we have in America."
David then introduced J. D. Souther, who accepted the award for new inductees Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Frey and Henley are probably best known as the founding members of the highly successful California-rock band The Eagles, although each has continued with stellar solo careers. Together they are known for such songs as "New Kid In Town," "Lyin' Eyes," "Desperado," and "Hotel California." Souther, a fellow bandmate and collaborator with Frey and Henley in The Eagles, said they had "set a standard for team songwriting and band songwriting that should still be held up to anyone who sets out to write songs for a band. They just plain make good music." Souther then sang "The Best Of My Love," after joking, "I had a lot of songs to choose from, but I'm too selfish to pick one that I wasn't a writer on."
Sex and the City’s Kim Catrall, adding a touch of movie-star glamour to the event, presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Neil Diamond. Diamond's songwriting success, which has spanned some 30-odd years, includes such hits as "Solitary Man," "Cherry Cherry," "I Got The Feeling (Oh No, No)," "Sweet Caroline," and "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" and film soundtracks such as Grammy-award-winning "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." Diamond is also an extremely popular performer. Regarding his career, he said, "It's been one of the most magical rides that anyone could ever dream of having." In accepting his award, Diamond joked, "It brings me back 40 years to the days when I was between meals and would do anything for free meals, as I am here tonight!" On a more serious note, he concluded, "It can never get better than this."
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