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The Recording Academy announced its 2017 Special Merit Awards recipients. The Lifetime Achievement Award honorees are Shirley Caesar, Ahmad Jamal, Charley Pride, Jimmie Rodgers, Nina Simone, Sly Stone, and the Velvet Underground. Thom Bell, Mo Ostin and Ralph Peer are Trustees Award honorees; Alan Dower Blumlein is the Technical GRAMMY Award recipient.

The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording.

Additionally, The Recording Academy and Hal Leonard Books will release in early January A GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends, a hardcover book that collects two decades of artist-written tributes to The Academy’s annual Special Merit Awards honorees. The tributes were originally commissioned for the annual GRAMMY Awards program book and never published widely until now.

Read more at GRAMMY.org.

25 Recordings Added To The GRAMMY Hall Of Fame® Residing at the GRAMMY Museum® At L.A. LIVE

Sly & The Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” has been selected by The Recording Academy® as one of 25 recordings to be inducted into the 2017 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame®.

This year’s collection acknowledges a diverse range of both singles and album recordings at least 25 years old that exhibit qualitative or historical significance. Each year recordings are reviewed by a special member committee comprised of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts, with final approval by The Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. With 25 new titles, the Hall, now in its 44th year, currently totals 1,038 recordings.

2017 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inductees

(Songwriters of singles in parentheses)

“ABC”
The Jackson 5
(Berry Gordy, Alphonzo Mizell, Freddie Perren, Deke Richards, songwriters)
Motown (1970)
Single

“CHANGES”
David Bowie
(David Bowie, songwriter)
RCA Victor (1972)
Single

“THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS”
Arlo Guthrie
(Steve Goodman, songwriter)
Reprise (1972)
Single

“(HEP-HEP!) THE JUMPIN’ JIVE”
Cab Calloway And His Orchestra
(Cab Calloway, Frank Froeba, Jack Palmer, songwriters)
Vocalion (1939)
Single

“I CAN’T MAKE YOU LOVE ME”
Bonnie Raitt
(Mike Reid, Allen Shamblin, songwriters)
Capitol (1991)
Single

“I GET AROUND”
The Beach Boys
(Mike Love, Brian Wilson, songwriters)
Capitol (1964)
Single

“I GOT YOU BABE”
Sonny & Cher
(Sonny Bono, songwriter)
Atco (1965)
Single

“JAILHOUSE ROCK”
Elvis Presley
(Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, songwriters)
RCA Victor (1957)
Single

LADY SINGS THE BLUES
Billie Holiday
Clef (1956)
Album

“LOSING MY RELIGION”
R.E.M.
(Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe, songwriters)
Warner Bros. (1991)
Single

“MAGGIE MAY”
Rod Stewart
(Martin Quittenton, Rod Stewart, songwriters)
Mercury (1971)
Single

“MISSION—IMPOSSIBLE”
Lalo Schifrin
(Lalo Schifrin, songwriter)
Dot (1967)
Single

OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE
Merle Haggard
Capitol (1969)
Album

SIGN “O” THE TIMES
Prince
Paisley Park/Warner Bros. (1987)
Album

“SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT”
Nirvana
(Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic , songwriters)
DGC (1991)
Single

“SMOKE ON THE WATER”
Deep Purple
(Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, songwriters)
Warner Bros. (1973)
Single

“STACK O’LEE BLUES”
Mississippi John Hurt
(Traditional)
Okeh (1928)
Single

“STATESBORO BLUES”
Blind Willie McTell
(Willie McTell, songwriter)
Victor (1928)
Single

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON
N.W.A
Ruthless/Priority (1988)
Album

“THANK YOU (FALETTINME BE MICE ELF AGIN)”
Sly & The Family Stone
(Sly Stone, songwriter)
Epic (1969)
Single

“WAKE UP LITTLE SUSIE”
The Everly Brothers
(Boudleaux Bryant, Felice Bryant, songwriters)
Cadence (1957)
Single

“THE WANDERER”
Dion
(Ernie Maresca, songwriter)
Laurie (1961)
Single

“WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN”
Louis Armstrong And His Orchestra
(Traditional)
Decca (1939)
Single

“YOU ALWAYS HURT THE ONE YOU LOVE”
Mills Brothers
(Doris Fisher, Allan Roberts, songwriters)
Decca (1944)
Single

“YOU DON’T OWN ME”
Lesley Gore
(John Madara, David White, songwriters)
Mercury (1963)
Single

Sly & The Family Stone led the pack of Black artists in the 60s shaping their own musical sound and destiny. Tune in to Soundbreaking on PBS tonight at 10/9c for this incredible story and more. Check your local listings here.

Pitchfork has shared its list of what it considers the 200 Best Songs of the 1970s, with Sly & The Family Stone’s “Family Affair,” from the album There’s A Riot Goin’ On, at #55. Pitchfork writes:

Sly composed most of Riot on his own, including “Family Affair,” a stripped-down track with a drum machine and light electric keys. Vocally, Sly opts for a grumbling, conversational cadence that adds a certain intimacy. The result is a song that feels like a personal conversation about life’s ups and downs.

Read more at Pitchfork.