Five New Entrants For Cleveland Rock Shrine

R.E.M., Van Halen, Patti Smith, The Ronettes and Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five are the 2007 inductees to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

The induction ceremony will take place at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on March 12. The event will also honour Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, who served as Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Foundation chairman. The legendary music executive passed away late last year.

Nominees must have released their first single no later than 1981 to be considered, and R.E.M. just made the cut as "Radio Free Europe" came out that year. The Athens, Ga. band helped spawn a movement of guitar-based alternative pop/rock acts. They reached their commercial peak with 1991's Out Of Time, but have maintained a strong following and remained critically acclaimed through most of their 13-album career.

Van Halen formed in Pasadena, Calif. in 1974, released their self-titled debut in 1978, and have been one of the biggest names in hard rock ever since. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen is acknowledged as an all-time great, and the band have maintained a large fanbase despite going through three lead singers: David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar and the short-lived Gary Cherone. The group are currently without a frontman, so it will be interesting to see who performs with them at the induction ceremony. Eddie's teenage son Wolfgang replaced band co-founder Michael Anthony on bass last year.

Smith was one of the pioneers of the burgeoning New York City punk scene in the early '70s and was acknowledged as a poet as much as a rocker for her free-form lyrics and sometimes experimental music. She also helped stretch boundaries for female performers, which has added to her iconic status, even though she's never achieved much commercial success. Her biggest hit was 1978's "Because The Night," which she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen. Smith was married to former MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith, who died in 1994.

The Ronettes were one of the most popular "girl groups" of the '60s, and are best known for their smash "Be My Baby," their only top 20 hit. They got their big break when they started working with legendary (and somewhat psychotic) producer Phil Spector, who used his "wall of sound" recording techniques to give the group a rich sound that set them apart from many of their contemporaries. Spector married lead singer Ronnie Bennett in 1968, and she divorced him in 1974 after a somewhat bizarre and psychologically abusive relationship.

DJ Grandmaster Flash hooked up with The Furious Five — rappers Melle Mel, Cowboy, Kid Creole, Mr. Ness and Raheim — in the late '70s in New York City and are acknowledged as being among the biggest innovators in early hip-hop. Their 1982 song "The Message" provided some eye-opening social commentary about life in the ghetto, and 1983's anti-cocaine track, "White Lines," is considered a classic.