John Mellencamp, Emmylou Harris & More Shine at 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame Gala: 8 Best Moments

John Mellencamp performed two of his biggest hits, “Small Town” and “Jack & Diane,” as well as his 2008 song “Longest Days,” which he said was inspired by a conversation with his grandmother.

Mellencamp noted, “You may think it’s odd that I’m going to present an award to record company presidents because I don’t imagine anyone has had worse relations with record company presidents than me. I shoved one once and I’ve cussed them out. I’ve hard a hard time with them.”

But he said Monte and Avery Lipman of Republic are different. “They’re in the music business — they like music, and they also like the business. But they like music first. … I usually don’t do these things, but I’ve never had a cross word with either of these guys.”

Mellencamp said that the Lipman brothers grew up with hippie parents, and led a nomadic lifestyle, which Monte Lipman confirmed when he accepted the award. “We did grow up in the back of a van. We didn’t have a TV — our only form of entertainment was the radio. We’d sing songs to each other, and grade and rate them.” He said those experiences were good training for their current positions.

Batiste performed two Charles classics, “Georgia on My Mind” and “Let the Good Times Roll.” To say that Ray Charles is a hard act to follow is an understatement, but Batiste acquitted himself well.

Batiste said that his first exposure to Charles was in a Pepsi commercial that aired when Batiste was 11. (This would have been about 1997.) Even in that context, he could hear Charles’ greatness.

Leslie Odom Jr. didn’t fare as well in paying tribute to Luther Vandross, whose 1981 debut album, Never Too Much, was also honored. Odom had Vandross’ smooth and silky sound, but not his power and passion.

Odom noted that he was six days old when Never Too Much was released, suggesting that he was a fan “from the cradle.”

Emmylou Harris, with producer Daniel Lanois and jazz drummer Brian Blade, played two songs from her 1995 album, Wrecking Ball. The album, which won a Grammy for best contemporary folk album, has been credited as creating a blueprint for the emerging Americana genre.

Harris explained that the album, her 18th studio collection, gave her a new lease on life. “I was at a point in my career [where] I had had a pretty good run. My record company [Elektra] said we don’t know what to do with you.”

She said that she felt her career was in a logjam, but had admired Daniel Lanois’ work with Bob Dylan, so she enlisted him to produce her next album. “I’m so grateful he took a wrecking ball to my logjam and gave me another 30 years of making music that I love.”

Longtime Santana band member Andy Vargas (on lead vocals), alongside percussionist Cindy Blackman Santana (Carlos’ wife) and guitar ace Orianthi performed Santana’s “Smooth.” The track, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks and won Grammys for record and song of the year, as well as best pop collaboration with vocals, retains its propulsive power, even without the stars who introduced it being present in the room.

Ledisi scored on a rousing rendition of Clara Ward’s 1951 gospel classic “How I Got Over,” as did Susanna Hoffs on a version of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World” from his 1970 album, Tea for the Tillerman. They began the latter spot by screening a TV clip of Stevens performing his song at the time. He proudly introduced the song by saying, “It’s called ‘Wild World’ and it’s a hit,” before segueing into Hoffs’ live version.

Latin Grammy nominee Leslie Grace (one of the stars of the 2021 film adaptation of In the Heights) performed Miami Sound Machine’s 1985 breakthrough hit “Conga.” It basically came across as karaoke, and it was odd to have her perform the song when Gloria and Emilio Estefan were in the house. Grace ventured into the audience and got Gloria Estefan to sing a line or two from the song near the end.

Gloria made it to the stage and made it more personal by talking about how she started listening to records from a stereo cabinet when she was five. She said “Conga” draws from some of those diverse influences — harmonies from The Andrews Sisters and an exuberant yelp from James Brown.

On video, Mike Mills, formerly of R.E.M., paid tribute to power pop progenitors Big Star, whose 1972 album, #1 Record, was inducted. “Big Star achieved something R.E.M. always tried to do — a sense of timelessness,” Mills said. The award was accepted by Jody Stephens, Big Star’s last surviving member. Stephens didn’t perform a song from #1 Record without his former bandmates, but he did back Floyd during his performance of “Knock on Wood.”

Rhiannon Giddens saluted Delta blues singer Geeshie Wiley, whose 1930 release “Last Kind Words Blues” was honored. Wiley died in 1950, longer ago than any of this year’s other honorees.

Linda Martell, whose 1969 cover version of The Winstons’ “Color Him Father” was honored, was saluted not by another artist, but by her granddaughter.

Jerry Douglas, who played dobro and guitar in J.D. Crowe & the New South, spoke on video. That progressive bluegrass band’s eponymous 1975 album was honored.

Fela Kuti & Africa 70, whose album Zombie was honored, was saluted with a video package which hailed it for the paving the way to Afrobeats.

Early in the program, they announced that they would “revisit a few performances” from the 1965 Grammy “Best on Record” show — a forerunner to the live Grammy telecast (which began in 1971). As it turned out, they screened only one performance from that show — Petula Clark performing her classic “Downtown,” which won that year for best rock & roll recording. The smash, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, isn’t rock & roll, but it remains one of the dynamic and exciting pop singles of its era. It was great to see it again, even though its presence here was unexpected. (The track was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003.) Woody Allen introduced Clark on the 60-year-old clip.