John Mulaney, Rock Hall of Fame Enthusiast, Breaks Down This Year's Class — and Snubs!
For example, to the yearly batch of inducted artists who seem deeply uncomfortable with the idea of the ceremony, he says, 'Life is hard, and when someone wants to give you your flowers, don't overthink it. Just accept it. Whatever terrible moment you're imagining with your former bandmate or whoever you might run into there, you're already having it in your head, so you might as well go, and it probably will be better than you think.'
More from Rolling Stone
Watch Jessica Pratt and Destroyer Perform Together on 'Everybody's Live'
John Mulaney Breaks Down the Music Powering 'Everybody's Live'
What Do Rock Hall Voters Have Against Mariah Carey, Oasis, and Phish?
When Mulaney first broke down all the Rock Hall inductees and snubs for us in 2018, the plan was to make it an annual tradition, à la Billie Eilish's Vanity Fair interview on the same day every year. 'Covid and some personal problems got in the way,' Mulaney deadpans. But now, he's ready to recommit. 'Hey, listen, I'll make this an annual thing now.'
Before we get started, does he have any other big takeaways from following the event each year? 'When you're in your twenties, take as many photos of yourself as possible,' Mulaney says. 'You are so good-looking. You are soooo good-looking. All these photos of the Cure, I was like, 'Look at these early shoegazers, so awkward. But they look great. Everyone looks great.''
Here, what Mulaney has to say about each of this year's honored artists — and the ones that didn't make it.
Mazel tov, Bad Company. A friend of mine read these to me over the phone a week ago and he accidentally said Badfinger and I almost drove off the expressway. I was so blown away by the power of Apple Corps to get Badfinger into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I know the hits and I like a supergroup in [the Hall]. There's certainly other examples.
Who's your favorite supergroup?Let's name some. Traveling Wilburys.
Sure. Blind Faith.Everything Clapton post-Yardbirds feels like a supergroup.
Derek and the Dominos is up for debate.Yeah. Were there even Dominos? My favorite supergroup song is 'Highwayman' by the Highwaymen. It's an excellent use of each person's personality, in a way that [Traveling Wilburys'] 'Handle With Care' is a great song but it feels like they just divvied up… I mean, no, sorry, that's really well-plotted, actually. But 'Highwayman' is like each of those guys is singing the appropriate backstory for their character and I like that Johnny Cash is going to be on a starship.
Bad Company's biggest songs: 'Feel Like Makin' Love,' 'Can't Get Enough,' 'Shooting Star,' 'Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy,' 'Bad Company.' Do any of those songs conjure up any emotion or feeling for you?Well, it's tough. No.
What does 'Feel Like Makin' Love' feel like? It feels like walking into a bar I've never been in, like I have a memory of walking into a large pool hall kind of Dazed and Confused-like bar with that playing, but I think I just saw it in movies. I don't think that ever happened.
But here's my mission statement: More groups in the Hall, not less.
The Mulaney Hall of Fame would induct every group nominated? Why not? Do a whole weekend of ceremony. If it's about the ceremony runtime…
Last year, they went more than five hours. That's pretty typical.Because Steven Van Zandt gets to induct a bunch of 45s? Doesn't he always get a grouping? [Imitates Little Stevie] 'Doo-wop on my corner. Da Moonglows! Da Ink Spots! These were 45 records that changed the way I saw doo-wop that year. This cover of 'Bule Bule' changed the way that block in New Jersey dealt with noise complaints.'
I was already psyched for him. Mazel, Chubby Checker. Knowing that it was part novelty I think is great. I'm a big proponent of novelty music. I'm a big proponent of 'Weird Al' getting into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This is one step closer, though I don't know why they need to be led via steps. 'Weird Al' brought more people to music than is recognized at all.
I will, in fact, greatly devalue my coolness by saying [when I was young], it wasn't until 'Smells Like Nirvana' defanged 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' that I could enjoy 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.' It was scary at first. It just was like, 'I'm pretty happy, I'm a kid.' I needed a way in. And after you laugh at 'Smells Like Nirvana,' you go, 'Oh, this is a really good song.'
Let's talk about the ballot and the nominating process.
So there are 30 people on the nominating committee who draw up all the nominees and around 1,100 people in the industry vote after that.Why aren't I on the committee? Is Boz Scaggs on it?
He is not. I always thought he was in with that, but that's just based on nothing.
Did you have any experience with 'The Twist' or 'Let's Twist Again'?Well, I really appreciate 'Let's twist again like we did last summer.' It's a very funny lyric for a reboot. I really, really like the bald-facedness of 'Let's twist again like we did last summer' — saying, 'Remember we did this song 'The Twist' last year? We're doing it again.' Also, I think 'Let's Twist Again' is a better song than 'The Twist.' I don't think I'm alone in that. Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like such a novel idea. Is Chubby Checker still with us?
He is. He partnered with New York City two years ago for a with bikers in the lane. Sick. I didn't know we could partner with New York City.
You could. Billy Idol did an with the city right before lockdowns in 2020. And people followed his advice because the whole world shut down.
I do want to tell you about a 750-word letter Chubby Checker wrote to the Rock Hall in 2002 lamenting his lack of inclusion. It read, in part, 'Before 'Alexander Graham Bell'…no telephone. Before 'Thomas Edison'… no light. Before 'Dr. George Washington Carver'…no oil from seed or cloning of plants. Before 'Henry Ford'…no V8 engine. Before 'Walt Disney'…no animated cartoons. Before Chubby Checker…no 'Dancing Apart to the Beat.' What is 'Dancing Apart to the Beat'? 'Dancing Apart to the Beat' is the dance that we do when we dance apart to the beat of anybody's music and before 'Chubby Checker,' it could not be found!'I love this letter. I love every part of it. I love all the examples leading up to it and I trust him.
He ends the letter with, 'Where is my more money and my more fame?'Ohhhh, you buried the lede.
I had to build to it.'Where is my more money and my more fame?' Well, you know what? We have quotes at the beginning of each episode of my show and I think we just found the finale's.
Bizarrely, I knew his cover of 'With a Little Help from My Friends' and I knew 'Up Where We Belong' and I didn't see [the 1971 Cocker documentary] Mad Dogs and Englishmen till I was in my late twenties. Lorne Michaels told me about it. It wasn't streaming anywhere. It was hard to find when I went looking for it.
What did you like about the film specifically?Just how hard that tour was, like Festival Express. Just the hard living of it. And again, this brings me back to Chubby Checker and 'Weird Al.' It's like John Belushi's parody of Joe Cocker brought me to Joe Cocker as well. As a little kid, Cocker was upsetting-looking. He looked like he was in great pain and he looked like he was passing a kidney stone at all times. John Belushi defanging that helped me enjoy it more. And I'm very pro-Joe Cocker.
He's not like Stevie Wonder, but he has a bit of that 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' phenomenon of, I sort of knew 'Up Where We Belong' and 'You Are So Beautiful' just as pleasant wedding music. And then you go back and indeed he was a Mad Dog.
I kinda thought of Randy Newman's 'You Can Leave Your Hat On' in was a little corny.What do you think of the original?
Love the original.You take the laughs out. 'Turn on the lights. No, all the lights,' is a very funny line. I've never seen 9 1/2 Weeks, but I would love to have Mickey Rourke on my show.
He was just fired from a few weeks ago for making offensive remarks toward Jojo Siwa and another housemate.He was? Oh, then I retract saying I want to.
We'll skip the headline.How about, John Mulaney Hasn't Seen '9 ½ Weeks'. But again, here we go and I'm not trying to force a through line but the humor of something [like Newman's original version] is our way in.
And there's a Randy Newman connection coming up.
I know. It's Lenny Waronker.
I thought you might be stumped on that.No, not at all. I met Lenny Waronker when Randy was on Everybody's Live; he came. These dudes have known each other since they were three and he's at the gig with him and he's his guy. Their relationship was incredible to see up close. Then I was talking to John Cale [who did A&R for Waronker in the 1970s] after the taping of our show and he goes, 'I love Lenny. I loved all those guys. Everyone at Warner Brothers was very good back then.'
It's weird to think of John Cale behind a desk.But that's why Cale is so brilliant and is the most relevant, because he produced so many people and was an A&R guy. He didn't do a couple vanity productions. He really invested in new groups and continued to develop and didn't escape into persona.
What's interesting about the record business is they'll be like, 'Well, this is the single and we're pushing the single.' And I'm like, 'Isn't it just like people come to whatever song they come to?' Lenny, Randy, and I were talking about standards and practices and lack thereof on Netflix, and I said, 'Have you ever done 'Rednecks' on TV?' and [Randy] goes, 'No.' And I was like, 'Right, that makes sense.' And I said, 'But that's the big hit from that album,' and he goes, 'No, it wasn't a hit.' And Lenny goes, 'The first hit was 'Short People' [three years later].' If you're in the trenches looking at numbers every week, you don't go, 'Yeah. That a lot of people have come to it over the years, doesn't mean it's a hit.'
But if Randy had asked to do 'Rednecks' on your show, would you have said yes?No. I think everyone would go, 'Let's not do that.' By the way, let me just be clear: No one asked. It wasn't like I said no to something. Everyone involved is smart.
They're incredible and what a great treasure of American music. I love Jack in that way that he has what I love so much about David Byrne: just this desire to innovate and collaborate, be it Loretta Lynn or doing some music for a Maya Rudolph and Martin Short variety show or whatever it is.
Meg White hasn't really been seen at all in more than 15 years. The big question is if she shows up. Just things the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is made of. This is no surprise. Such re-emergences into public life is the whole thing of the induction ceremony. Standard stuff. Most folks you see at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction you haven't seen in a while. That's the most fun of it.
So do you think she shows up?Yeah, why not? I say 'why not' not trying to cause any controversy. I don't know if there's any issues. I just would say why not.
I think the 'why not' is just having not been in the public eye for so long. Is the Rock Hall enough of an event to get her to come out?Yes, it is. Yes, it is. And I'll make the case. Couple examples: Kurt Cobain's mother said when they were inducted, and I'm paraphrasing, 'Kurt would really love this, but he would act like he didn't.' And at the Radiohead induction, which I was at, I think it was Ed O'Brien who said, and I'm paraphrasing again, but this was the spirit of it, 'I wish the other guys were here to see it, because this is a big fucking deal.' And I think it's one of those things you might appreciate when you get there.
Your first memories of , I assume, are probably in the mid-Eighties?Yep, The Goonies. It's the way the camera lingers on the TV in Goonies. I just remember being like, 'Well, they're making a moment out of this.' I didn't know if it was a clue to the mystery. It was one of those things where just the very fact, the way the camera hangs on her, I was like, 'Well, this must be someone.' I don't remember when I first heard 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun,' but it's obviously Eighties canon. I found her really funny and I found the whole persona fun and funny and still do.
Any other Cyndi songs that you gravitate towards?I love Kinky Boots. I love her whole thing. I can't say I know more than the hits, but they're so singular and were so important for music and music videos that I'm just thrilled.
Talk about people that really care about music. And André's career now is so interesting. What a great choice. It's one of those choices where you go, 'Well, let's do half a dozen of those each year.'
You mean hip-hop or just groups that are universally beloved?Both. I so admire [André's] pursuit of music. It's just in every direction. And someone not taking the easy road is my favorite thing. I think it's like being a Prince fan. Who isn't a fan of Outkast?
Really, really cool. Very cool choice. Very cool to go back and continue to celebrate those early Sub Pop artists and not just look at it as a montage of bands you mention after Nirvana.
Kim Thayil how he was looking at as a possible model for what Soundgarden may do. Who could belt like Chris Cornell?I'll nominate Maggie Rogers just because I just had her on and thought she was so great.
Do you have a favorite Soundgarden song?Again, I'm a hits guy. I think they're going to play 'Black Hole Sun,' so she'd be great at that.
I'm so happy for them. Like Cyndi Lauper, just ubiquitous, especially 'Whatta Man.' Soundtrack of an era. So exciting and a great time in music to go back and revisit and honor. Did they do 'Let's Talk About Sex' on Blossom? Don't even fact-check it.
I'm fact-checking, because I don't know the answer.No, your source here feels they did and let's not even look it up. [Editor's note: He's right. Season Four, Episode 12, in 1993.]
Immensely provocative and groundbreaking at the time.It was. This is Tipper Gore central. And it's a great song, too. They're going to be great.
Not a ton of knowledge. However, I think my senior year of college, he was very ill and his song 'Keep Me in Your Heart' was very popular with my roommate, Matt Albert, and I. [Matt is] now a pediatric doctor in North Carolina. Then I'm at the Mark Twain awards for David Letterman some years ago and Eddie Vedder played that song and it just was a very full-circle moment. Tons of respect for Warren Zevon. I'm surprised he isn't in already. He's someone that the music business loves, deservedly so.
I remember listening to 'Werewolves of London' a lot and thinking about the lyrics and still kind of not understanding what it's about at all and I've never really looked it up. I like that they mentioned Trader Vic's. I always liked that the coolest place was this Polynesian restaurant.
The organ on 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' alone. It's incredible how big [session musicians'] contributions are. It's bizarre the amount they affect the success of a track and their lack — and this isn't meant to be controversial — their lack of credit and, through that, profit participation. I'm not criticizing it, I think it's just what it is.
Sonny & Cher had every verse of 'The Beat Goes On' and it was just this meandering song and then Carol Kaye, like 11th hour, just lays down [imitates bassline] doom, doom, doom, doom, and you're like, 'OK. So I guess she didn't write it, but you wouldn't know it at all [without her].' I am thrilled with Nicky Hopkins. I'm thrilled with the recognition of session musicians.
Andy Samberg and I would really press Lorne a couple of times to have Glen Campbell on. [Kaye played on hundreds of sessions with Campbell.] I'm often wrong, but I thought it would've been great.
I think it was when The Smile Sessions came out [in 2011], and getting into what the Wrecking Crew [the legendary group of session musicians that included Kaye] sounded like and just what they contributed was so amazing. I like the documentary a lot, and it's just night and day. It's just like, 'Well, I'm going to take my songs over to the best band in the world that's ever been assembled.'
The Hopkins and the Carol Kayes of the world are like, it's not just a nice nod. They are 100 percent essential to these songs. If you think about how you take music in, they get authorship.
I think about that with Holland-Dozier-Holland, who are not unknown, but nowhere near as big as the artists they wrote for.They get a good shoutout in a Magnetic Fields song.
Do they?Yeah, 'The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure.'
Love [The Spinners'] 'Rubberband Man' [written and produced by Bell]. The audience load-in playlist for my Baby J Tour was a lot of Delfonics, Spinners, Thom Bell-adjacent stuff. The O'Jays' 'Stairway to Heaven' was the big song on the lead-up to my arena tour.
Let's see. I just want to get this right.
Take your time.Who's had more Number One singles than anyone else? They're from Liverpool. Who has the second most? It's a travesty. I wouldn't even call it snobbery. There's a judgmental aspect to it due to aspects of one's life. I think we have all had our ups and downs in life, but her accomplishment is just unparalleled. It's a no-brainer, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame frequently doesn't have a brain. Sorry, they have less than one brain.
I don't know much about the Gallaghers. I know what a casual acquaintance of their music would know, which is they're always pissed off about something. I know far more about their constant bitching than I have memories of loving their music. But they get a vote in my mind because they'd be disgruntled during the acceptance speech. You would like to see it just for the theatricality. That is a big part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: people of low character behaving badly.
'That is a big part of the Rock Hall: people of low character behaving badly.'
Is there another group that you don't care about that you want to see in the Hall for the pure spectacle?Oh, man. OK. I mean, oh, my God. Pure spectacle. A lot of them are already in. Help me think a little. Butthole Surfers? Flaming Lips, they're not in, right?
They're not in, no.Yeah. I think [Wayne Coyne] would pop off.
Liam Gallagher did once say, 'It's like putting me in the Rap Hall of Fame and I don't want to be part of anything that mentally disturbed.'Whatever. 'Wonderwall' don't mean shit to me, but I'm not trying to start anything. I remember Soupy Sales' Wikipedia page for a while was just debunking rumors and it was clearly him getting in there and it was like, 'Soupy never told kids to send him a dollar.' I was like, 'Dude, you're teaching me that you've had a lot of difficulties.' When I hear Jimmy Fallon do 'Wonderwall' at karaoke, I don't think, 'Wow, what tortured mind is behind this?' And also, I'll say that I like a difficult public persona very much.
This is a crime.
I haven't read about your Phish fandom. How deep does it run?I come on board around 1997 at age 14, 15. When I started listening to them, people at the shows told me, 'You really missed it. It's over now.' I think it was after A Live One came out, people were like, 'Well, you didn't see the early years.'
How many shows have you been to?My numbers aren't high. Multiple nights at Deer Creek, Alpine Valley, things like that, and then I went two, three years ago. I'd go anytime, I just keep not being able to.
Was it difficult to convince them to do the ? No, they were great. We talked about doing a variety of things on the show, but they were on tour and they had their time in Los Angeles and it was the greatest. I thought of it originally as, 'What if they did a play of Seinfeld?' I didn't know what this would be for and then I thought, 'Oh, it would be through the telescope we'd see them living as Seinfeld.' It was going to be an ad for a Broadway show of Seinfeld starring Phish. We made it more palatable, a little.
So Phish is a no-brainer for you to get in?Yeah. Phish, String Cheese Incident, moe., Disco Biscuits, Leftover Salmon. On every level, this was hugely important music to us. It really kept bands alive. The idea of a band in 1999 playing fucking guitars, piano, and drums was not always easy to find. In that documentary [Between Me and My Mind about Trey Anastasio], Trey said that Tommy Lee saw them on the cover of Rolling Stone and went, 'Finally, a fucking band,' and the excitement of that.
Now, on the business end, these people printed money. They are enormously successful. Most of my life being on the road, I have a real aversion to snubbing people that sell out football stadiums night after night but aren't necessarily propped up by the industry.
It's not that the money's important, but whenever the music business has gone up and down and up and down, they have just consistently brought their music to fans at a huge profit. People pay and travel to see Phish at a time when it's hard to get people to click on Spotify. I wonder what it is [that didn't get them inducted]. So many people like Phish; I'm sure so many people on the committee like Phish. I bet it's oversight more than snobbery.
The music they introduced my generation to as well was hugely important. I learned to be eclectic from them. They were always getting compared to the Grateful Dead, but they had this whole world of influences that was really fun to pick up on and cross-check … Getting back into the Talking Heads. Getting into Zappa. That was all them. They also made you want to go to concerts. They're just good for music and they have been for decades.
People that keep it at arm's length and didn't want to get into it because they thought it was their friend with the hemp choker in high school or whatever, we're not dumb. They fucking rock. It's not all Gamehendge [the fictional setting for numerous Phish songs], if that bothers you. I love it, but if that bothers you, it's not all Gamehendge. It's not all mythology and everyone in the crowd knows when to yell. The songs are great, we're not stupid people.
Do you have a preference between Joy Division and New Order?Both are extremely personal to me. During my worst drug times, I remember very bad moments and there's two lines in 'Disorder' [that go] 'Lights are flashing, cars are crashing, getting frequent now.' I remember just thinking about those lines when it was at its worst. That song, when I listened to it, I'm like, 'This is what it feels like when something you might've set in motion is accelerating out of your control.' So that's a little dark tangent.
But then 'Atmosphere.' What's funny about 'Atmosphere' when I listen to that is, I was born right as this was coming out, and I always wondered if I was ever an infant in a taxi cab in Chicago when 'Atmosphere' was released.
'Leave Me Alone' is my favorite New Order song and that song, 'Ceremony,' and the rest are just songs I've listened to for 20, 30 years all the time. And I think about [my wife] Olivia with that line in 'Temptation,' 'Oh, you've got blue eyes / Oh, you've got grey eyes / Oh, you've got green eyes' because Olivia has really beautiful eyes.
I have no opinion on the Black Crowes.
Are you being diplomatic? No. I genuinely have no opinion.
Do you remember when their big album came out or this was not in your wheelhouse at all?What's fun about music is you can be obsessed with a genre and not know a band at all. My blind spots are significant.
That's fair. Maybe we just keep the one line, 'I have no opinion,' and that's it.I have no opinion on the Black Crowes. If that's the pull quote, we've got a viral story.
'I have no opinion on the Black Crowes. If that's the pull quote, we've got a viral story.'
So Fred [Armisen] is a big Billy Idol fan and I've been trying to get more into it. I know 'White Wedding,' and he has real significance for me as this sort of MTV thing, but I'm ignorant of the rest of him. I think he means a lot to a lot of people. I think a big [thing] is some of the Hall is [about] teaching the audience and some of it is honoring the audience. But it should never be honoring the nominating committee.
I am ignorant of them.
Well, those are all the snubs. We haven't gone through the biggest snub.
Who's that?The standing snub.
The standing snub?Sonic Youth. Once again, It's been a pleasure to talk about all these inductees and nominees. Once again, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has completely disappointed the universe and all music fans by not inducting Sonic Youth. I think Smashing Pumpkins not being in is also a crime.
Actually, you did mention that in 2018. You said the Hall had an 'anti-Chicago bias.'[Laughs hysterically.] Did I?
with the headline, 'Is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Anti-Chicago?' and subhead, 'John Mulaney thinks so, but in reality, we may just punch below our weight as a rock town.''But in reality.' A lot of things I said in 2018 could be buffeted with, 'But in reality.' 'But in reality, John's a little off.'
They said, 'Is it possible there's some truth to Mulaney's charge?'I like that they don't say, 'Well, John's just misguided and might be on speed.' They're like, 'Is there some truth? We won't say no,' but there's a ton of Chicago bands that have been inducted.
A great way to clear this up would be to give the Musical Excellence Award to Steve Albini. Let's just give that to him next year. I actually think that would be a great decision all around. I doubt they really have an anti-Chicago bias. They're very blues-friendly. And white people loving the blues is, I think, the mission statement of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and that's most of Chicago.
I think we've gone through everything.Let's do it next year. This will be called our annual Billie Eilish conversation.
Best of Rolling Stone
The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs
All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jelly Roll Mourns Loss of Rock Legend With 6 Heartbreaking Words
Jelly Roll is mourning the loss of Ozzy Osbourne. "Forever grateful. Thank you for everything," the country music star captioned a photo of himself with Osbourne, posting on his Instagram stories. In 2024, Jelly Roll paid tribute to Osbourne at the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Prior to the performance, Osbourne told Rolling Stone that he was delighted that the country music star would be taking part in his special day. "Who doesn't love Jelly Roll? His voice is soulful, pure, and dirty. I'm so honored that someone would do this for me who I've never had the pleasure of meeting," Osbourne said. Jelly Roll performed the Osbourne classic, "Mama, I'm Coming Home" at the induction ceremony. He was joined on stage by guitarist Zakk Wylde, who co-wrote the song. Osbourne producer Andrew Watt was also on stage, as was Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, who accompanied Jelly Roll at the time. Osbourne died on July 22 at the age of 76. Though his cause of death has not yet been revealed, the rock legend had been dealing with a variety of health issues, including Parkinson's disease. "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time," the Osbourne family said in a statement, according to Roll Mourns Loss of Rock Legend With 6 Heartbreaking Words first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 24, 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Chuck Mangione dead at 84: Remembering his Grammy- and Emmy-winning hits
Chuck Mangione, the flugelhorn player synonymous with the smooth jazz genre, passed away on July 22 at the age of 84. Throughout the '70s and '80s, Mangione crossed over into music's mainstream, bringing jazzy instrumentation to hits such as "Feels So Good." More from Gold Derby 2025 Emmys: These are the episodes every Best Drama Actor nominee submitted Hulk Hogan's most memorable movie roles, from 'Rocky III' to 'Gremlins 2' His legacy extended beyond the world of music into film and television. Most notably, he voiced a fictional version of himself on King of the Hill in a recurring bit across several years of the animated series. On top of his popularity and success on the charts, Mangione found favor with awards bodies, winning two Grammys and an Emmy Award, in addition to a Golden Globe nomination. In remembrance of Mangione's life and work, here's a look back on the music that brought him awards glory. Bellavia (1975) Mangione's first Grammy came in the Best Instrumental Composition category for his album Bellavia, a record named for his mother and recorded with the Chuck Mangione Quartet Orchestra. A version of the title track would also be featured on his next Grammy-winning album. Children of Sanchez (1978) Also serving as the soundtrack for the film of the same name starring Anthony Quinn and Dolores del Río, Children of Sanchez won Mangione his second Grammy two years later. Mangione also received a Golden Globe nomination for Motion Picture Score, but lost to Giorgio Moroder for his groundbreaking Midnight Express score. "Give It All You Got" (1979) At the height of Mangione's popularity, he was featured in two Olympic Games. He wrote "Chase the Clouds Away" for the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal. Four years later, he won an Emmy Award for his performance of "Give It All You Got" during the closing ceremony of the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid. Best of Gold Derby Billboard Hot 100: Every No. 1 song of 2025 Billboard 200: Chart-topping albums of 2025 The B-52s' Kate Pierson talks Rock Hall snub, influencing John Lennon, and fears a solo album would be a 'betrayal' to her band Click here to read the full article. Solve the daily Crossword


Newsweek
21 hours ago
- Newsweek
Chinese Authorities Warn Comedians Over Jokes About Men and Women
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Chinese officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang have put stand-up comics on notice to avoid jokes that could fuel resentment between the sexes. Why It Matters Introduced to China a little over a decade ago, stand-up comedy experienced something of a boom in the 2010s, moving beyond small local venues and into the national media spotlight, spawning series such as Shanghai-based Xiaoguo Culture Media's Rock & Roast. Social commentary is no stranger to the genre. But Chinese comedians weaving sensitive topics, including the gender divide, into routines have drawn unwanted scrutiny and censorship from the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which has in recent years increasingly cracked down on activities it considers disruptive to social harmony. Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry via email for comment. What To Know Zhejiang's propaganda bureau issued a notice Sunday advising stand-up comedians to avoid relying on jokes that "intensify gender antagonism" to boost their profile. "As a new form of performance, stand-up comedy has attracted many young people, and it is normal for it to express different perspectives and even present differences between men and women," the bureau acknowledged while stating that roasting the opposite sex shouldn't be the focus of bits. "For example, some jokes imply that all men are unreliable, while others belittle women's abilities—such content is not only inaccurate but also easily misleads the audience and reinforces gender stereotypes," the notice said. Stand-up comedian Qiqi performs at a shopping mall in Beijing on November 21, 2020. Stand-up comedian Qiqi performs at a shopping mall in Beijing on November 21, 2020. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images Comedians should ensure their words promote social responsibility, and their industry should self-regulate and "deliver high-quality comedic works," the bureau said, warning that failure to do so will be met with tighter regulations. Several gender-related routines by female comics have garnered attention in Chinese media. Fan Chunli, who performs under the stage name Fangzhuren and is a former sanitation worker from Shandong province, gained a surge of new fans after her appearance on The King of Stand-up Comedy on the iQiyi streaming platform, where she revealed how she had left an allegedly abusive marriage. Other comedians have faced backlash for their routines, such as Yang Li, whose sponsor, dropped her last year after outraged men flooded the retail giant's social media with complaints. Yang had previously sparked controversy over a 2020 joke about some average-looking men, quipping, "Why can they look so ordinary yet remain so confident?" Comics in China must tread carefully to avoid provoking authorities, a lesson learned by stand-up comedian Li Haoshi in 2023 after a joke about his dogs using a well-known military slogan was deemed "severely insulting" to the People's Liberation Army. Despite a public apology, Li was placed under investigation, and his production company, Xiaoguo Culture Media, was fined $2 million. The episode continues to cast a shadow over China's emerging stand-up comedy scene. What People Are Saying Teng Wu, director of South China Normal University's Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies, wrote for Sixth Tone in September: "China's stand-up, but its history—a foreign comedy performance art that was successfully localized, industrialized, then devastated only to be revived—reveals the pitfalls and risks of the country's popular culture model." One user wrote on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo: "Stand-up comedy is, at its core, all about talking about things you've experienced. The content of stand-up shows has started to change simply because in the past couple of years, the proportion of male and female performers has shifted." Another Weibo user wrote: "There isn't really any gender antagonism, just excessive feminism, with one-sided attacks on Chinese men." Another Weibo user wrote: "It's just a few female stand-up comedians expressing some factual opinions—are people really this afraid? Men have held the power of discourse for thousands of years."