The Results Are In! Announcing the January 2010 Hall of Fame Class...

The first ever election for The People's Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame has been completed. 61 ballots were submitted from fans around the world, and seven artists were named on more than half of them, making up our stellar inaugural class.

In order to be eligible for this first election, an artist or group had to have released their first single or album no later than 1960, and anyone would be hard-pressed to come up with a better list of the seven most important artists from that era.

Without further ado, we present the first seven members of the Hall of Fame (vote totals and percentages in parentheses):

Chuck Berry - 53 votes/87%



Buddy Holly - 48 votes/79%



Elvis Presley - 44 votes/72%



Bo Diddley - 40 votes/66%



Little Richard - 40 votes/66%



Jerry Lee Lewis - 39 votes/64%



James Brown - 35 votes/57%



The following artists finished with 50% or less, and will be returning for another shot on our February ballot:

Sam Cooke - 30
Ray Charles - 27
Carl Perkins - 25
Everly Brothers - 24
Fats Domino - 23
Roy Orbison - 21
Gene Vincent - 19
Eddie Cochran/Bill Haley/Link Wray - 14
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - 10
Big Joe Turner - 9
The Drifters/Etta James/Smokey & the Miracles - 8
The Coasters - 7
Jackie Wilson - 6
Lavern Baker - 3