The Doobie Brothers‘ Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald, and Patrick Simmons, the Beach Boys‘ Mike Love, George Clinton, and more are among the inductees into the 2025 Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF). This year, inductees also include Tony Macaulay. Ashley Gorley, and Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins.
This year, the class of 2025 inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame will be honored during a 2025 Induction & Awards Gala on June 12 at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York City.
Each year, the Songwriters Hall of Fame honors songwriters in the Non-Peforming and Performing categories, who have produced a catalog of “notable songs qualify for induction 20 years after their first significant commercial release of a song.” This is the first group of Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees to include no women since the class of 2017.
“The foundation of the music industry exists because songwriters compose great songs,” said SHOF chairman Nile Rodgers in a statement. “Without them, there is no recorded music, no concert business, no fans, or merchandising; it all starts with the song and the songwriter. We are therefore very proud that we are continually recognizing some of the culturally most important writers of all time and that this year’s slate represents not just iconic songs, but also diversity and unity across genres and ethnicity. These songwriters have enriched the lives of billions of listeners the world over. It’s our honor to honor them.”
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Clinton, Love, and the Doobie Brothers have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, the Doobie Brothers will be inducted into the SHOF for their career spanning more than five decades with hits including “What a Fool Believes,” “Black Water,” “Long Train Runnin’,” * Listen to the Music * Takin’ It to the Streets,” and more.
A pioneer of funk, Clinton’s career started as a Motown staff songwriter in the 1960s before his early group the Parliaments had their first big hit “(I Wanna) Testify” in 1967, which went to No. 3 on the R&B chart and made the top 20 of the Pop chart. Now 83, Clinton’s career exploded by the ‘70s with Parliament/Funkadelic with hits “Give Up the Funk,” “Flashlight,” and more.
Love, also 83, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 as a member of the Beach Boys and was behind writing some of the group’s classic hits, including “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” “California Girls,” and “Good Vibrations.”
Gorley and Jerkins, both 47, are two of the youngest inductees into the 2025 Songwriters Hall of Fame. With 80 No. 1 hits in his catalog, including Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” and Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” (featuring Wallen), Gorley has written songs for a long line of artists, including Chris Stapleton, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, and more.
Since Jerkins started his career when he was 15, his career has crossed collaborations with Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, George Michael, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Beyonce, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Drake, Kelly Clarkson, Keyshia Cole, Britney Spears, Cher, and Janet Jackson, among many others.
Known for the Foundations’ 1968 hit “Build Me Up Buttercup,” Macaulay’s songs have been recorded by everyone from Elvis Presley, Gladys Knight, Donna Summer, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Fifth Dimension, Andy Williams, Cher, Glen Campbell, The Hollies, Jon Bon Jovi, Olivia Newton-John, another many others.
Along with the Doobie Brothers, Clinton, and Love, additional nominees in the Performing Songwriters category for 2025 also included Janet Jackson, Sheryl Crow, Marshall Mathers (Eminem), George Alan O’Dowd (Boy George), Steve Winwood, Dr. Dre, Easy E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella of N.W.A., Bryan Adams, and David Gates.
Nominees for the Non-Performing Songwriters induction included Walter Afanasieff, Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan, Mike Chapman, Sonny Curtis, Tom Douglas, Franne Golde, Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, Roger Nichols, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and Narada Michael Walden.
In 2024, SHOF inducted R.E.M., who reunited and performed a stripped-down version of their 1991 hit “Losing My Religion,” following a performance of their 1987 hit “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by Jason Isbell, who also inducted the band into the SHOF.
[RELATED: R.E.M. Performs for First Time in 17 Years at the 2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame]
Other 2024 inductees included Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, and the late band members Walter Becker, Timbaland, Hillary Lindsey, and Dean Pitchford. Diane Warren was also honored with the Johnny Mercer Award, while SZA received the Hal David Starlight Award.
In the fall of 2024, Rodgers, a 2016 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee. was reelected to serve a third term as chairman of the SHOF.
Along with composing music for film and television, Rodgers’ 50-plus year career spans founding the disco-funk group Chic and producing and writing for Sister Sledge (“We Are Family”), Madonna (Like a Virgin and its title track), “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out” for Diana Ross, David Bowie‘s Let’s Dance, Duran Duran‘s “The Reflex” and “Notorious,” and dozens of more artists, including Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, Laurie Anderson, the B-52s, and Debbie Harry, among others.
“This distinguished organization is one of the most brilliantly responsible groups I’ve ever had the pleasure to just sit amongst,” said Rodgers. “Songwriters are the pillar of the music industry, and we recognize and celebrate these great creators. For this honor, I’m beyond elated.”
Main Photo: The Doobie Brothers, Courtesy of the Songwriters Hall of Fame
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