Rush leads fan voting for 2013 Rock Hall of Fame

Canadian progressive-rock band Rush, here getting their handprints set in concrete at Guitar Center in Hollywood, lead fan voting for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction

By Randy Lewis

Nov. 27, 2012 12 AM PT

Rush or Chic? Randy Newman or N.W.A? Music fans have about a week left to let their voices be heard for the first time on who deserves to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.

Fortunately, making a choice between those artists isn’t entirely necessary, considering members of the public can vote for up to five of the performers who made the final ballot for 2013 induction, which will take place for the first time in Los Angeles at the Nokia Theatre on April 18. Voting continues through Monday, Dec. 3.

Other artists in line for possible induction are Deep Purple, Donna Summer, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Heart, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Albert King, Kraftwerk, the Marvelettes, Public Enemy, the Meters and Procol Harum.

The Rock Hall is keeping track of who’s winning the public’s hearts and minds with a running tally of which acts account for the percentage of votes cast. No raw numbers of ballots are shown, but as of Nov. 26, Rush has pulled in nearly a quarter of the votes at 24.3%, followed by Deep Purple at 17.1%. These figures reflect the long-standing complaints of progressive- and hard-rock fans that those genres have been underappreciated by the hall’s voting members. Heart is third with 12.4% of the votes cast.

At the other end of the scale? The three lowest percentages are for the Meters (2.3%), the Marvelettes (1.9%) and Chic (1.4%). The full list of the rankings to date can be viewed here. (Click the “View Results” tab at the bottom of the online ballot.)

Although the public vote could influence the outcome of who is inducted and who isn’t, it will most likely be used only as a tie-breaker. The results will be counted as a single “fans’ ballot” for each of the top five vote-getters, then added to the tallies from ballots cast by more than 600 voting members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Follow Randy Lewis on Twitter: @RandyLewis2