Vote Kiss, Vote Genesis, Vote Stooges

The voters for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can calm a lot of people by doing the right thing and just pulling the lever for Kiss, Genesis and the Stooges.

Coming from entirely different genres, they've been among the three bands people have bitched the most about not being in.

Kiss, in its 10th year of eligibility, finally got a nomination yesterday from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation along with other first-timers Genesis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Hollies, LL Cool J and Jimmy Cliff.

The Stooges are returning candidates, with ABBA, the Chantels, Darlene Love, Laura Nyro and Donna Summer.

When Kiss was snubbed for yet another year in 2008, Gene Simmons said during a speech at the Billboard Touring Conference, "There are disco bands, rap bands, Yiddish folk song bands in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, but not Kiss. I believe we have more gold records in America than any other group, but it's OK."

Simmons, soon to be honored by a Mr. Potato Head, is right about this one. Kiss deserves to be in for taking Alice Cooper's shtick to a new level. And Alice Cooper deserves to be in for something up with that shtick in the first place - although his current politics are a bit frowned upon by the liberal foundation.

Genesis, led by the brilliant Peter Gabriel, was another band grossly overlooked by the Hall of Fame, to the point where an online petition was circulating.

If the Stooges can just squeak in, with the Chili Peppers, what will be quite the rocking induction.

The nominees were announced yesterday by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. The 500 or so music industry insiders will vote on which five will be inducted March 15 at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. It will be announced in January.