Music by Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac among Grammy Hall of Fame inductees

[November 19, 2015] LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Music by rockers the Grateful Dead and Fleetwood Mac, jazz greats Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong and singers Blondie and Roberta Flack will be enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame, The Recording Academy said on Wednesday.

Grateful Dead's 1970 album "American Beauty," named one of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 greatest albums of all time in 2012, will be inducted after the band ended its 50-year-run this year with a final tour.

Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled record, which includes the hits "Rhiannon" and "Say You Love Me," will also be placed into the music vault, as well as "The Basement Tapes," the 1975 album by Bob Dylan and The Band.

A total of 26 albums and songs across all genres that are at least 25 years old, were selected by a committee put together by the Recording Academy - hosts of the annual Grammy Awards - to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The selected music is considered to have either "qualitative or historical significance."

"These works have influenced and inspired both music creators and fans for generations and we are proud to induct them into our catalog of distinguished recordings," Neil Portnow, president and chief executive officer of the Recording Academy, said in a statement.

Among the jazz and blues inductees this year are "Miles Smiles," the 1967 album by jazz great Miles Davis and his quintet, Roberta Flack's 1969 record "First Take," and Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's collaborative 1956 album "Ella and Louis."

Punk new-wave band Blondie's disco-influenced "Heart of Glass," the song that helped push the band into the mainstream, will also enter the Grammy Hall of Fame, along with Little Eva's 1962 pop song "The Loco-Motion" and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' raucous "I Love Rock 'N Roll."

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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