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Stax songwriter/guitarist Steve Cropper, pop star and West Tennessee native Tina Turner, blues great Charlie Musselwhite, soul songwriter/producer Dan Penn and hitmaking house band the Memphis Boys are among the 2019 class for the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. 

The 2019 class was announced Wednesday during a press event at Lafayette’s Music Room in Overton Square. Also set to be enshrined are Hi Records soul singer/songsmith Don Bryant, jazz and Broadway great Dee Dee Bridgewater, and operatic soprano Madame Florence Cole Talbert McCleave. 

Now in its eighth year, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame — operated by the Smithsonian-branded Memphis Rock and Soul Museum — is up to 84 members, a roll call that features local and international icons from B.B. King to Elvis Presley to Justin Timberlake. Ceremonies for Memphis Music Hall of Fame will take place Nov. 8 at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts. 

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This year’s class represents a cross-section of artists across genres and generations.

Although a global pop star, Tina Turner began her life as Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, before launching her career under the auspices of her former husband Ike Turner in the late-1950s. Turner — who lives in Switzerland — will unveil a new Broadway production focused on her life and career, “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” in New York City the night before the Hall of Fame ceremonies. 

Already a Memphis Music Hall of Fame member as part of Booker T. & the MGs, Steve Cropper —  a songwriter, guitarist and producer — remains one of the most influential figures in Memphis music, as one of the foundational figures of figures of Stax Records and the co-author of classics like “Knock on Wood,” “In the Midnight Hour,” and “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” 

Also inducted will be the Memphis Boys, the legendary session band at American Sound Studios, featuring guitarist Reggie Young, drummer Gene Chrisman, pianist Bobby Wood, organist Bobby Emmons and bassists Mike Leech and Tommy Cogbill. Between 1967 and 1972, the Memphis Boys — led by producer and 2016 Memphis Music Hall of Famer Chips Moman — would cut 122 chart records, an unmatched achievement. This included records for the Box Tops (“Cry Like a Baby”), Dusty Springfield (“Son of a Preacher Man”), Neil Diamond (“Sweet Caroline”), B.J. Thomas (“Hooked on a Feeling”), Bobby Womack (“Fly Me To The Moon”) and, most famously, Elvis Presley (“Suspicious Minds”). Surviving Memphis Boys members Chrisman and Wood will accept the honor. 

A fellow American Studios alum, Dan Penn will also be inducted. The Alabama native would exert a crucial influence in the history of both Muscle Shoals and Memphis soul, as the author of such classics as “I’m Your Puppet,” “Dark End of The Street,” “A Woman Left Lonely” and “Do Right Woman.” Penn’s songs have been cut by everyone from Aretha Franklin to Janis Joplin, Conway Twitty to Percy Sledge and many others. His productions for the Box Tops — including “The Letter” and “Cry Like a Baby” — remain among the biggest pop hits of the 1960s and songs to be cut in Memphis. 

Hi Records’ ace songwriter and performer Don Bryant, gained his first fame with Hi Records impresario Willie Mitchell, singing for his band and signing to Hi as a solo artist. Bryant eventually moved behind the scenes, working as a songwriter at Hi and for artists such as Solomon Burke, Albert King and Etta James. In 1970, Bryant would find love and his biggest commercial success, when Mitchell partnered him up with Hi ingénue Ann Peebles. The couple married in 1974 and Bryant wrote or co-wrote many of Peebles’ signature hits, including “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” “99 Pounds” and “Do I Need You.” Over the last few years, Bryant has resumed his performing career with a widely-hailed comeback album, “Don’t Give Up on Love.” He will join Peebles in the Hall, the first couple to be so enshrined. 

A winner of seven Grammys, more than 30 Blues Music Awards and already member of the Blues Music Hall of Fame, Mississippi-born, Memphis-raised Charlie Musselwhite will add to his honors with his Memphis Music Hall of Fame induction. Musselwhite, who began his career as part of the mid-’60s blues renaissance, continues to make compelling music, including a pair of award-winning albums with Ben Harper over the past few years.  

A Grammy-winning singer, Tony-winning stage performer, and Memphis native, Dee Bridgewater’s four-decade career has seen her perform with giants like Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie, earn acclaim for her performances as Billie Holiday and in “The Wiz.” For her upcoming album, a tribute to the music of the Bluff City, “Memphis… Yes, I’m Ready,” Bridgewater recorded with local Kirk Whalum at Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studios. 

Pioneering opera singer Florence Cole Talbert McCleave was known as “The First Lady of Grand Opera” and “Queen of the Concert Stage.” The late McCleave (1890-1961) would blaze a trail in the classical world as the first African-American woman and opera singer to perform abroad and receive critical acclaim. McCleave, who settled in Memphis, ran an operatic studio in the city, co-founded the Memphis Music Association and brought world-famous opera icons to perform at LeMoyne-Owen College. Opera Memphis recently announced the McCleave Project, an initiative to engage with minority communities. 

Tickets for the Memphis Music Hall of Fame ceremonies are $50 or $100 for VIP passes. Tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets or ticketmaster.com.  

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