The greatest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performances of all time, ranked

Back in the day, the concert and jam session held during the annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies were invite-only. Whatever happened on that stage, stayed on the stage, something that only the elite members of the entertainment industry were lucky enough to witness. The advent of cable TV and the internet changed all that, of course, turning the induction ceremony into the reason to pay attention to the proceedings: with all that talent under one roof each year, there was an excellent chance that something interesting would happen.

With the attention directed at the induction ceremony, the proceedings lost some of the shagginess of their early superstar jams, which is both a blessing and a curse. As much fun as it is to witness a surplus of legends on stage during the 1980s and 1990s ceremonies, recent years have benefitted from a clearer sense of focus (not to mention fewer stars onstage). To commemorate the Class of 2022 induction ceremony airing on HBO and HBO Max this weekend, The A.V. Club has selected 30 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performances that conjured a bit of magic or, failing that, a spectacle that was hard to resist.

30. Alicia Keys, Tupac Shakur medley (2017)

When the Rock Hall inducted Tupac Shakur in 2017, Alicia Keys performed a medley of several of his iconic songs—a sequence that included “I Get Around,” “I Ain’t Mad At Cha,” and “Dear Mama”—which helped strip away some of Tupac’s mystique and focused directly on his gifts as a songwriter with an unheralded knack for a melodic hook.