Country star Cindy Walker to be posthumously inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Country star Cindy Walker will be posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, it was announced Thursday.
Walker, who wrote countless hits across her six-decade career, was celebrated for her immediate, unpretentious songwriting style. She wrote songs performed by some of the biggest names in country music history and beyond, including Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, B.B. King, Cher, and Glen Campbell.
Some hits include “Blue Canadian Rockies,” as made famous by Gene Autry, Bing Crosby’s “Lone Star Trail,” and Roy Orbison’s “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream).”
She died in 2006 at age 87 in Mexia, Texas. That same year, Willie Nelson released a tribute album of covers called “You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker.” Perhaps her best known composition, “You Don’t Know Me,” has been recorded by Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Eddy Arnold, Kenny Rogers, Emmylou Harris and many more.
“This would’ve made her so proud, and the thing that gets me is, when we hear Cindy’s songs she’s still with us,” Molly Walker, Cindy Walker’s niece, said in a statement about the induction. “I can’t tell you how much this would have meant to her and her family.”
Walker will be honored in a tribute at Nashville’s historic Columbia Studio A, separate from the 2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony this June.
This year’s Songwriters Hall of Fame class was previously announced as Steely Dan, R.E.M., Timbaland, Hillary Lindsey and Dean Pitchford. They are a group of artists who have scaled the heights of country, classic rock, pop, hip-hop and alt-rock.
Nashville hitmaker Lindsey helped write “Girl Crush” for Little Big Town and “Jesus, Take the Wheel” for Carrie Underwood. Pitchford, helped Kenny Loggins with the megahit “Footloose” and also co-wrote “Fame” and “Holding Out For a Hero.”
On the ballot but unlucky this year were Public Enemy, Bryan Adams, George Clinton, Tracy Chapman, Blondie, Heart, The Doobie Brothers and David Gates.
Maria Sherman, The Associated Press