The House That Rock Built: How it Took Time, Money, Music Moguls, Corporate Types, Politicians, Media, Artists, and Fans To Bring the Rock Hall To Cleveland

by Norm N. Nite, Stevie Van Zandt (Foreword by), Tom Feran

Overview

The behind-the-scenes battle for the Rock Hall

For 25 years, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has defined Cleveland’s image as the “Rock and Roll Capital of the World.” But while the Rock Hall has become an iconic landmark for the city of Cleveland and for fans of rock and roll around the world, it was just one missed phone call away from never being built in Cleveland. If the prominent singer and actress Lesley Gore hadn’t contacted radio personality Norm N. Nite in August 1983, the Hall of Fame would not be in Cleveland—period.

Earlier that summer, Gore had learned that the newly formed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was looking for a city to house their planned museum honoring the history of rock. Gore knew that a year earlier, Nite had pitched an idea for a similar museum, so she reached out to let him know that other figures in the music industry were working to turn his dream into a reality.

Nite immediately joined the project’s Rules and Nominating Committee and spearheaded the campaign to bring the museum to Cleveland. At the time, the search committee was considering several other cities, including Memphis, Detroit, and New York, but Nite argued that the city’s deep historical connection to rock music through Alan Freed and the Moondog Coronation Ball made Cleveland the perfect location. He began lobbying local and state politicians, fundraising with music moguls and civic leaders, and promoting the museum to the broader Cleveland public. As fans got involved, especially with their overwhelming response to a USA Today phone poll, Nite’s campaign to bring the Hall to Cleveland was ultimately successful.

This book, told from Nite’s insider perspective, draws on both first-person accounts and exclusive interviews with influential business leaders, government officials, and giants of the music industry. A detailed record of the Rock Hall’s inception and creation, The House That Rock Built becomes a true tribute to the people who made it happen—through Herculean efforts—and to the music it celebrates.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606353998
Publisher:	Kent State University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	667,796
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Norm N. Nite is a legendary broadcaster, disc jockey, and impresario known by many as “Mr. Music” for his extensive knowledge of music history and popular culture. Nite hosted over half a dozen radio shows in New York and Cleveland during his six-decade-long career, including a SiriusXM radio show broadcast live from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He has also chronicled the history of rock and roll music in his Rock On encyclopedias.

Tom Feran is an award-winning journalist who worked as a writer and editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for 37 years. Beginning in 1982, Feran worked as the paper’s features editor, TV critic, Sunday magazine editor, columnist, PolitiFact writer, assistant metro editor, and metro reporter. He was named Best Columnist in Ohio by the Society of Professional Journalists in 2007.

Stevie Van Zandt is an American singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actor, and activist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.

Editorial Reviews

"Nite has remained the unsung hero of the Rock and Roll Hall of fame for the last quarter-century, but his new book The House That Rock Built (which he wrote with Plain Dealer journalist Tom Feran) should change that. For the first time, it tells the complete story of how a fading Rust Belt city managed to outmaneuver heavyweight towns like Chicago, Nashville, and Los Angeles to land the Hall of Fame, which has been the top tourist attraction in the state ever since it opened. The House That Rock Built traces the saga through every twist and turn, packed with details that have never appeared anywhere else." —Rolling Stone

"Norm N. Nite was there at the very, very beginning of the Hall of Fame's courtship with Cleveland and the long saga of turning the dream into a reality. We are lucky to have his very special history of this unique institution." —Jann Wenner, Editor and Founder, Rolling Stone

“This informative and entertaining read will likely become the definitive volume on this important cultural center’s formation.”—Library Journal

“When histories are written, seldom are we fortunate enough to have them done by someone who was there for the duration. Not only was Norm N. Nite present, he was the catalyst who recognized the need for a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum long before it was birthed. He led the charge and was a one-man band for both the Museum and Cleveland. Few would disagree that there would be no Rock Hall in Cleveland without him. No one is more qualified for this task than the pop music authority/writer/DJ/artist known to us all as Mr. Music, Norm N. Nite.” —Terry Stewart, former CEO (1999-2012), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

“The history of rock and roll is a wild ’n’ woolly tale—and no less action-packed is this deep-dive story of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s materialization from a dream to a reality in Cleveland. Colorful characters and backroom deals abound, and rock-and-roll authority, DJ, and author Norm N. Nite’s firsthand account is filled with detail and personality.”—Holly George-Warren, author of Janis: Her Life and Music

From the Publisher

07/01/2020

Rock historian and radio host Nite (Rock On Almanac) and journalist Feran affectionately outline the history of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, from a spark of an idea in 1983 to the cities that vied for the right to house it to construction to its opening in 1995 in Cleveland and its evolution since. A native Clevelander and integrally involved with this project from its inception, Nite is the ideal narrator for a suspenseful yet inspiring tale filled with outsize figures such as Atlantic Records executive Ahmet Ertegun, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, architect I.M. Pei, and the politicians of Ohio who combined enthusiasm with realism re: financial support. Nite has done exhaustive research and includes extensive interviews, sidebars explaining some of the cast of characters, and exceptional contemporary photographs ranging from the mid-1950s to the present. A foreword from rocker Stevie Van Zandt, of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, adds interest. VERDICT This informative and entertaining read will likely become the definitive volume on this important cultural center's formation, and is a worthy companion to stand beside Nick Talevski's useful if dated The Unofficial Encyclopedia of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.—Barry Zaslow, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

Library Journal

2020-06-06
The beat goes on—and on and on—in this history of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Why should Cleveland be the home of the world’s chief museum devoted to rock music? As Nite, a veteran DJ and broadcaster, and Feran, who worked for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for nearly 40 years, observe, it was the home base of Alan Freed, who introduced the term “rock and roll” to a broad audience in the 1950s before falling afoul of the censors. Freed “championed the music so vigorously he became its personification and was called its father,” and the international syndication of Freed’s show and others out of Cleveland introduced the sound to radio listeners such as Ringo Starr, who remembers “hearing Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis for the first time.” In a mixture of keepsake volume and business history, the authors painstakingly—and repetitively—chart the course that brought the museum to Cleveland. The initial driving force was record-industry mogul Ahmet Ertegun, who, allied with other music insiders, established the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and enlisted support for the endeavor. Another important figure was the fiscally conservative mayor George Voinovich, who “seemed an unlikely champion” but recognized that investing in the venue would bring much-needed income to the city. The authors calculate that the nearly 12 million visitors have brought $127 million per year to the city and its businesses. Much of the narrative is cut-and-dried, but there are some standout moments (other than the many photos), such as Sam Phillips’ anger that the museum would not be located in Memphis and Chuck Berry’s deliberate sabotaging of the first concert to be staged at the Hall. As guitarist Nils Lofgren recounts, “He shifts keys four or five times; I can only imagine to mess with us. I can’t imagine why else this happened.”

A middling rock history that will be a boon to Cleveland boosters and rock completists.

Kirkus Reviews