Rock World Pays Homage to Madonna

Iggy Pop singing Madonna's "Burnin' Up"? If you missed it during last night's induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, consider yourself among the fortunate. The aging rocker (who's 60, but has still got abs of steel—and he went shirtless to prove it) covered both that early Madonna hit as well as her more recent pop pleasure "Ray of Light." The wild performances (which amounted to much yelling and squirming on Pop's part and looks of mostly stunned silence on the Material Girl's part) followed Madonna's receipt of her award, which was presented by Justin Timberlake. The former *NSYNC heartthrob, who is producing her soon-to-be-released album Hard Candy, gave a gushing tribute to the mistress of reinvention, going back into the record-review archives to turn up that famed critique of Madonna's circa-1983 voice, which called it "Minnie Mouse on helium." But she's come a long way since then and her inclusion in the Hall of Fame (in her first year of eligibility no less) is well-deserved. Among the other acts to be enshrined in the Cleveland temple to all things rock were John (not Cougar) Mellencamp, The Sound of Philadelphia's Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble; The Ventures (of "Hawaii Five-O" fame); The David Clark Five; Leonard Cohen; and Little Walter. Held at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, on Park Avenue, the night attracted a bevy of boldface names, including Billy and Katie Lee Joel, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Ed Burns and Christy Turlington, Richard Belzer, two Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" veterans, Chevy Chase and Seth Meyers, a radiant Patti LaBelle, Damien Rice and Tracy Pollan and Michael J. Fox. Next year's ceremony will take place in Cleveland, but for 2008, anyway, it was all about New York. Fitting, considering that this is the city that gave Madonna her start. %%showphotos [setid=72157604097211551]%%