Although their names were announced in late 2004, the five inductees to this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will not be awarded their official titles until March 15.

At the Twentieth Annual Induction Ceremony held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, musician Buddy Guy, singer Percy Sledge, R’B group The O’Jays, punk and new wave rockers The Pretenders and U2 will all become alumni of the class of 2005.

An artist becomes eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Also taken into account is the artist’s influence and contribution to the development and continuance of rock and roll.

Buddy Guy is the greatest living example of classic Chicago electric blues. He is a thrillingly inventive guitarist, a passionately soulful singer and a peerless showman. In the course of a 45-year professional career, he has sold more than two million albums; earned four Grammy Awards; and won nineteen W.C. Handy Blues Awards – more than any other artist in history.

Percy Sledge will forever be associated with a tearjerker of a song “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Getting his start as a member of the Southern soul vocal group the Esquires Combo, he went on a whim and sought his own solo career in 1966.

Sledge’s voice made him one of the prime figures of soul in the ’60s and helped him to continue to record at Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama. By the early seventies, however, it became apparent that his commercial success had faded.

In 1989 he was awarded the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Career Achievement Award. He was soon playing more than 100 shows a year well into the ’90s and continues to tour on the road today.

Ohio-based vocal group The O’Jays became stars while recording for the Philadelphia International label in the early ’70s, when they were known for the smooth, Philly soul sound of such tracks as “Love Train” and “Give the People What They Want.”

They are considered one of the most important soul music groups of the past 30 years. Performing a full decade before they received their major break by pairing up with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, The O’Jays have continued to record to this day.

They most recently released “For The Love” a disc that featured the song “Let’s Ride.” In 2004 they signed a contract with Matthew Knowles, a.k.a. Beyonce’s dad, and his Sanctuary Urban Records label.

One of the most successful bands that pioneered the New Wave era will also be inducted this year. Formed in the late 1970s in London, The Pretenders (Martin Chambers, Pete Farndon, James Honeyman-Scott, and Chrissie Hynde) have churned out hits such as “Brass in Pocket” “Talk of The Town,” and “I Go To Sleep.”

Chrissie Hynde was an American girl fed up with the music scene in the States who moved to London, where she became a rock critic. But more importantly, she found what she was looking for musically – England was in the middle of a musical revolution: punk rock.

Hynde became friendly with such up and coming punk rockers as the Sex Pistols and the Clash. By the late ’70s, Hynde had accomplished her goal, as the original Pretenders lineup was in place. Although The Pretenders suffered the deaths of both Farndon and Honeyman-Scott, they journeyed on, and more than meet the requirements to be one of this year’s inductees.

The band on the 2005 induction list that needs no introducing is U2. It’s almost hard to believe these four guys from Dublin, Ireland have been rocking for more than twenty years. The group has found massive hits in their songs “One,” “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” U2’s policy has always been to address complex, compelling social and spiritual issues but still manage to be accessible to the general pop and rock loving audiences.

The band’s recently released record, “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” helped earn them a Grammy for the best rock performance for a duo or group with vocal for “Vertigo.”

While general consensus around campus has shown that The Pretenders and U2 are the only two artists whose names are immediately recognizable by students, anyone who wonders why Keith Richards and Jimmy Page’s guitars wail so beautifully should pick up Buddy Guy ’s “Buddy’s Baddest: The Best of Buddy Guy.” R’B lovers will hear who the inspiration for many of today’s biggest artists on “The Ultimate O’Jays” or Sledge’s soulful, sultry “It Tears Me Up: The Best of Percy Sledge.”