Steven Tyler, Billy Joel Among Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductees

The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted another batch of legends last night, as it welcomed Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner, Holly Knight, JD Souther and Tony Hatch. According to Billboard, the ceremony was packed with stars there to celebrate the introduction of these musical titans.

Sting, Billy Joel and Smokey Robinson all performed at the ceremony, giving renditions of numbers made famous by the likes of Elton John and Foreigner.

Elton John and his writing partner, Bernie Taupin, received the legendary Johnny Mercer Award. John began the night strongly with a performance of his own, singing 'Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting.'

Elton John was inducted to the Hall in 1992 and he remarked that songwriting is often taken for granted. He said 'I don't mean this lightly, but when you get an Ivor Novello award or an American songwriter's award, it means so much more than a Grammy because this is where the whole process starts'

Joel introduced Jones and Gramm who performed Foreigner's hits like 'Juke Box Hero' and 'I Want to Know What Love Is.' The crowd arose out of their seats and sang along to the songs. The hits had the black and tie affair singing and swaying along to the beats. Anthony Morgan's Inspirational Choir of Harlem lended their talents to Jones and Gramm as well.

Petula Clark came on stage and sang her hit 'Downtown' which was written by Hatch and also produced by him as well. Hatch took to the piano to sing other songs he wrote, including "My Love" and Bobby Rydell's "Forget Him."

He took the time to make jokes about Universal Publishing as well, saying "I hope that plug will get me more royalties in the future," he said. "I'm still under those 1966 contracts."

Nickelback took to the stage to pay tribute to Aerosmith, perfoming their hit 'Sweet Emotion' which was followed by the legends themselves getting on stage to sing 'Walk This Way.'

This was followed by renditions of hits written by Holly Knight which include the legendary hit "Love is a Battlefield' by Pat Benatar.

Smokey Robinson gave a 15 minute introduction speech to Berry Gordy where he explained how he was recovering from inflammed vocal cords. He then gave a heartful performance of part of the song he wrote abou Gordy who he calls his brother, mentor and best friend.

Benny Blanco, a young and up and coming songwriter, receieved the Hal David Starlight Award. He would say 'They picked the wrong person...I'm in a room with people I should probably be serving food to."

A video message from President Bill Clinton was included with the President saying how important Sam Cooke was. He emphasized how imporant Cooke's 'A Change is Gonna Come' was during the Civil Rights Movement.

It paid tribute to those that had died in the past year including Hal David and Phil Ramone

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