Gary Haber
Rock and roll has long been one of Maury Dean’s passions.
Dean, a musician, author, and professor emeritus at Suffolk Community College, has spent a lot of time thinking about “who else deserves to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?”
The result is Dean’s 1,018-page book, “Rock the Hall: 123 + Greatest Rock Hall Recommendations” ($29.95), published in November by Blue Point-based Maxwell Hunter Publishing.
It took the Patchogue resident more than a year to do the research and write the book.
Dean, who turned 82 in December, jokes that he started off with a list of “8 billion” candidates, which he narrowed down to 123 or so Hall-worthy performers.
The list includes surf music idols Jan & Dean, The Pointer Sisters, Bryan Adams, “Weird Al” Yankovic, 1960s hitmaker Bobby Vee (“Take Good Care of My Baby”) and Huntington’s Mariah Carey, who didn’t make the cut in 2024, the first year she was eligible.
Dean’s list is sure to spark debate among music fans.
Music is something that Dean, who calls himself “a rock and roll traditionalist,” has long been passionate about.
Dean, who holds a doctorate in English from the University of Michigan, taught a course on the history of rock and roll at Suffolk Community College and at Monroe Community College in Michigan and Miami-Dade Community College in Florida.
As an undergraduate at Michigan State University—where he met his future wife, Toni—Dean played rhythm guitar and was lead singer with a group called The Night Shift, which recorded a single for Detroit’s Fortune Records.
Of the six previous books Dean has written, several have been about music, including his first book, “The Rock Revolution” (1966), and one about Buddy Holly called “This’ll Be the Day: The Life and Legacy of Buddy Holly (2009).”
“In essence, I’ve been writing this book [about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame] my entire life,” Dean said.
Dean’s son Jeremy, a Patchogue-Medford High School grad, carries on the love for music. He plays keyboards in the band Nine Days, which had the hit “Absolutely: Story of a Girl.” Jeremy, who is also a graphic artist, designed the cover for Dean’s latest book.
Some of Dean’s other books have been about his other varied interests, including the Detroit Tigers (he grew up in Detroit and in Dearborn, Mich.) and running (he still competes in 5K races.) Dean’s book on running on Long Island, “Glory Days: Still Running Against the Wind,” was published in 2021.
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