The Police, the Clash, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, and Cheap Trick head the 2003 class of newly eligible, first-time artists for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In all, there are 44 artists eligible for the first time. To become newly eligible, an artist had to have first recorded 25 years ago (1978). Others eligible for the first time are Beausoleil, Black Uhuru, Karla Bonoff, the Boomtown Rats, Buzzcocks, Cameo, Marshall Chapman, Clifton Chenier, Chic, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Dead Boys, Dixie Dregs, Ian Dury, Joe Ely, Foreigner, Generation X (with Billy Idol), the Germs, Robert Gordon, the Heartbreakers (with Johnny Thunders), Nona Hendryx, the Jam, Evelyn "Champaigne" King, Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins, Mink Deville, Eddie Money, the Motors, Motorhead, Teddy Pendergrass, the Romantics, the Rumour, Shalamar, the Soft Boys, Squeeze, the Stranglers, Stuff, Suicide, Wire, and XTC. Costello is actually eligible twice as a first timer as a solo artist and with his group, Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Precedence was established when Patti Smith and the Patti Smith Group were previously nominated. The solo Smith made the final ballot twice but was never enshrined. Pop, meanwhile, was previously nominated as a member of the Stooges, which made the final ballot in 1997 and 1998 but also failed to enter the Hall of Fame. Both LaBelle and Hendryx were members of LaBelle; Pendergrass was a member of Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes; all three went solo in 1978. Loggins was part of Loggins & Messina, who have never been nominated. -- Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen