Really though. Some seriously interesting stuff you can do with this site. I don’t think the information is 100% complete, but it’s way more complete than I could do if you paid me and gave me 3 months to research.
Since George is the common thread to most of the major releases, I clicked on his entry. From there you’re able to look at every instance of another person collaborating with him on a song. Adding up playing and composing, the most frequent collaborators with George are:
Bernie Worrell 346
Bootsy Collins 298
Garry Shider 278
Eddie Hazel 156
Maceo Parker 108
Ray Davis 103
Fred Wesley 101
Gary Cooper 99
Cordell Mosson 94
Billy Nelson 80
Michael Hampton 78
Tiki Fulwood 74
Richard Griffith 69
Robert Johnson 68
David Spradley 67
Tracey Lewis 64
Junie Morrison 63
Fuzzy Haskins 61
Calvin Simon 61
Rick Gardner 61
Glen Goins 60
DeWayne McKnight 57
Jerome Brailey 50
Tyrone Lampkin 47
Jeanette Washington 42
Lige Curry 37
Dawn Silva 37
Grady Thomas 36
Michael Payne 35
Phelps Collins 33
Rodney Mills 33
Ron Dunbar 33
Belita Woods 30
Rodney Curtis 30
Andre Williams 30
Ron Ford 30
(HOF members bolded)
So at first glance, it looks like the HOF selection committee did a really good job selecting the most prominent members, just based on their frequency of collaborating with George. The lowest on the list are Jerome, who placed 23rd, and Grady at 28th (and of course, who should expect the inductions to perfectly match the order on this list?)
On the other hand, Maceo, Fred and Mudbone, as I suspected, may be deserving of inclusion with the other 16. At 5th, 7th and 8th on a list where the rest of the top-12 made it, I think they’ve put in the time.