(Credits: Far Out / ajay_suresh)
Thu 19 March 2026 2:00, UK
Madison Square Garden is not dubbed ‘The World’s Most Famous Arena’ for nothing.
Perhaps flexing just a little of that American hubris à la naming your North American baseball championship the World Series, but New York’s Madison Square Garden indeed glows with prestigious stature across sport, music, and events all over the globe. Sitting in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, the renowned arena, home to the city’s Rangers and Knicks ice hockey and basketball teams, has hosted some of America’s most vital cultural memories.
It was the site of Joe Frazier’s stunning boxing victory over Muhammad Ali in 1971’s ‘Fight of the Century’, Wendell Willkie’s massive 40,000-strong Civil Rights address in 1943, and perhaps most iconic, the locale of Marilyn Monroe’s seductive ‘Happy Birthday’ singing to John F Kennedy during his 45th birthday celebration.
While sport reigns supreme in the Garden’s cultural presence, naturally, many of rock and pop’s biggest names have helped form a piece of the arena’s rich heritage and lore, with a select few artists bestowed the honour of their own star on the lauded Walk of Fame.
So, which musicians have graced the Walk of Fame?
The first 25 inductees were all from the sporting field, announced in September 1992, when the Walk of Fame was debuted. It didn’t take long, however, for a music artist to receive an official Madison nod.
Elton John was celebrated on the Walk the next month due to “his many memorable appearances,” a recognition no doubt cherished by the ‘Tiny Dancer’ singer who routinely talks of the venue standing as his favourite he’s ever played, beloved so much he even rearranged his 60th birthday jamboree at the Knicks and Rangers HQ.
A year later, New Jersey songsmith Billy Joel became the second artist to feature their name on the Walk. It was well deserved. To this day, Joel stands as the Garden’s all-time record holder for most shows, counting a hefty 150 concerts between 1978 and 2024. Reportedly, the ‘Piano Man’ himself claimed the Garden “has the best acoustics, the best audiences, the best reputation, and the best history of great artists who have played there. It is the iconic, holy temple of rock and roll for most touring acts.”
Jump to January 1998, and the Walk of Fame honoured its first band. The Garden wasn’t just host to The Rolling Stones for 15-odd shows in their over 60-year career, but was immortalised on 1970’s Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! live album, most of the record captured from the two shows the previous year.
To mark the 35th anniversary of the Concert for Bangladesh benefit show, George Harrison was awarded a slot on the Walk in August 2006 for having raised as much as $15million for Unicef with sitarist Ravi Shankar at the arena, and lastly Grateful Dead got their Madison honours May 2015 several years later than intended due to founding frontman Jerry Garcia’s death a decade earlier, awarded for playing as much as 52 sold-out dates between 1979 and 1994.
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