Too Much of a Good Thing? : This year’s Rock Hall of Fame ballot boasts a strong lineup, from Allmans to Zep, but it may mean some worthy artists get passed over again.

There’s a logjam at the entrance to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

For the first time in the foundation’s 10-year history, there are more deserving artists--including Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin and Neil Young--on the Hall of Fame ballot than can be inducted under the rules.

On one hand, that’s good news. The hall’s voting process has often been criticized for turning to secondary artists--such as the Four Seasons and the Platters--to fill the annual quota of seven. Why? The more stars at the induction banquet the better.

But the flood of candidates this time presents its own hazard. If the 600 voting record executives, musicians and critics skipped over such landmark acts as Joni Mitchell and the Velvet Underground last year when the competition was less intense, they could very well look past these essential artists again.

Of the 15 names on this year’s ballots, 10 made the kind of invaluable contributions to the evolution of rock that merit Hall of Fame recognition. But the difference between those 10 acts--in terms of artistic excellence, chiefly, but also influence and longevity--is sometimes substantial.

Under hall rules, artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first record, so artists who began their careers in 1969 are now eligible. The seven winners are expected to be announced shortly with induction ceremonies scheduled for Jan. 12 in New York.

Here is a personal ranking of the nominees.

1. Neil Young-- Three Top 40 singles as a solo artist, including 1972’s “Heart of Gold,” plus 19 Top 40 solo albums stretching from 1969’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” to the current “Sleeps With Angels.” First year of eligibility as a solo artist.

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Young is a restless, independent spirit who fearlessly follows his most radical instincts, whether it leads him to moments of delicate introspection or unrelenting sonic assault. He has been cited by today’s young alternative rockers--from Sonic Youth to Pearl Jam--as more of an influence than Bob Dylan. Young’s recent “Sleeps With Angels” is an album of the year contender. Who else in rock has shown that kind of creative vitality after 25 years?

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2. Joni Mitchell-- Four Top 40 singles, including “Help Me” and “Big Yellow Taxi” in 1974, plus 12 Top 40 albums, including 1971’s “Blue” and 1974’s “Court and Spark.” Second year of eligibility.

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The failure of the Hall of Fame judges to induct Mitchell during her first year of eligibility in 1993 was as big an embarrassment as overlooking Bob Marley a few years back. Hailed as an influence by artists as diverse as Prince and alternative rock hero Paul Westerberg, Mitchell--whose new “Turbulent Indigo” album is one of the year’s strongest works--is a unique voice of the modern pop era. She is a master of musical textures who rivals Dylan for literary sensibility and the ability to examine relationships with an uncompromising eye.

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3. Led Zeppelin-- Six Top 40 singles, including 1969’s “Whole Lotta Love” and 1971’s “Black Dog,” plus 11 Top 40 albums, including eight Top 5 sellers in a row between 1969’s “Led Zeppelin II” and 1979’s “In Through the Out Door.” First year of eligibility.

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This British band was beaten up by critics because its songs lacked the revelation or craft, lyrically, that you expect of a world-class group. But there’s no denying the quartet’s influence on everyone from Jane’s Addiction to Soundgarden. Zeppelin’s legacy is its focus on the sheer exhilaration of music; its aggression and assault are all the more striking because of occasional moments of tenderness and beauty.

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4. Janis Joplin-- Just one Top 40 single--1971’s “Me and Bobby McGee”--and four Top 40 albums as a solo artist, but she had another Top 40 single--1968’s “Piece of My Heart”--and a Top 40 album as a member of Big Brother & the Holding Company. First year of eligibility as a solo artist.

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Joplin, who died of a heroin overdose in 1970 at the age of 27, may have been the most undisciplined artist ever to achieve superstar status in rock. Despite neither the vocal purity of Chrissie Hynde nor the revolutionary songwriting vision of Patti Smith, Joplin still stands as rock’s most captivating female performer. The blues-rocker’s weapon was pure passion. She sang with such intensity and abandon that you felt as if she was giving you a piece of her heart every time she stepped on stage.

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5. Velvet Underground-- No Top 40 singles or Top 100 albums until “VU,” a collection of previously unreleased material, broke into the album charts in 1985, more than a dozen years after the band called it quits. Fourth year of eligibility.

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You might be able to forgive the Hall of Fame voters for passing over this group once, but it’s a disgrace when it happens three times. One reason may be that the Velvets never had a Top 40 hit. Another is the voters may be waiting to honor Lou Reed, the group’s key member, when he becomes eligible as a solo artist in 1997. That’s faulty thinking. Hall of Fame membership should be based on creative contribution, not sales--and the influence of the Velvets’ studies in social realism on ‘80s and ‘90s bands stands independent of Reed’s later works.

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6. Al Green-- Fourteen Top 40 singles, from 1971’s “Tired of Being Alone” through 1988’s duet with Annie Lennox on “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” and eight Top 40 albums, notably 1972’s “Let’s Stay Together” and “I’m Still in Love With You.” First year of eligibility.

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Here’s a superb singer and performer who rates with Hall of Fame members Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding as one of the all-time great soul artists. His streak of ‘70s hits with producer Willie Mitchell at Hi Records in Memphis had some of the most consistently soulful music ever recorded.

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7. Parliament-Funkadelic-- Parliament and Funkadelic, collectively, have registered three Top 40 singles--including Parliament’s 1976 “Tear the Roof Off the Sucker” and Funkadelic’s 1978 “One Nation Under a Groove”--and eight Top 40 albums .

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Like the Velvet Underground, the importance of George Clinton’s funk empire may rest as much in its influence as in its actual recordings. Not only did the free-form excursions into R&B;, blues and jazz inspire everyone from Prince to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but they provided an invaluable foundation for much of the music and bravado in today’s most commanding rap.

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8. The Allman Brothers Band-- Only three Top 40 singles, including 1973’s “Ramblin’ Man,” but eight Top 40 albums, including 1972’s “Eat a Peach” and 1973’s “Brothers and Sisters.” First year of eligibility.

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When most rock bands break into a five-minute instrumental passage, it’s time to head to the rest room. When the Allman Brothers did it during the group’s peak years, you were talking magic. Building its Southern blues-rock sound around the twin guitars of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts and the twin percussion of Butch Trucks and Jai Johnny Johnson, the Allmans were matched only by the Band for pure musical celebration. Of all the “what ifs” in rock, one of the most interesting is what they might have done if Duane Allman hadn’t been killed in a 1971 motorcycle accident.

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9. Frank Zappa-- Only one Top 40 single (1982’s “Valley Girl,” featuring daughter Moon Unit Zappa), but nine Top 40 albums, including 1968’s “We’re Only in It for the Money” and 1975’s “One Size Fits All.” Second year of eligibility as a solo artist.

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Zappa, who died last year, was a wonderfully subversive influence in pop--someone whose refusal to accept the conventional limited his sales potential, but kept his music inventive and fresh. His work with the Mothers of Invention was as revolutionary as Dylan’s words or Hendrix’s guitar.

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10. The Jackson 5-- Eleven Top 10 singles, starting with “I Want You Back” in 1969, plus 14 Top 40 albums, stretching from “Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5” in 1970 to “Victory” in 1984. Second year of eligibility.

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It was a surprise to see the Jackson 5 passed over last year, but the voters must be looking to 1996 when Michael Jackson becomes eligible as a solo artist. With his brothers in the early ‘70s, however, Michael sang with such youthful yearning and self-affirmation that those records remain wonderfully disarming.

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11. Buffalo Springfield-- One Top 40 single, 1967’s “For What It’s Worth,” plus three Top 50 albums, including “Buffalo Springfield” and “Buffalo Springfield Again” (both 1967). Fourth year of eligibility.

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The group, which included Neil Young and Stephen Stills, qualifies for the Hall of Fame on the basis of creativity and influence, but longevity is a problem. Though the group signaled a generational change almost as vividly as such other Los Angeles bands as the Byrds and the Doors, it broke up after just two years.

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12. Jefferson Airplane-- Two Top 40 singles (1967’s “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit”) as the Airplane, plus 15 Top 40 singles in various Starship formations. Nine Top 40 Airplane albums. Fourth year of eligibility.

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There was a time in the ‘60s when the Airplane’s psychedelic flight seemed as much at the center of the rock experience as Cream or the Doors, both of whom have been voted into the Hall of Fame. But the music’s staying power was surprisingly short and none of the Starship efforts matter.

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13. Little Willie John-- Four Top 40 pop singles, notably 1956’s “Fever,” and 14 Top 20 R&B; hits. Tenth year of eligibility.

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A distinctive stylist whose career was sabotaged by personal problems, including a manslaughter conviction. He died in prison in 1968 at the age of 30.

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14. The Shirelles-- Twelve Top 40 singles, including 1960’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” and “Dedicated to the One I Love,” and one Top 40 album, a 1963 greatest hits package. Tenth year of eligibility.

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Another case of a group that made a valuable contribution to a rock ‘n’ roll genre--and outfits have made it into the Hall of Fame for less (the Four Seasons). But the Hall of Fame is still a stretch.

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15. Martha & the Vandellas-- Twelve Top 40 singles, including 1963’s ‘Quicksand” and 1964’s “Dancing in the Street,” but no Top 20 albums. Seventh year of eligibility.

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Some great records, but they operated in the shadow of all the other great Motown acts, where they still remain.*