And the Grammy (should have) gone to ...
Scattered applause, crowd murmurs and — undeniably — a few boos.
When Alice Cooper announced that Jethro Tull’s album Crest of a Knave had won the Grammy for best hard rock/metal performance vocal or instrumental, the audience at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium on Feb. 22, 1989, had a decidedly mixed reaction. Many people thought the flute-driven prog rockers should not have even been in the hard rock/metal category, and the Grammy should have gone to Metallica for its groundbreaking metal album And Justice for All.
That’s an extreme example of how the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences occasionally sends people to the podium who maybe shouldn’t be there, sometimes ignoring innovative musicians and works that changed the direction of music.
So, with the benefit of hindsight and the passage of time, here are a few other debatable choices, specifically for album of the year:
1959
Frank Sinatra took a swing and a hit with Come Dance with Me!, another in a long line of his classic standard albums for the Capitol label. But, the most influential album released that year was Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, the consensus pick among critics and musicians as THE essential jazz record. The best-selling jazz album of all time,
Kind of Blue wasn’t even nominated for the top Grammy.
1963
Vaughn Meader was a musician turned comedian who made his mark impersonating then U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Meader’s comedy album The First
Family, recorded in 1962, was awarded the Grammy in May 1963, about six months before Kennedy was assassinated. Other nominees that year included jazz singer Tony Bennett for his career-defining album I Left My Heart in San Francisco, as well as Ray Charles for his punchy R & B-flavoured Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.
1967
Sinatra won his third and final top-album Grammy for A Man and
His Music, a retrospective double album where he re-recorded previous hits for his latest record label. The Beatles were nominated that year for Revolver, one of rock’s most influential and acclaimed albums. Speaking of which, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde weren’t even nominated for top album.
1970
Tough luck again for the Fab Four. The Beatles’ final studio masterpiece, Abbey Road, was nominated but lost to Blood, Sweat & Tears. Their self-titled second album contained the hits And When I Die, Spinning Wheel and You’ve Made Me So Very Happy. Good tunes, but
not Come Together, Here Comes the Sun or Something.
1972
Looks like 1971 was a pretty good year for music. Top album went to Carole King’s Tapestry, a template for confessional singer-songwriters. Great album, still beloved today. But two other classic albums weren’t nominated: Joni Mitchell’s
Blue (see comment about template for confessional singer-songwriters) and Marvin Gaye’s What’s
Going On, his heartfelt take on the state of the world at that time.
1973
Like Live Aid 14 years after it, George Harrison & Friends’ Concert for Bangladesh brought together musicians (including Dylan, Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr) for a cause. The triple live album was an event at the time, but a few releases that weren’t nominated have gathered accolades over the years: Exile on Main
Street by the Rolling Stones and
David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders
From Mars. Not to mention Led Zeppelin’s untitled fourth album, which was released in November 1971. Zep were never nominated for album of the year.
1981
It was smooth sailing for Christopher Cross, as his selftitled debut won five Grammys, including album of the year. Pink Floyd’s isolationist masterpiece
The Wall was at least nominated, but the Clash’s diverse double album London Calling didn’t get called.
1985
Lionel Richie took on all comers with Can’t Slow Down, and he knocked out some heavyweights. Also nominated for top album from 1984: Tina Turner (Private
Dancer), Prince (Purple Rain) and Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A.)
1992
Natalie Cole’s tribute to her late father, Unforgettable with Love, won over academy voters. The album featured gorgeous arrangements of standards made famous by Nat King Cole, as well as a duet with him, thanks to some high-tech editing. On the flip side: Nirvana’s now revered Nevermind wasn’t nominated for top album and even lost in the alternative album category to R.E.M. for Out of Time.
1997
Celine Dion’s Falling Into You, which contained the hits It’s All Coming Back To Me Now and Because You Loved Me, took the top prize. Two alt-rock classic releases were also nominated that year: Odelay by Beck and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins.
1998
Dylan’s sombre exploration of mortality, Time Out of Mind, got the big prize and it holds up today. But in retrospect, Radiohead’s modern-world opus OK Computer was more revolutionary and influential.
2001
How you felt about the 2001 awards probably depended on how old you were. The Grammy went to jazz-rock icons Steely Dan for Two Against Nature. Many felt the award should have gone to Eminem for his autobiographical hip-hop album The Marshall Mathers LP, or Radiohead for Kid A. Both were nominated.
2005
The academy made 1963 up to Charles, giving him top billing for his collaborative effort Genius
Loves Company. Green Day’s punk opera American Idiot was a fellow nominee, as was hip-hop lightning rod Kanye West for his debut The College Dropout. This year’s Grammys take place Feb. 12 in Los Angeles.