24th Annual Grammy Awards 1982

The Grammy Awards held their 24th annual ceremony February 24, 1982, and showcased the best in music, and what a celebration.  Of course, this was my decade of music (also the 70s), so many of my favorites took home awards.   Some of the best music ever!

Kim Carnes won Record of the Year and Song of the Year for her cover of Bette Davis Eyes.

My girls, the Pointer Sisters presented Best New Artist to Sheena Easton.

John Williams won Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special for his composition of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Dolly Parton's song 9 to 5 won Best Country Vocal Performance, Female and Best Country Song.

The Oak Ridge Boys won Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for their song Elvira.

Ella Fitzgerald won Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female for her Digital III at Montreux.

The Manhattan Transfer won Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group for Until I Met You (Corner Pocket).  They also won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with vocal for their The Boy from New York City.

Bill Withers and Grover Washington, Jr. won Best Rhythm & Blues Song for Just the Two of Us.

Pat Benatar won Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for Fire and Ice.

The Police won two Grammys: Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for Don't Stand So Close To Me.  Best Rock Instrumental Performance for Behind My Camel.

Quincy Jones won a total of five Grammys: Best Instrumental Arrangement;  Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) for Ai No Corrida; Best Cast Show Album; Producer of the Year; Best R&B Performance by a Due or Group with Vocal.

Music doesn't get much better than this.

5th Grammy Awards held 1963

May 15, 1963 was a busy day.  Not only was Gordon Cooper launched in Faith 7 on the Mercury-Atlas 9 mission, but the fifth annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held.

Tony Bennett won three awards.  Tony won Record of the Year, Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male, and Best Background Arrangement for his recording of I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

Henry Mancini won Best Instrumental Arrangement for Baby Elephant Walk, and Best Engineering Contribution - Other Than Novelty and Other Than Classical for engineer Al Schmitt for Hatari!, for which Mancini wrote the music.

Ella Fitzgerald won Best Solo Vocal Performance, Female for Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson.

Ray Charles won Best Rhythm & Blues Recording for I Can't Stop Loving You.

Alley Cat by Bent Fabric won Best Rock and Roll Recording.

The Manhattan Transfer wins two Grammys for "Birdland" 1981

Manhattan Transfer's performance of Birdland received two Grammy Awards at the 23rd annual ceremony held February 25, 1981.  Janis Siegel won the award for Best Arrangement of Voices.  Manhattan Transfer won for Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal or Instrumental. 

John Williams also took home two awards for his composition for The Empire Strikes Back: Best Instrumental Composition and Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special. 

Pat Benatar won her first Grammy for her album Crimes of Passion.  She received the Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.

Ella Fitzgerald won her 10th Grammy that evening.  Her album A Perfect Match won for Best Jazz Performance, Female. 

Ella Fitzgerald wins 8th Grammy Award 1977

Ella Fitzgerald, first lady of jazz, won her eight Grammy Award at the 19th annual ceremony, held February 19, 1977. She won Best Jazz Vocal Performance for Fitzgerald and Pass...Again, the second album of four she recorded with guitarist Joe Pass.

George Benson won Record of the Year for This Masquerade.  It was in contention for Album of the Year and Song of the Year.  I recognize every other album and song nominated in these three categories, and Benson's is the only one I do not know and, after listening to it just now, have never heard it before.  I suppose his music did not get any airplay in my area back then.

Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder won Album of the Year, and Barry Manilow's I Write the Songs won Song of the Year.

Starland Vocal Band won Best New Artist, beating Brothers Johnson, Boston(!), and Wild Cherry.  Unfortunately, they are best known for their only hit, Afternoon Delight, which won Best Arrangement for Voices (duo, group or chorus).

Natalie Cole won Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female for her Sophisticated Lady (She's a Different Lady).

Helen Hayes, with Henry Fonda, James Earl Jones & Orson Welles, won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording for Great American Documents.  This win made Helen Hayes become the second person to become an EGOT, someone who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.

Grammy Hall of Fame induction 2016

The Grammys inducted twenty-six recordings into the Grammy Hall of Fame at the 58th annual ceremony held February 15, 2016.  A bunch of my favorites made it in!

The always-entertaining and lovely Andrews Sisters 1942 recording of Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else but Me).

Ella Fitzgerald's and Louis Armstrong's collaboration Ella and Louis released in 1956.

The Loco-Motion's first release in 1962 by Little Eva.

Jimmy Buffett's timeless Margaritaville from 1977.

Blondie's first big hit Heart of Glass from 1978

Celebration from Kool & the Gang from 1980.

Joan Jett with the Blackhearts 1981 breakout single I Love Rock 'n' Roll.

Glenn Miller records "Tuxedo Junction" 1940

Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded Tuxedo Junction February 5, 1940 in New York.  His was the most successful recording and it reached #1 on the Billboard charts in 1940.  It sold 115,000 copies in the first week.

The song was written by Erskine Hawkins, Bill Johnson, and Julian Dash, with lyrics by Buddy Feyne.  Tuxedo Junction was written as an instrumental, but the composers sent it to lyricists to see who could write the best words for it.  Hawkins preferred Buddy Feyne's lyrics.

It was released in 1939 and reached #7 on the American pop charts. Tuxedo Junction has been covered by numerous artists including the Andrews Sisters,  Ella Fitzgerald, and the Manhattan Transfer.

1st Grammy Awards 1959

The very first Grammy Awards ceremony was held May 4, 1959 in Los Angeles.  Ella Fitzgerald won two Grammys: Best Jazz Performance, Individual for her recording Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook; and Best Vocal Performance, Female for her recording of Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook.  

Henry Mancini won Album of the Year and Best Arrangement for The Music from Peter Gunn.  The Champs won Best Rhythm and Blues for Tequila.  The Music Man won Best Original Cast Album.  

The Chipmunk Song (Christmas, Don't be Late) won three Grammys: Best Recording for Children, Best Comedy Performance, and Best Engineered Record - Non-Classical.  

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" wins Oscar for Best Original Song 1950

The duet Baby, It's Cold Outside from the movie Neptune's Daughter won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 22nd ceremony, March 23, 1950.  It was performed twice during the movie, once with Ricardo Montalban (Kahn) and Esther Williams; then with Red Skelton and Betty Garrett (Mrs. Babish from Laverne and Shirley).  

Since then, it has been covered numerous times by artists including Dolly Parton, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, and Garth Brooks.

Ella Fitzgerald wins Grammy for "All That Jazz" 1991

The Queen of Jazz Ella Fitzgerald won a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female for her performance of All That Jazz at the 33rd ceremony held February 20, 1991.   It was the title track from her last studio album of the same name, which was released in 1989.  

Ella Fitzgerald wins 2 Grammys at the first awards ceremony 1959

Ella Fitzgerald won 2 Grammys at the first ever Grammy Awards Ceremony held May 4, 1959.  She won the Best Jazz Performance, Individual for Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for Ella Fitzgerald sings the Irving Berlin Songbook.

Her Irving Berlin album was also nominated for Album of the Year, but lost to Henry Mancini for his Music from Peter Gunn.

Irving Berlin publishes "Alexander's Ragtime Band" 1911

Alexander's Ragtime Band, written by Irving Berlin, was published March 18, 1911.  It is considered a sequel to Alexander and his Clarinet, which he co-wrote with Ted Snyder in 1910 but it was a much bigger hit.  It sold a million copies of sheet music in one year.

Of course, with success comes controversy.  It was alleged that Berlin did not write the song but was written by Lukie Johnson, a pianist who denied the claim.  Then it was claimed that Berlin stole the music from Scott Joplin, from his opera Treemonisha, although it was registered for a copyright two months after Alexander's Ragtime Band.  Joplin passed away in 1917 still convinced his work had been stolen.

It was played on the Titanic while it was sinking.

In the years since its publication, it has been covered by many different artists including Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, the Andrews Sisters and Ella Fitzgerald who won a Grammy for her Berlin anthology in 1959.

Nat King Cole born 1919

Nat King Cole, born March 17, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama as Nathaniel Adams Coles, had one of the most recognizable and velvety voices ever.  He dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music.  As a member of the King Cole Trio, he recorded Sweet Lorraine in 1940 which became his first hit.

November 5, 1956, the Nat King Cole show debuted on NBC, which was the first variety program to be hosted by an African-American.  It failed due to the lack of a national sponsor, despite the efforts of friends such as Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Eartha Kitt to keep it on air.  A year later, the last show aired December 17, but it was Cole, not NBC who ended the program.

He recorded Unforgettable in 1951, which was edited and remixed in 1991 to create a duet with his daughter Natalie.  Her version reached won three Grammys in 1992, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.

Nat King Cole's original recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000. 

His last album L-O-V-E was recorded in December 1964 before he entered the hospital for cancer treatment and released just before he died February 1965. 

He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.

Billy Joel wins Album of the Year, 52nd Street 1980

The 22^nd Grammy Awards was held February 27, 1980 in Los Angeles and my man Billy Joel took home Grammy for Album of the Year and Pop Male Vocalist, 52^nd Street!  It must have been an awesome night. Look at some of the other winners:

John Williams: Best Original Score for a Motion Picture, Best Instrumental Composition – Superman

Supertramp: Best Album Package. Best Engineered Recording – Breakfast in America

Doobie Brothers: Record of the Year, Best Cast Show Album – What a Fool Believes

Charlie Daniels Band: Best C&W Performance – Duo or Group with Vocal – Devil Went Down to Georgia

Kenny Rogers: Best C&W Male Vocal Performance – The Gambler

Gloria Gaynor: Best Disco Recording – I Will Survive

Ella Fitzgerald: Best Jazz Vocal Performance – Fine and Mellow

Herb Alpert: Best Pop Instrumental Performance – Rise

Earth Wind & Fire: Best R&B Instrumental Performance – Boogie Wonderland

Donna Summer: Rock Female Vocalist – Hot Stuff

The Eagles: Best Vocal Group – Heartache Tonight

Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald: Song of the Year – What A Fool Believes

These were up against some very stiff competition!

Ella Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Song, born 1917

Ella Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Song and probably the most popular jazz singer ever, was born in Newport News, Virginia April 25, 1917.  She sold over 40 million albums and won 13 Grammys, the latest in 1990, for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for "All That Jazz".  She recorded over 200 albums by the time of her passing in 1996.  She got her Star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame February 8, 1960 and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Ronald Reagan in 1987.

Listen to this recording of "Summertime" for just a sample of why she was so beloved.





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