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.

WALL-E wins two Grammy Awards 2009

My hero WALL-E won two Grammy Awards during the 51st annual celebration February 8, 2009.  Actually Peter Gabriel got the trophies.  The first for Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for the song Down to Earth.

The second award was for Best Instrumental Arrangement for Define Dancing, arranged by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman.  Newman was also nominated for Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, but lost to The Dark Night.

John Williams won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for The Adventures of Mutt from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  What was his total tally at that time?

One of my favorites from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Runnin' Down a Dream, won Best Long Form Music Video. 

The lovely Natalie Cole won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Still Unforgettable, another compilation of her performing her father's songs. 

Singer Natalie Cole born 1950

Natalie Cole, born February 6, 1950 in Los Angeles, California, was the daughter of the amazing Nat King Cole and won 9 Grammy Awards.

She was the first African-American artist to win Best New Artist in 1976 along with her performance of This Will Be.  In 1991, she released Unforgettable in which she sings a duet with her famous father.  It garnered her 3 more Grammys. She won numerous other awards such as American Music Awards, and NAACP Image Awards for her music and acting.

She passed away December 31, 2015 in Los Angeles.  

I've always loved her song Dangerous.  Listen to it here:

"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.

Celebrating Black History Month: Natalie Cole, first African-American to win Grammy for Best New Artist

Super-talented Natalie Cole, daughter of the great Nat King Cole, is the first African-American performer to win a Grammy for Best New Artist, which she won in 1976, beating out KC and the Sunshine Band!

Her debut album Inseparable generated two hit singles, This Will Be and Inseparable.  Both songs went to #1 on the Billboard R&B charts.  She won a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

On Father's Day 1991, she released Unforgettable...With Love, an album with covers of her father's hits.  Through the magic of technology, she recorded Unforgettable as a duet with Nat King Cole.  The single won four Grammys: Record of the Year, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Best Arrangement, Instrumentals and Vocals.  The album won Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Engineered - Non-classical.

She left us too early as she passed away in December 2015 due to health problems.

"Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole reaches #1 1991

Natalie Cole released her Grammy-winning album Unforgettable...With Love in June 1991, a cover of her father's songs.  July 27, 1991, Unforgettable, the duet engineered with her and Nat King Cole, reached #1 on the Billboard 200. 

The single won four Grammys: Record of the Year, Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year and Arrangement Accompanying Vocals.

The album won Album of the Year and Best Engineered - Non-Classical.  It has been certified 7x platinum in the U.S. as of 2009.

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.