Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 25, 1992 TAG: 9202250090
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
GRAMMY GOBBLERS
The low point had to be 1978.Album of the Year: "Saturday Night Fever."
It's enough to make you cringe. Although perhaps no other album so thoroughly defined the repulsive disco era, it has hardly endured as a timeless classic.
When was the last time you heard "Staying Alive" on the radio?
A better bet might have been Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" or "Some Girls" from the Rolling Stones, rival entries for Album of the Year at the 1978 Grammy Awards that have aged well.
You probably heard a cut from one or the other in the past week.
Superior still would have been Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town" or Bob Seger's "Stranger in Town," both watershed records marking career milestones that were completely passed over by the Grammys.
You might disagree.
You still might be wearing white three-piece suits, platform shoes and listening to eight-track tapes. The Bee Gees might be your favorite group.
Or you might pick some Grammy low points of your own.
Like Christopher Cross's Grammy sweep in 1980, when he walked away with Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. Remember "Sailing"?
Or when Kim Carnes won Record of the Year and Song of the Year the following year for her innocuous and forgettable "Bette Davis Eyes." Or any of these: Olivia Newton-John "I Honestly Love You" (1974), Captain & Tennille "Love Will Keep Us Together" (1975), Barry Manilow "I Write the Songs" (1976), and Debby Boone "You Light Up My Life" (1977), all won either Record of the Year or Song of the Year, the Grammy's two top categories.
The point here is that the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has not always stayed in tune with the vital currents of pop music. In fact, often its choices have been laughable, given the luxury of hindsight.
In their primes, the following artists never won a major Grammy: Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, Elton John or Parliament-Funkadelic.
These artists left a profound stamp on much of the popular music that comes out today as well as on the memories of several generations.
And there are dozens more who could be added to the list.
By contrast, the Bee Gees have won six Grammys.
But the awards have not always been a complete wash.
There also have been some high points:
"Georgia On My Mind" by Ray Charles won in 1960; "Blowin' in the Wind" won in 1963 for Peter, Paul and Mary; "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" won Album of the Year in 1967 for The Beatles; "Respect" by Aretha Franklin won Best R&B Recording that same year; "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel won Record of the Year in 1968 and "(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding won Best R&B Song.
Or moving into the early 1970s, Carole King, Ike and Tina Turner, Roberta Flack, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac and Earth, Wind and Fire all received well-deserved Grammy nods.
Outside of popular mainstream music, there were some well-placed awards in the jazz, gospel, classical and other specialty categories as well.
In recent years, the Grammys have even made progress, the result of changing tastes within the Academy ranks, who are less apt to give awards based on sales and popularity and more open to artful music or music that mirrors and shapes social attitudes.
And previously there has been some foresight, naming The Beatles as Best New Artist in 1963, for instance. Or Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969, Bette Midler in 1973, Natalie Cole in 1975, even Bruce Hornsby in 1986. Like them or not, they have endured.
But The Swingle Singers, America, the Starland Vocal Band, Debby Boone, A Taste of Honey, Christopher Cross, Men at Work, Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper and Sade, to name a few other Best New Artist winners from years past . . . obviously, they have not.
Or make these Best New Artist comparisons:
1962 - Robert Goulet or Bob Dylan?
1967 - Bobbie Gentry or Jimi Hendrix?
1970 - The Carpenters or Elton John?
1974 - Marvin Hamlisch or Billy Joel?
1977 - Debby Boone or Talking Heads?
1980 - Christopher Cross or Prince?
Take a guess who took home the gold grammophones?
Goulet, Gentry, The Carpenters, Hamlisch, Boone and Cross, naturally.
At least in one category, however, the Academy has been right on target, picking almost without exception for Best Comedy Recording a cast of winners that has defined comedy for 30 years: Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, Lily Tomlin, George Carlin, Cheech & Chong, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Rodney Dangerfield, Eddie Murphy and Whoopi Goldberg.
The Academy hasn't been too bad, either, in recognizing many of the movie and television theme songs now so permanently etched in our minds. The memory's Muzak, if you will. Go ahead, hum along:
"Batman" (1966), "Mission Impossible" (1967), "Shaft" (1971), "The Godfather" (1972), "Live and Let Die" (1973), "Jaws" (1975), "The Young and the Restless," (1977), "Star Wars" (1977), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1978) and "Hill Street Blues" (1981).
So, what about this year?
Will Bonnie Raitt's "Something to Talk About" age as gracefully as Aretha Franklin's "Respect"? Will R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" some day sound as dated as the Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together"? Will C+C Music Factory be another Culture Club?
Or the next Beatles?
34th Annual Grammy Awards: From Radio City Music Hall tonight at 8 on WDBJ-Channel 7.