PEOPLE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 8, 1993                   TAG: 9301080326
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 9   EDITION: METRO   
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
PEOPLE
All but overlooked by the Recording Academy for years, Eric Clapton earned his due Thursday with nine nominations for the 35th annual Grammy Awards.
The guitarist's nominations included record, album and song of the year. The only other entries to share all three top categories were k.d. lang and the Academy Award-winning movie theme song "Beauty and the Beast," featuring Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson.
"Tears in Heaven," Clapton's lament for his 4-year-old son, Conor, who died in 1991, was nominated for record and song of the year, best male pop vocal performance and best song for a movie or television.
Clapton's "Unplugged," from the MTV series, was nominated for best album and best male rock vocal performance. Mariah Carey's performance from the series was nominated for best female pop vocal.
Garth Brooks, Billy Ray Cyrus, Vince Gill, Randy Travis and Travis Tritt were country male vocal performance nominees. Contenders for female country vocal performance are Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Wynonna Judd, Reba McEntire, Lorrie Morgan and Pam Tillis.
In addition to album of the year honors, U2 was nominated for rock duo or group vocal performance for "Achtung Baby." Competition includes En Vogue, Little Village, Los Lobos and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
For female pop vocal honors, Dion, lang, Carey, Annie Lennox and Vanessa Williams were nominated.
Other pop, alternative-music and rock nominees were Genesis, George Michael and Elton John, Prince and the New Power Generation, and Patty Smyth and Don Henley, The B-52s, The Cure, Morrisey, Tom Waits, XTC, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Guns N' Roses, Alice In Chains, Faith No More and Bruce Springsteen.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB