GRAMMYs

Don Felder

News

GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inspirations: Don Felder

Facebook Twitter Email
GRAMMY-winning songwriter/guitarist reveals five GRAMMY Hall Of Fame recordings that influenced his career, and discusses his own inducted recording, the Eagles' "Hotel California"
Nick Krewen
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

(To commemorate the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame's 40th Anniversary in 2013, GRAMMY.com has launched GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inspirations. The ongoing series will feature conversations with various individuals who will identify GRAMMY Hall Of Fame recordings that have influenced them and helped shape their careers.)

In 1976 when founding Eagles member Don Henley announced to a roomful of radio programmers during a playback of Hotel California that the album's title track would be the first single, then-lead guitarist for the Eagles Don Felder expressed his concerns.

"I said, 'C'mon, Don, radio will never play it,'" recalls the Gainesville, Fla., native, who wrote the song's music. "You couldn't dance to it. It had a one-minute introduction and it stopped in the middle where there were no drums at all. It had a two-minute guitar solo at the end of it and the song in its entirety was six minutes long. So, I said, 'I think it's the wrong single. It's an FM track.' And he went, 'Nope, that's going to be the single.' And I've never been so happy to be so delightfully wrong."

"Hotel California," co-written by Felder, Henley and Glenn Frey, went platinum and won a GRAMMY for Record Of The Year in 1977. The song and album of the same name were inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 2003 and 2008, respectively.

But Felder said the song's global impact struck him during an October 2012 performance at the United Nations.

"There were about 400 heads of state from countries all over the world," he recalls. "I walked out and played 'Hotel California' and everybody in the place gave me a standing ovation, and half of those countries don't even speak English. To me, it was a little tap on the shoulder as far as how globally effective that song has been. … It was phenomenal to have been part of such a great collaboration. I'm very grateful."

With a total of three GRAMMY Hall Of Fame-inducted Eagles recordings to hang his hat on, below Felder reveals the five Hall Of Fame recordings that inspired his own career.

"I Can't Stop Loving You"
Ray Charles
ABC-Paramount (1962)
Single
Inducted 2001 

"Early on, one of my favorites was Ray Charles. I remember hearing 'I Can't Stop Loving You' in the early '60s and thinking, 'What an unbelievably soulful voice.' In those days, the Deep South was extremely segregated. They had white radio stations that would only play white music. They went off the air usually around sundown, and if you had a crystal radio set, and the weather conditions were good between Florida and Nashville, you could dial into WLAC [-AM in] Nashville and hear Ray Charles, B.B. King, James Brown, and Little Richard. During the day you'd hear Pat Boone singing "Tutti Frutti" and at night you'd hear Little Richard doing it and the hair would stand up on your arms. And Ray Charles — not only was he from the South, not far from Gainesville, Florida — but he had that same charismatic, magnetic energy in his voice, his writing and his playing that inspired me.

"Shortly after I moved to Los Angeles, I was looking for work and I happened to be invited to Ray's studio, and sat in and played on a couple of his demos. I didn't charge him a dime for it. I was on cloud nine to be working in the same room as Ray Charles, one of my huge idols. Ray's earlier works were some of my biggest influences, especially 'I Can't Stop Loving You.'"

"Bye Bye Love"
The Everly Brothers
Cadence (1957)
Single
Inducted 1998 

"Growing up in the South with a lot [of] white radio stations, the Everly Brothers were one of my favorite vocal duos. In fact, I used to try to emulate the Everlys in my little shows at junior high school and Saturday afternoon matinees at the Florida Theatre in Gainesville, which cost 25 cents. There was a 2 p.m. show for kids and before the show anyone [who] had any talent could get up onstage while the curtain was still closed and perform. So, I would be there with my little electric guitar and amp and I would play a Roy Orbison song or an Everly Brothers song. The kids at my junior high used to tease me and call me 'Don Everly' instead of Don Felder.

"I would say 'Bye Bye Love' is one of my favorite influential songs to this day, and ironically, they were so in sync with their harmonies that they sounded like one person. That approach to hearing and formulating harmonies stuck in my head, so when I joined the Eagles my ear was trained to be able to hear a vocal that way. And although there were more than two people singing, it was the same synchronicity of trying to get everybody to lock up so that all the syllables happened at the same time."

"Ohio"
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Atlantic (1970)
Single
Inducted 2009 

"'Ohio' captured that whole feeling of the '60s in one couplet — a protest song against the government and political and police control. It was shortly after the Vietnam War, and it had a great strength, energy and spirit about it that came out of all those vocals together.

"Ironically, not only did I play with Stephen [Stills] when we were children, but one of the first acts I got hired for when I got to California was [David] Crosby and [Graham] Nash. I got hired to do Stephen's parts, which is such an irony that I can't believe it. I didn't say anything to David or Graham about me even knowing Stephen or growing up with him. Then we went to Denver, where Stephen was living at the time, played this big outdoor show — this was probably '73 — and Stephen came and sat in. He just walked onstage, looked at me and said, 'What are you doing here?' And I replied, 'Being you.' We reconnected and have literally been good friends ever since."

Santana
Santana
Columbia (1969)
Rock (Album)
Inducted 2012 

"When I moved to New York and was in my jazz fusion band, Flow, we would spend our weekends driving to Goddard College in Vermont to take in this big gamelan festival. … It turned out that Santana was playing in the cafeteria one weekend. And I thought, 'Oh, this is going to sound like a mariachi band,' but I saw Carlos [Santana] early in his first album incarnation and was blown away. Growing up in Florida, there was always a very Cuban percussion influence in the music in the South — not in the rock music but down around Miami [with] Latin [music].

"When I saw what Carlos had done in taking rock music and merging it with [a] Latin influence, I just fell in love with it. I thought that was one of the most brilliant concepts really on record at the time. I started following him, listening to his records, stealing guitar licks from him, anything I could. I just really admired his creativity. The intensity in that live show in that small cafeteria left quite an impression on me as far as taking ideas that were somewhat off-center and pursuing them musically. Much like Miles [Davis] had influenced me early on to phrase like a horn player, Carlos influenced me in the concept of taking musical collaborations of different cultures and trying to merge those together."

Songs In The Key Of Life
Stevie Wonder
Tamla (1976)
Album
Inducted 2002 

"Another huge influence was Stevie Wonder. I remember being at a Teen Time dance and hearing Little Stevie Wonder's 'Fingertips Pt. 1' on this jukebox. I had that same reaction that I had to James Brown and other artists [who] have [an] incredible energy and intensity. Later, after having been baptized into the wonderful religion of Stevie Wonder through 'Fingertips Pt. 1," [I heard] Songs In The Key Of Life, [which] was just phenomenal. He's an artist [who] is able to step outside of the normal world of conceiving songwriting and write really sincere, beautiful melodies and lyrics in his own genre, that nobody else thinks about. Nobody writes that way, nobody plays that way — he's just a unique soul.

"I remember sitting in a hotel room [in] about '74, or maybe '75, in Philadelphia with the Eagles, and I [had] to learn mandolin because Bernie Leadon was leaving the band. It was up to me to assume all of the country sounds — mandolin, banjo, pedal steel — so I spent extra time learning these instruments that I had not grown up with. So, I'm playing 'Cripple Creek' on mandolin and someone knocks on my door. I get up, open the door and it's Stevie Wonder and his guide. They were checking out because they had done a show the night before, but he'd heard the mandolin echoing in the hallway and wanted to come hear it. He comes walking in, sits down, and here I have to play mandolin for Stevie Wonder. I wasn't a virtuoso mandolin player by any means, so I just played for him and he smiled and really enjoyed it."

(GRAMMY winner Don Felder garnered 12 GRAMMY nominations and four GRAMMY wins as part of the Eagles, including Record Of The Year in 1977 for “Hotel California,” which also earned him a nomination for Song Of The Year. His latest solo album, 2012's Road To Forever, peaked at No. 27 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart.)

(Nick Krewen is a Toronto-based journalist and co-author of Music From Far And Wide: Celebrating 40 Years Of The Juno Awards, as well as a contributor to The Routledge Film Music Sourcebook. He has written for The Toronto Star, TV Guide, Billboard, Country Music, and was a consultant for the National Film Board's music industry documentary Dream Machine.)

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt

Photo: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns

List

'Heart Like A Wheel': 7 Facts About Linda Ronstadt's Album | GRAMMY Hall Of Fame

Facebook Twitter Email
Investigate the album that led the mid-'70s into country rock, showcasing talent that went on to win many GRAMMY Awards and reshape American pop music
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Mar 16, 2018 - 3:20 pm

"And it's only love, and it's only love/That can wreck a human being and turn him inside out" — "Heart Like A Wheel" by Anna McGarrigle

Linda Ronstadt's fifth studio album, Heart Like A Wheel (1974), was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame among other recordings receiving the special award in 2018. Like other seminal records on the list that swept into popular consciousness, this particular hit had an impact that changed the game and opened up a new musical period, especially for American pop and what came to be known as "country rock."

A great live performer and song stylist, surrounded by some of the world's greatest rock and country musicians, Ronstadt's voice carried a heartfelt urgency that could slide expressively from pure ringing tone to emotion so thick it threatened to saturate the microphone. At times on Heart Like A Wheel, Ronstadt's passion and authenticity soars in a belt out of her phrasings or even holler. Let's go for a spin around Linda Ronstadt's life in the '70s, and deeper into Heart Like A Wheel, with these seven fascinating facts.

1. The Eagles Take Flight

Commercial success versus artistic culture is barely a conflict if, at the time, success can't help but follow the artists creating the culture. This was the case with Linda Ronstadt's legendary backup band, the Eagles.

This phenomenon was especially apparent at the 18th GRAMMY Awards (1975) as the Eagles won their first GRAMMY the same year Ronstadt did, in Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus for "Lyin' Eyes." With the Eagles' Glenn Frey and Don Henley both backing up Ronstadt on Heart Like A Wheel, they enjoyed side-by-side commercial success while making a cultural impact.

At Linda Ronstadt's Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2014, her Parkinson's condition left her unable to attend. Frey's acceptance speech on her behalf summarized events that led to their musical partnership, beginning at The Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1970. "Linda and I, we became friends, and in the spring of 1971, she hired me and a singing drummer from Linden, Texas named Don Henley to play in her backup band. From the first rehearsal, I felt we were working on a style of music none of us had ever heard before," said Frey. "While touring with Linda that summer, Don and I told her that we wanted to start our own band, and she, more than anyone else, helped us put together the Eagles."

2. The Song That Put Country Rock On The Map

Described in the contemporary Rolling Stone album review as a "soulful wail," Ronstadt's vocals on "You're No Good" took American pop music to a place it hadn't quite been before. With a strong lyric to a rocking beat, it combined soul and country flair.

On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated Feb. 15, 1975, "You're No Good" was No. 1. A triumph for her producer Peter Asher as well as Ronstadt, it led the album's ascent to double-platinum status. But the song wasn't always an obvious choice for a single. In fact, it had started as the song Ronstadt always used to close her live sets. Putting it on the album was recalled as an afterthought.

3. Romantic And Musical Partner, J.D. Souther

In that same speech, Frey said he loved Ronstadt "at first sight" but "a guitar-slinging, love-rustler from Amarillo, Texas, named John David Souther … beat me to the punch." A romantic figure, especially as a true country singer/songwriter, author Marc Eliot said Souther was considered for the Eagles but one of the other members objected. He performed with Frey as a duo on their 1969 self-titled album Longbranch Pennywhistle, and he produced Ronstadt's 1973 album Don't Cry Now and wrote "Faithless Love" for Heart Like A Wheel. Years later when Glen Campbell covered it as his lead single on Letter To Home, the classic brought J.D. Souther a GRAMMY nomination for 1984 for Best Country Song.

The Rolling Stone review described "Faithless Love" as "perhaps the strongest ballad he's written to date," and it praised Souther's singing harmony as well as Herb Pedersen's banjo. "I don't think I realized how world-class J.D. was because everybody that I knew was writing good songs," Ronstadt said in a recent interview. "I didn't know how good they were going to be." This GRAMMY Hall Of Fame induction provides lasting recognition of that level of excellence.

4. The Title Track's Folksinging Sisters

The album's title track was penned by Anna McGarrigle, who was part of Montreal's folk scene. The lyric quoted above, that love "can wreck a human being," was called out by Rolling Stone because it "distills the themes of the album [and] … underscores the essence of Ronstadt's vocal personality."

With her sister, the album Kate & Anna McGarrigle was released in 1976, and Ronstadt's enthusiasm with the sisters is evident in their many filmed appearances together. Kate McGarrigle had married Loudon Wainwright III in 1971 and they are the parents of Rufus Wainwright.

Also appearing on the title track was Maria Muldaur, whose hit "Midnight At The Oasis" had been nominated for Record Of The Year for 1974 at the 17th GRAMMY Awards. Muldaur was also an enthusiastic singer of other compositions by the McGarrigles.

5. Topping The Everly Brothers' On The Charts

It is a quality of great interpreters that they can take somebody else's hit and make theirs even bigger. The Everly Brothers' "When Will I Be Loved" went to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960 but Ronstadt took it to No. 2 in 1975, rearranging the verses for her version.

The winner of Record Of The Year at the 18th GRAMMY Awards, "Love Will Keep Us Together" by the Captain & Tennille, dominated the year and also kept Ronstadt's No. 2 version of "When Will I Be Loved" from hitting No. 1. The record was considered alongside "You're No Good" as Heart Like A Wheel's lead single.

6. Her First GRAMMY Win Goes Country

On the B-side of Ronstadt's No. 1 hit "You're No Good," a more dignified song by Hank Williams, "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)," showed the country side of her abilities, which won her Best Country Vocal Performance, Female at the 18th GRAMMY Awards. The woman singing angelic harmonies against Ronstadt on the album version is Emmylou Harris, who went on to win that same category at the 19th GRAMMY Awards for Elite Hotel. The two ladies joined with Dolly Parton at the 30th GRAMMY Awards to win Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for their 1987 album Trio.

7. Powerhouses Behind The Scenes: James Taylor And Peter Asher

With so many legends around her during her ascent in music, Ronstadt was a magnet for the best. A close look at other GRAMMY winners associated with Heart Like A Wheel shows one name that already had one GRAMMY win and many more nominations going into the project, before her album turned so many people's careers for the better. James Taylor's lullaby "You Can Close Your Eyes" closes Heart Like A Wheel, and his star status was in a sense hovering over the album. Taylor won Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male at the 14th GRAMMY Awards for "You've Got A Friend," a huge success as a single, and its B-side was Taylor's lullaby.

It's also worth noting that Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor had also served as the background singers on Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" from Young's bestselling album of 1972, Harvest.

Heart Like A Wheel's producer Peter Asher had quit running A&R for the Beatles' Apple Records in order to manage Taylor just a few years earlier. By the mid-'70s, Taylor, with the help of Asher, was leading a powerful soft rock sound that grew mighty with Ronstadt and the Eagles' first wins and then spread, for example with Emmylou Harris' win the following year.

Other personnel on the album who went on to win GRAMMY Awards are singer Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney; instrumentalists John Boylan, Jimmie Fadden, Timothy B. Schmit, and John Starling; engineers Dennis Ferrante, Val Garay, and George Massenburg who also received the Technical GRAMMY Award in 1998. Two of Peter Asher's later wins were Producer Of The Year at the 20th and the 32nd GRAMMY Awards and he is credited with having a significant hand in crafting the California soft rock sound.

Reflecting on Linda Ronstadt's legacy and the tragic event of her voice being silenced by Parkinson's disease in 2013, The New Yorker wrote, "The sound of Ronstadt's voice — invincibility, bravery, emotion channeled into intelligence and art — is the sound of overcoming anything." For diehard fans and newcomers alike, Heart Like A Wheel remains some of her career's most compelling evidence of what makes Ronstadt so special.

"Space Oddity": 7 Facts About David Bowie's Cosmic Ballad | GRAMMY Hall Of Fame

GRAMMYs

Eddie Brigati

Photo: Mark Sullivan/WireImage.com

News

GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inspirations: Eddie Brigati

Facebook Twitter Email
Brigati reveals five GRAMMY Hall Of Fame recordings that inspired him, and details Steven Van Zandt's role in bringing the Rascals back together
Tammy La Gorce
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

(To commemorate the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame's 40th Anniversary in 2013, GRAMMY.com has launched GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inspirations. The ongoing series will feature conversations with various individuals who will identify GRAMMY Hall Of Fame recordings that have influenced them and helped shape their careers.)

Music fans not old enough to remember when the Rascals — featuring Eddie Brigati alongside Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish and Dino Danelli — ruled the airwaves with such hits as "Good Lovin'," "A Beautiful Morning" and "Groovin'," may remember Steven Van Zandt's indelible speech when he inducted the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

"Some people may not realize it, but the Rascals were the first rock band in the world," said Van Zandt. "[When] 'I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore' [came] on the radio … that was when New Jersey soul was born."

Though the Rascals disbanded in 1972, in less than a decade they managed to release several albums to chart on the Billboard 200, including 1967's Groovin', which was released under the band's former name, the Young Rascals, and climbed to No. 5. The album's title track was a No. 1 hit and earned induction into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 1999.

Fortunately for music fans that wasn't the last they would hear of Brigati or the Rascals. In 2012 Van Zandt brought the original band back together for the first time for "Once Upon A Dream" (taken from the title of the band's 1968 album) — a nostalgic Beatlemania-like production Van Zandt wrote, co-produced and co-directed. The show premiered at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y., in 2012 and sold out consistently during its April 2013 Broadway run.

Coincidentally, Van Zandt may indirectly owe his acting career to the Rascals. According to Brigati, "Sopranos" creator David Chase discovered Van Zandt (who played Silvio Dante on the show from 1999–2007) after watching him induct the Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Brigati says that while he is often asked about the rifts that broke the band apart years ago, he chooses to focus on the now.

"The music goes beyond all the negativity that happened," he says. "All that stuff was fertilizer. I know you're talking about half a century later, but believe it: The music keeps getting better. It's better than ever."

Below, Brigati details the five GRAMMY Hall Of Fame recordings that have continued to provide inspiration throughout his storied career.

West Side Story
Original Broadway Cast (Carol Lawrence, Larry Kert)

Columbia (1958)
Album

Inducted 1991

"I was in school when 'West Side Story' came out. I came out of there and I was practically leaping over cars in the parking lot. Then I went to New York. I was going to be in the movies, I was going to be a dancer, I was going to do everything. I went to see a man by the name of Phil Black. He was the premier dance instructor on Broadway then. He talked to me, he interviewed me, and he said, 'OK, you come back and take this ballet class.' At the beginning I loved it. I was the only guy there. But I didn't realize I was going to Marine camp. I thought I was just going to jump over cars. I didn't know how hard it is to be a dancer. It's a whole life, not a hobby.

"'West Side Story' was important musically because of the story of the whole thing, too. Songs that tell you stories [are] what we [wrote] in the Rascals, and 'West Side Story' did it first. It had songs that tell you something. You want to listen to the story to hear about dreams, ambitions, hobbies, goals. I took that with me."

What's Going On
Marvin Gaye
Tamla (1971)
Album
Inducted 1998

"Marvin Gaye was a beautiful singer, and he was in some wonderful groups. My brother and I are singers, and the main musical food we had in our house growing up was R&B — black harmony singers. We listened to the Flamingos, the Doves, all these people that came in the '50s and '60s who were blending and harmonizing. … They were blessing your ears. It was something they anointed you with. That's the germ of our history.

"Marvin Gaye was a singer who took it a step further, because he also dealt with political issues. He was talking about social interests, topical stories. He was talking about what's important to him. Again, he told a story, and the story stays with you. It's like with Stevie Wonder — he wrapped his songs in candy, like a sweet pill. You dance to the songs but you also swallow the pill. The message behind the song stays with you." 

"What The World Needs Now Is Love"
Jackie DeShannon
Imperial (1965)
Single

Inducted 2008

"I got out of high school in '63. I had done a tour with Joey Dee And The Starliters, and the Rascals began a year later. The song 'What The World Needs Now…' reflected the surrounding temperature of the times. It was the food around us, the information we were receiving. You have to remember the whole background was the Vietnam War. That song captured a countercultural feeling. It had liftoff in the culture. In the Rascals there was social commentary too, but we kept it down, we kept it to the side. It's in there, though."

Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys

Capitol (1966)
Album

Inducted 1998

"I know the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds influenced me because I still sing songs from it every day. I sing them, I whisper them, whatever. It left a mark on me as much if not more so than the Beatles, although it's hard to deny the Beatles. I'll sing 'Caroline, No.' Or I'll sing 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' around the house, and then I sing the part about 'wouldn't it be nice if we were older,' and then I'm thinking, the joke is, if we get any older I won't be able to sing anymore. But Pet Sounds has love stories, it has everything. It's all in there."

"Chances Are"
Johnny Mathis

Columbia (1957)
Single
Inducted 1998

"Johnny Mathis was the singer's singer. The arrangements, the love songs … still today, his songs are indelible. 'Chances Are' has a beautiful perspective. It's not about violence or aggression, it's about real love — vulnerability, being smitten, two people in awe of each other. That's why it holds up today, and that's why the Rascals' stuff holds up today. The reason is love, the purity of love. The influence may be missing in the American culture now, but it reached me."

(Eddie Brigati served as one of the primary vocalists/composers of the Rascals, along with Felix Cavaliere. The No. 1 hit "Groovin'," which he co-wrote with Cavaliere, has been recorded by artists including Aretha Franklin, Ringo Starr and Booker T. & The MG's, among others.)

(Tammy La Gorce is a freelance writer whose work appears regularly in The New York Times.)

News

GRAMMY Rewind: 20th Annual GRAMMY Awards

Facebook Twitter Email
Fleetwood Mac wins Album Of The Year and Debby Boone wins Best New Artist against these nominees
Tim McPhate
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

(For a list of 54th GRAMMY Awards nominees, click here.)

Music's Biggest Night, the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards, will air live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

In the weeks leading up to the telecast, we will take a stroll down music memory lane with GRAMMY Rewind, highlighting the "big four" categories — Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist — from past awards shows. In the process, we'll examine the winners and the nominees who just missed taking home a GRAMMY, while also shining a light on the artists' careers and the eras in which the recordings were born.

Join us as we take an abbreviated journey through the trajectory of pop music from the 1st Annual GRAMMY Awards in 1959 to last year's 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.
 
20th Annual GRAMMY Awards
Feb. 23, 1978

Album Of The Year
Winner: Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
Eagles, Hotel California
Steely Dan, Aja
James Taylor, JT
John Williams, Star Wars — Motion Picture Soundtrack

In a race between five albums that climbed the top of the Billboard 200 in 1977, Fleetwood Mac took home Album Of The Year gold as the GRAMMYs turned 20. Rumours soared to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and garnered the group two additional nominations in 1977, including Best Arrangement For Voices for "Go Your Own Way." Fellow West Coasters the Eagles and Steely Dan also gained nods — the latter would win for Album Of The Year for Two Against Nature in 2001. Taylor didn't leave empty-handed that year as his cover of Jimmy Jones' 1959 "Handy Man," from JT, won for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male. The force was with Williams, who garnered his first award two years prior for the soundtrack to Jawsand has won an impressive 21 GRAMMYs to date.


Record Of The Year
Winner: Eagles, "Hotel California"
Debby Boone, "You Light Up My Life"
Crystal Gayle, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"
Linda Ronstadt, "Blue Bayou"
Barbra Streisand, "Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)"

In a category dominated by female nominees, the Eagles, garnering nominations in three of the four General Field categories, won Record Of The Year for the title track off their best-selling album Hotel California. Written by Don Felder, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, the song reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977 and was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 2003. Boone made her GRAMMY debut with "You Light Up My Life," which claimed the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks in 1977. Gayle received a nomination for "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue," and would win the lone GRAMMY of her career for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female. Ronstadt was recognized for "Blue Bayou" and has gone on to win 10 GRAMMY Awards to date, spanning the Children's, Country, Pop, and Latin Fields. Streisand, who was honored as the 2011 MusiCares Person of the Year last February, earned her third of five Record Of The Year nods with "Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)." The track appeared on the No. 1 soundtrack to 1976's A Star Is Born, a film that cast Streisand alongside fellow GRAMMY winner Kris Kristofferson.

Song Of The Year
Winners: Debby Boone, "You Light Up My Life"; Barbra Streisand, "Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)"
Glen Campbell, "Southern Nights"
Eagles, "Hotel California"
Crystal Gayle, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"
Carly Simon, "Nobody Does It Better"

Streisand shared honors with Boone's hit in a rare GRAMMY tie for Song Of The Year, teaming with songwriter/singer/actor Paul Williams to write "Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)." Boone's "You Light Up My Life" was written by Joe Brooks for the 1977 film of the same name. Also garnering a nod was Campbell's "Southern Nights," written by Recording Academy Trustees Award recipient Allen Toussaint. Country songwriter Richard Leigh picked up a nomination for Gayle's "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue," and won for Best Country Song. Leigh also penned the Dixie Chicks' "Cold Day In July," from the Chicks' 1999 GRAMMY-winning Best Country Album Fly. Simon's "Nobody Does It Better," crafted by 1974 Best New Artist winner Marvin Hamlisch and fellow GRAMMY winner Carole Bayer Sager, was recognized. The song was recorded for the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Such a lovely place, "Hotel California" rounded out the nominees. The classic song began as an instrumental demo by Felder.


Best New Artist Of The Year
Winner: Debby Boone
Stephen Bishop
Shaun Cassidy
Foreigner
Andy Gibb

Boone earned Best New Artist honors amid a uniquely diverse group of artists. Contenders Bishop, Cassidy and Gibb scored their only nominations at the 20th Annual GRAMMY Awards. Teen idol Cassidy performed "That's Rock & Roll" on the show, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bishop gained prominence in the '70s as a songwriter, helping pen tunes for artists such as the Four Tops, Chaka Khan and Streisand. Gibb, the younger brother of the Bee Gees' Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb, went on to record several Top 10 hits, including "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" and "Shadow Dancing." Foreigner, led by founding member/guitarist Mick Jones, also made the grade. The band went on to receive two additional GRAMMY nominations, including Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for the No. 1 hit "I Want To Know What Love Is" in 1984.

 

Come back to GRAMMY.com Jan. 19 as we revisit the 25th Annual GRAMMY Awards. Meanwhile, visit The Recording Academy's social networks on Facebook and Twitter for updates and breaking GRAMMY news.

 

 

GRAMMYs

Darius Rucker

Photo: Jason Kempin/WireImage.com

News

GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inspirations: Darius Rucker

Facebook Twitter Email
56th GRAMMY winner reveals five GRAMMY Hall Of Fame recordings that are always on his mind
Nick Krewen
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

(To commemorate the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame's 40th Anniversary in 2013, GRAMMY.com has launched GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inspirations. The ongoing series will feature conversations with various individuals who will identify GRAMMY Hall Of Fame recordings that have influenced them and helped shape their careers.)

Before he became a GRAMMY-winning country artist, Darius Rucker was best known as the singer and rhythm guitarist for Hootie And The Blowfish, the GRAMMY-winning South Carolina pop group whose debut album, 1994's Cracked Rear View, yielded five hit singles and two GRAMMY Awards, including Best New Artist and, according to Rucker, a complete surprise victory in the Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal category for "Let Her Cry."

"We didn't think we'd win the group vocal category with TLC's 'Waterfalls' as our competition," Rucker recalls. "We thought TLC [were] going to clean up everything. But I remember it so vividly. It was Kiss, in makeup for the first time since the '70s, and Tupac Shakur presenting our second category, and when Tupac announced, 'My boys, Hootie And The Blowfish,' well, to know we were multiple GRAMMY winners was something that you dream about, but how many people actually get to achieve it?

As a country artist, Rucker realized a lifelong dream when he was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry on Oct. 2, 2012, during his Opry performance at the Ryman Theatre in Nashville, Tenn.

"When I started in country music, I told my management that I wanted to be a member of the Opry and that it was something very important to me," says Rucker. "For so many years, I felt I was a pop guy trying to be a part of country music. When I got my Opry membership, I knew I was in the family."

Fresh from picking up Best Country Solo Performance for "Wagon Wheel" at the 56th GRAMMY Awards, Rucker details five GRAMMY Hall Of Fame recordings that get his musical wheel turning.

"Georgia On My Mind"
Ray Charles
ABC Paramount (1960)
Single
Inducted 1993

"Ray Charles was so important to me as a kid and my mom was such a huge Ray Charles fan. I think 'Georgia On My Mind' was one of those songs that shaped me as a singer when I was younger — I'm talking 7 or 8 years old. I remember 'Georgia …' being one of those songs where I was just sitting around the house, put the record on with my mom, had people over and started singing. That was my go-to record when I was ready to entertain my family. It was one of those early impact songs for me, along with a bunch of Al Green stuff."

Abbey Road
The Beatles
Apple (1969)
Album
Inducted 1995

"Abbey Road is my favorite album of all time. To me, there's nothing even close. That's my favorite record and I've listened it a million times. … I've sat in my high school and sat in my room discussing it, especially in college, and been totally moved by it because the songwriting and the George Martin production [are] great on that record from start to finish. It's a record that I only put on when I have enough time … to [listen to] the whole thing.

"The first side boasts such great songs, and the second side medley — the mix of all those songs sounds so perfect, as if they're all written to go together. Then you wait a few seconds after 'Carry That Weight' and they play 'The End,' and you think, 'Man, that's the way you're supposed to end a record!' It's perfect."

"Always On My Mind"
Willie Nelson
Columbia (1982)
Single
Inducted 2008

"I had an aunt, who, God rest her soul, was a huge Willie Nelson fan, and that song for me has always been about as perfect as you can get, not to mention the vocal. Willie sounds absolutely amazing on that song. I remember singing it as a kid, and I remember even now when it comes on the radio or I [play] it on my iPod, you try to sing it like Willie and you can't. Nobody can sing it like Willie. It's one of those early songs, for me, that reminds me just how much I love country music. I couldn't hear it enough.

"And the delivery: You feel every word that Willie's saying. You really feel the love that he has for this woman that he can't be with. That song does it for me and definitely influenced me tons growing up."

"Fire And Rain"
James Taylor
Warner Bros. (1970)
Single
Inducted 1998

"'Fire And Rain' for me means so many different things. I've always been a James Taylor fan and I've worn his Greatest Hits out a million times, but that song is special to me.

"When I first heard 'Fire And Rain,' I didn't know what it was about. I [now] know it referred to someone in James' life that had died in a plane crash. That made the song [much] more poignant for me. My grandmother had also passed away. My aunt lived around the corner from us, and we all went around to my aunt's house after we heard the news. The sun came up, and I figured it was time for me to go home — I was 16 or 17 — and at the house [we had] this light switch that when you flipped it, the stereo would switch on. So, I walked in, flipped the switch and 'Fire And Rain' came on the radio that instant. I will never forget the impact of that moment, because the song was perfect for that moment. And whenever I heard the song on the radio after that, it just took it to a whole new level for me."

"Ain't No Sunshine"
Bill Withers
Sussex (1971)
Single
Inducted 1999

"Bill Withers was one of the reasons I wanted to sing. As a kid, I wanted to sing those Bill Withers songs — 'Lovely Day,' 'Grandma's Hands' and especially 'Ain't No Sunshine.'

"It's another one of those songs that makes you feel. I remember losing a girlfriend in college and putting on 'Ain't No Sunshine' and crying like a little baby because that song was so true. And Bill Withers' vocals are wonderful. The writing, the genius to have the repetitive breakdown of 'I know, I know, I know' — you start singing it live and everybody starts singing it because they know it. That's one of those songs that I'd sit back after I'd sing it and go, 'Man, I really want to be a singer someday.'"

(Darius Rucker won his first two GRAMMYs in 1995 for Best New Artist and Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for "Let Her Cry" with Hootie And The Blowfish. He won his first GRAMMY as a solo artist at the 56th GRAMMY Awards on Jan. 26 for Best Country Solo Performance for "Wagon Wheel.")

(Nick Krewen is a Toronto-based journalist and co-author of Music From Far And Wide: Celebrating 40 Years Of The Juno Awards, as well as a contributor to The Routledge Film Music Sourcebook. He has written for The Toronto Star, TV Guide, Billboard, Country Music, and was a consultant for the National Film Board's music industry documentary Dream Machine.)