57th Grammy Award Ceremony

Last night, 8 February, 2015, hundreds of music icons  from Tony Bennett to Nikki Minaj came together to commemorate the 57th Grammy Award Ceremony.  As usual the event took place at the Staples Centre in  Los Angeles, California and was hosted once again by LL Cool J, making it his fourth consecutive year hosting. The memorable night was broadcasted on CBS at 8 pm EST while being filmed live at 5 pm PST.

Nancy and Paul McCartney

It seems almost impossible to out-due last year's Grammy Awards after Sir James Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited on stage and The Beatles being honored with The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, which brought not only Paul and Ringo to attend but Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon (Read about The 56th Grammys here ). This year however, Starr was not present at the awards but McCartney was proudly seated front row next to his beautiful wife, Nancy.  Without his friend and fellow band-mate, McCartney nonetheless found his way back on stage, this time not as a lead singer or plucking behind his legendary violin- Hofner bass, but standing behind a rustic- style acoustic guitar as a backup with "musician" Kayne West for Rhianna's newest single, "Four Five Seconds", on which Sir Paul McCartney and Kayne contributed. This is not the first time West and McCartney had worked together, in fact earlier last month West released "Only One" which featured and produced by the doe-eyed musician.

LL Cool J provided smooth transitions from award to award and various acts to duos. Amongst these awards and nominees were a few of my personal favorites, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who were nominated for Best Rock Album Of The Year, for their well-written album Hypnotic Eye, but unfortunately didn't win ( Congratulations Beck). Late last month there was a small dispute, if you will, between Sam Smith, who took home four Grammy's last night, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, for similarities in Smith's "Stay With Me" and Lynne and Petty's "Won't Back Down", but all was settled. With that said, not only was Sam Smith present at the awards but Jeff Lynne had made his appearance on stage with Ed Sheeran, where Sheeran accompanied the music legend with two beloved classics, "Mr. Blue Sky's" and "Evil Woman". The two-song concert was greatly admired as Jeff Lynne was trending on Twitter last night and Sir Paul McCartney had to be asked to sit down for dancing during the performance. The Following Video is Jeff Lynne and ELO with Ed Sheeran performing "Mr. Blue Skys";

Later as the night went artist from Miranda Lambert to the duo of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga took the light, along with those recognized with the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award; The BeeGees and George Harrison where amongst the listed (read about George Harrison being honored here). As mentioned before, Rhianna had made her appearance with Kayne West and Paul McCartney. This would be the highlight of any Beatlemaniac watching the event who were let down by the performance due to Kayne pressing himself close to McCartney guitar and the lack of amplification on McCartney's mic; there wasn't any. Rhianna and West's vocals were both strongly heard but McCartney's mic had seemed to be muted. Anyhow, as Eric Idle would say, "Always look on the bright side of life" and even though his voice may not be heard, his energy and passion for performing was fully registered. The Following Video via Youtube is "Four Five Seconds";

Tune in next week, Sunday 15 February, as The Grammy's pay tribute to the wonder that is Stevie Wonder, as they had done a year ago tonight with The Night That Changed America, an event honoring The Fab Four.

Until next time, Peace and Chaos.

Dhani with his wife Sola and Olivia Harrison accepting George's Lifetime Achievement Award

Articles That May Interest You;

• 56th Grammy Award Ceremony
• George Harrison Lifetime Achievement Award
• Jeff Lynne
• Paul McCartney's Achievements
• The Traveling Wilbury's Vol. I
• The Traveling Wilbury's Vol. II
•  Ringo Starr Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame
• The Beatles Coming To America
• The Beatles Ed Sullivan Show Performances
• George Harrison Tribute
• All Things Must Pass inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame

Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award for George Harrison

"This year we pay tribute to exceptional creators who have made prolific contributions to our culture and history. It's an honor and a privilege to recognize such a diverse group of talented trailblazers, whose incomparable bodies of work and timeless legacies will continue to be celebrated for generations to come." -Neil Portnow, Recording Academy President/CEO

If you're a music lover than you already know about The Grammy's and the wonderful awards and celebrations they put on. 2015 marks The Grammy's fifty-seventh annual awards, which brings new nominees and a house full of musicians from old classics to the twenty-first century music icons, all in hopes of wining just one of the symbolic, gold, turn table statues. 

If you watched last year you would of seen Sir James Paul McCartney win the Best Rock Song award with Dave Ghrol, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear for their song "Cut Me Some Slack". McCartney also took home two more awards that night which include, Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package for Wings Over America, and Best Surround Sound Album and Best Music Film for his music documentary "Live Kisses", a film about making McCartney's old classic favorites called Kisses On The Bottom. But any Beatlemaniac who watched the ceremony would know that that wasn't the only highlight of the night. In fact not only did McCartney take home three awards but Ringo Starr performed a song that was sure to please the crowd, "Photograph". The night however did not end there, the two surviving (once) mop-topped legends took the stage together, reuniting, to preform "Queenie Eye", off of McCartney's newest album, New.

Last years Grammy's were almost a Beatle lover's dream when not only McCartney and Starr took the stage together but the boys along with their two deceased friends, John Lennon and George Harrison, were awarded with the Life Time Achievement award, given to the four men for their contributes with the little band, The Beatles. Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison were there to accept the award.  Besides the fifty-sixth annual Grammy's last year, The ceremony also highlighted The Beatles on behalf of their own  event celebrating The Beatles pavement to the British Invasion in America with "The Night That Changed America: A GRAMMY Salute To The Beatles"

This year George Harrison alone, will be recognized with The Lifetime Achievement Award, an award that "honors performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance other field of recording," ( Grammy.com ). George Harrison himself  has won Ten Grammy's with The Beatles, Three Grammy's as a solo artist, and one with the Super-group, The Traveling Wilburys. 

Amongst George Harrison, Pierre Boulez, Buddy Guy, the Bee Gees, the Louvin Brothers, and Wayne Shorter will be honored with The Lifetime Achievement Award during a special celebration for invited guest on Saturday 7 February, 2015, while they will be formaly acknowledge at the fifty-seventh annual awards on the following day; to take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

Articles That May Interest You;

• "All Things Must Pass" Inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame
•  56th Grammy Award Ceremony- Paul and Ringo
• The Traveling Wilburys Volume I
• The Traveling Wilburys Volume III
• The Apple Years Box Set
• The Beatles Coming To America
• The Beatles Ed Sullivan Performances

56 Grammys Award Ceremony- Paul and Ringo

Last night, 26 January, 2014, the 56th annual Grammy award ceremony was held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California; The show broadcasted on CBS at 8 pm EST being filmed live at 5 pm PST.  LL Cool J made his way back to the front, hosting the ceremony for his third time (previously hosting the 54th and 55th awards). Amongst the many talented artist and collaborators at the Grammys sat seven very important people, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Barbara Starkey (Bach), Nancy McCartney (Shevell), Ringo Starr, and Sir Paul McCartney!

As the night went on with many awards and preformances from numerous artist, mixing from older generations to new the fourteenth award, "Best Rock Song" was award to Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear for their song "Cut Me Some Slack" from Sound City- Real to Reel, a music documentary produced by Dave Grohl. See The boys receiving the award below;

Picture taken By Sean Lennon which he captioned "Homies"

 The previous day the award for "Life Time Achievement" was given to the Fab Four (finally!). Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison were there to accept the award, Paul was busy with the band rehearsing.

"It's a Lifetime Achievement Award, but I feel like we've all got a lot more life left in us," Starr says on receiving this award"It's a great afternoon; it's all about music. . . . The Beatles' music is still out there and that's what I'm most proud of."

Yoko Ono said ,

"I'm here today because I think John would have wanted me to be here"

And Ronald Isley even spoke about the award,

 "Me and Paul talk about that all the time," he continues,"And we talked about that all night, and he said, you know, if it wasn't for our group, they would probably still be in Liverpool."

 

After the award for "Best Rock Song" was presented and a few others Ringo Starr took the stage to sing an obvious crowds favorite, 'Photograph', and ended it with his signature "Peace and Love" saying. 

Not only did Ringo preform but Paul's rainbow piano was rolled on stage to play one of his new songs from his NEW album, 'Queenie Eye'. It was everything a Beatlemaniac could ask for when Ringo Starr was shown playing  with Paul McCartney. The two remaining Beatles reunited on stage, one of the best performances in Grammy history! Video below;

Besides the "Best Rock Song" Paul had received three more awards last night,

• 'Best Rock Song' for 'Cut Me Some Slack' along with Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear
• 'Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package' for 'Wings Over America'
• 'Best Surround Sound Album' and 'Best Music Film' for 'Live Kisses'

 

"This coming February to honor The Beatles 50th year anniversary of being on The Ed Sullivan Show The Grammys are presenting  "The Night That Changed America: A GRAMMY Salute To The Beatles."  It will be a 2- hour showing and brodcasted on the CBS Television Network on Sunday February 9, 2014 ( the exact date The Beatles first played Ed Sullivan, read more about their performances here) from 9-10 p.m ET/PT.


Read more about the Ed Sullivan Grammy event on their website, here " -Taken from an old post about All Things Must Pass being iducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, check it out here.

 

"All Things Must Pass inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame

Today (December 4, 2013) George Harrison's facebook page posted the following;

"We were thrilled to learn today that The Recording Academy has announced 'All Things Must Pass' is to be inducted into the legendary GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2014.

The GRAMMYs Hall of Fame honours both singles, and album recordings of all genres that are at least 25 years old, and which “exhibit qualitative or historical significance”. This year – the 40th anniversary of the Hall of Fame – there are to be 27 inductees, bringing the total list to 960 titles (this list is on display at The Grammy Museum at L.A. Live).

Neil Portnow (President/CEO of The Recording Academy) described these recordings as “memorable and inspiring, [they] are proudly added to our growing catalog — knowing that they have become a part of our musical, social, and cultural history.”

The newly revealed inductees will be acknowledged during the 56th annual Grammy Awards, which will air January 26, 2014, on CBS. "

 The album is being inducted along with many other albums from The Joshua Tree (U2)  to singles like B.J Thomas's single "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" and The Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Women"  and many others!

The Beatles as a group have been nominated for 25 Grammy Awards and won 8 ( Bold on the following list) out of the 25;

1964; 

Beatles Grammy For "Best Performance By Vocal Group"

• Record Of The Year- "I Want To Hold You Hand"
• Best Contemporary Song- "A Hard Days Night"
• Best New Artist
• Best Performance by a Vocal Group- "A Hard Days Night"

1966;

• Contemporary Rock & Roll Group Vocal Preformance- "Help!"
• Album of the Year- Help!
• Vocal Group Performance- "Help!"

1967;

• Album of The Year- Revolver  
• Song of The Year- "Michelle"

1968;

• Album of The Year- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Best Contemporary Album- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Group Vocal Preformance- "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
• Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)- "A Day in the Life"

1969;

• Album of the Year- Magical Mystery Tour
• Record of the Year- "Hey Jude"
• Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals- "Hey Jude"

 1970;

• Album of the Year- Abbey Road
• Contemporary Vocal Group- Abbey Road

1971; 

• Record of the Year- "Let It Be"
• Contemporary Vocal Group- Let It Be

1996;

• Best Historical Album- Live at the BBC

1997;

• Best Music Video, Long Form- The Beatles Anthology
• Best Music Video, Short Form- "Free as a Bird"
• Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal- "Free as a Bird" 

George Harrison alone and after The Beatles has won a few other Grammy's such as ;

•  Album of The Year- The Concert For Bangla Desh [1972] (Read more about the concert here ).
•  Best Rock Performance By A Duo or Group Vocal- Traveling Wilburys Volume One [1989]
• Best Pop Instrumental Performance- "Marwa Blues" [2003]

This coming February to honor The Beatles 50th year anniversary of being on The Ed Sullivan Show The Grammys are presenting  "The Night That Changed America: A GRAMMY Salute To The Beatles."  It will be a 2- hour showing and brodcasted on the CBS Television Network on Sunday February 9, 2014 ( the exact date The Beatles first played Ed Sullivan, read more about their performances here) from 9-10 p.m ET/PT.


Read more about the Ed Sullivan Grammy event on their website, here.