1990 Grammy Awards

Looking back on the 1990 Grammy Awards (for 1989 music), there are a few key differences between what the awards are now from what they were then:

1. There weren't as many awards, and in particular, there aren't genre album awards like there are now.

2. "Performance" categories (i.e. those that aren't "album," "record," or "song") were a mix of albums and singles--something I always found really confusing. How, as a voter, could you reliably compare an album competing with a single when voting?

3. The key awards weren't as diverse, with AOTY and ROTY dominated by adult-leaning pop/rock.

Bonnie Raitt was the evening's big winner, snagging Album of the Year for Nick of Time. Although it was her tenth album, Raitt had never been a major star, and the award really catapulted her career into a higher level. Nick of Time shot up to #1 about a month later, one of the last times that an AOTY award did that for an album. It's second single, "Have a Heart," almost became a top 40 hit, peaking at #49. Raitt also won best female pop performance for "Nick of Time" (the song), best female rock performance for Nick of Time (the album), and best traditional blues recording for "I'm in the Mood" with John Lee Hooker.

The success Raitt found in 1990 with Nick of Time would be sustained for the next few years. Luck of the Draw (1991) was also nominated for Album of the Year, hit #2 on the albums chart, and gave Raitt her biggest hit, "Something to Talk About," which peaked at #5. Two other singles, "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "Not the Only One" were also top 40 hits. "I Can't Make You Love Me" in particular has enjoyed enduring popularity; it has been covered by many artists, including George Michael, and frequently makes "best songs of all time" lists. Her 1994 album, Luck of the Draw, was also nominated for Album of the Year, hit #1 on the Billboard albums chart, and produced another top 20 hit, "Love Sneakin' Up on You."

I'm listening to Nick of Time for the first time while writing this, and it's quite good, landing at a comfortable intersection between pop, rock, blues and country. It has a surprising amount of synthesizers in it--I guess was expecting something more acoustic--but has quite lovely melodies. Nick of Time beat Don Henley's The End of the Innocence, Fine Young Cannibals The Raw and the Cooked, Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever, and The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1.

Better Midler snagged Record of the Year for "Wind Beneath My Wings," the song from the film Beaches that was a #1 hit during the summer of 1989. Midler's "The Rose" was nominated in 1981, and she would be nominated again in 1991 for "From a Distance," a #2 hit in December 1990. "...Wings" beat three other #1 hits for the award--Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy," and Mike + The Mechanics' "The Living Years," as well as Don Henley's top 10 hit "The End of the Innocence." Although it was first recorded in 1982, "Wind Beneath My Wings" also won the Song of the Year award, a category that had four of the same nominees, substituting Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville's "Don't Know Much" for "She Drives Me Crazy."

Best New Artist went to Milli Vanilli, and then was taken away after it was found out they had lip-synched their way through Girl You Know It's True. I'm still saving all the details for a piece on lip-synching controversies, since this was just one of several big ones at the time (although it was by far the biggest). Other nominees in this category were The Indigo Girls, who had an enduring career, Neneh Cherry, Soul II Soul and Tone Loc.

Other key wins:

k.d. lang won best female country performance for Absolute Torch and Twang, her second Grammy Award.

Michael Bolton picked up best male pop vocal performance for his #1 hit, "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You."

Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville won best duo or group pop performance for "Don't Know Much."

Young MC won Best Rap Performance for "Bust a Move." This was the second and last time the award would be given--in 1991 it was split into separate solo and duo/group awards.