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The first Grammy Awards

Published:Sunday | February 5, 2023 | 2:25 AM
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Black Uhuru was praised for their Grammy win in the March 2, 1985 edition of The Gleaner.
Black Uhuru was praised for their Grammy win in the March 2, 1985 edition of The Gleaner.
Ross Bagdasrian gets a kiss from singer Helen Greco as she handed him the third of three Grammys he won on May 4, 1959 in Los Angeles. He won Grammys for Best Recording for Children, Best Comedy Performance, and Best Non-Classical Engineered Song.
AP
Ross Bagdasrian gets a kiss from singer Helen Greco as she handed him the third of three Grammys he won on May 4, 1959 in Los Angeles. He won Grammys for Best Recording for Children, Best Comedy Performance, and Best Non-Classical Engineered Song.
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The music industry’s Grammy Awards made its debut on May 4, 1959, 30 years after the Academy Awards handed out its first Oscar honouring the best in movies.

The initial Grammy celebration was bicoastal, with events in Los Angeles and New York. A total of 28 awards were handed out, the fewest categories ever and a fraction of the 91 being handed out on Sunday.

Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack buddies, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr, donned black tie for the festivities held in the Beverly Hilton’s grand ballroom. Sinatra only took home one gramophone trophy after getting a leading six nominations, for art direction, not singing. His Only the Lonely won Best Album Cover.

What follows is AP’s dispatch from the inaugural event. It’s a reflection of the times:

ITALIAN TOP WINNER OF ‘GRAMMY’ AWARDS

By Bob Thomas

HOLLYWOOD, May 5 (AP):

The newly formed Recording Academy has given its top award to an Italian, Domenico Modugno, for his Volare.

His Decca record was hailed the best of 1959 at the first annual Grammy awards Monday night. The star-filled audience at the Beverly Hilton seemed surprised but pleased at the academy’s gesture of international goodwill.

Volare was also named Best Big Song of the Year.

Multiple honours went to Californian, Ross Bagdasarian, the Fresno lad whose raucous Chipmunk Song was named Best Comedy Performance, Best Children’s Recording and Best Engineered Record.

Double wins were scored by Ella Fitzgerald, who was named Best Female Vocal Performer ( Irving Berlin Song Book) and cited for the Best Jazz Performance ( Ella Sings Duke Ellington).

Count Basie won two awards of his Basie album as Best Jazz Group Performance and Dance Band Performance. Henry Mancini’s Peter Gunn also got two awards as Best Arrangement and Album of the Year.

Durable Perry Como was handed the Best Male Vocal Performance award for his Catch a Falling Star.

In the younger set, the Champs’ Tequila won for rhythm and blues performance. The Kingston Trio’s Tom Dooley scored in the country and Western category.

Van Cliburn was a winner among the long-hairs for his Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 as best classical instrumental performance (Concerto-Scale).

The top Broadway and movie albums were The Music Man and Gigli.

Other awards included:

Vocal Group or Chorus – Louis Prima, Keely Smith That Old Black Magic; Orchestra Performance – The Best of the Stan Freeberg Shows, Classical Instrumental Performance (Not Concerto-Scale) – Segovia Golden Jubilee.

The fledgling academy numbers 700 for the record industry’s leaders and artistes. The name Grammy came from the design of the statuettes awarded by the academy.

The Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album was originally called the Best Reggae Recording. It was introduced in 1985 and was first presented to Black Uhuru.