1. Artists who had already won a Grammy could compete for the award for best new artist.
Lauryn Hill won two Grammys in 1996 with Fugees, but was allowed to compete for the best new artist when she released her first solo album two years later. She won the prize. Now, “any artist with a pre-Grammy nomination as a performer excludes eligibility for the best new artist category (including nomination as an established member of a nominated group”).
2. “Supergroups” can compete for the best new artist.
Crosby, Stills & Nash, formed by former members of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies, won the 1969 award. Asia, made up of former members of King Crimson, Yes, The Buggles and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, was nominated for the 1982 award. As a result, David Crosby (The Byrds, CSN) and Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Asia) were nominated as best new artist as a member of both groups. They are the only musicians in Grammy history to be nominated twice for best new artist.
According to today’s rules, “Any artist with a pre-Grammy nomination as a performer, including a nomination as an established member of a nominated group, is not eligible for the best new artist.”
A Grammy spokesman adds: “Any artist who has made progress in a previous eligibility year is not eligible for the best new artist today. Our national screening committee determines whether an artist has made progress in a previous eligibility year. “
3. Artists can win two Grammys in the main categories if they also produce or co-produce the recording.
From 1965 to 1978, artists who also produced or co-produced their winning recordings for the album or album of the year won two Grammys – one as an artist and the other as a producer. This brought three extra Grammys for Stevie Wonder (who won the album of the year three times in those years with self-produced albums) and Simon & Garfunkel (who co-produced two winners of the album of the year and one of the album of the year). Simon also won an extra Grammy room for a solo album, Still crazy after all these years, which he co-produced.
Other lucky artists who benefited from this rule were Herb Alpert (1965), George Harrison (1972), Daryl Dragon (1975), Fleetwood Mac (1977) and a handful of self-producing artists who appeared in the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the winner of the 1978 album of the year – Bee Gees, two members of KC and the Sunshine Band (Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch), Ralph MacDonald, David Shire and Kool & the Gang.
The Grammy changed the rule in 1979. From that year on, an artist could be nominated only once in each of these categories, even if he or she contributed to recording in other capacities.
4. Two solo albums by the same artist can be nominated as album of the year.
This happened only once, in the first year of the Grammy, 1958, when two Frank Sinatra (Come fly with me and Frank Sinatra sings only for loners) have been appointed. They probably split the vote, allowing Henry Mancini Peter Gunn music go out with the prize. It couldn’t happen today.
In 1989, Tom Petty’s first solo album, Full moon fever, competed with an album by Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup of which he was a member. Petty was nominated for both albums. It is it could happen today. Grammy allows artists to have two nominees for the album of the year if the second is with a co-nominee (Petty / Wilburys example) or both albums are with different co-nominees.
5. A track on a Grammy-winning album could compete the following year.
Paul Simon’s “Graceland” won the record of the year in 1987, although his album of the same name won the album of the year in 1986. Now, once an album wins a Grammy, the tracks on that album do not qualify for the album of the year in a subsequent year.
The Grammy rule: “A track or single from a winner of the album of the year would not be eligible, because it must be a newly released single from an album that never won a Grammy.”
6. Classic albums can be nominated for the album of the year.
In the first three years of the Grammy (1958-60), four classic albums – two by Van Cliburn and one by Sviatoslav Richter and Erich Leinsdorf – were nominated for the album of the year. The Academy decided it was a comparison between apples and oranges. From 1961, the album of the year was designed only for non-classical albums and a separate category was created: album of the year – classic.
7. Old songs can win songwriting awards.
“Unforgettable” was a pop standard for four decades, when she won the song of the year award in 1991. Nat “King” Cole presented the song in 1951. She won the 1991 prize after Natalie Cole recorded a new version that featured her dad.
Other winners of the song of the year who had varying degrees of success years before receiving the award include “The first time I saw your face”, “Always on My Mind” and “Wind Beneath My Wings”.
In other categories, “Lean on Me” won the award for best R&B song in 1987, 15 years after Bill Withers was successful; “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” won the award for best R&B song in 1989 17 years after Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes was a hit; “Layla” won the award for best rock song in 1992 20 years after Derek & the Dominoes made a hit; and “City of New Orleans” won the award for best country song in 1984, 22 years after Arlo Guthrie made it a success.
Now, “A song … must be a new song or a song that first reaches prominence during the year of eligibility.”
8. Instrumentals can compete for the song of the year.
In 1960, “Theme from Exodus” and “Theme From a Summer Place” competed for the song of the year. “Exodus” won. Now, “a song must contain melody and lyrics”.
9. Long-dead artists can receive Grammy nominations.
Mahalia Jackson and Jim Morrison each received a Grammy nomination for best spoken word album eight years after their deaths. Billie Holiday received a nod in that category 14 years after her death.
But that’s nothing compared to country legend Hank Williams, who won a Grammy for best country vocal collaboration in 1989 and was nominated in two more categories for “There’s a tear in my beer”, a collaboration with his son, Hank Williams Jr. Old Williams died on New Year’s Day 1953.
The Grammy made the rules stricter after that. In 1991, when Natalie Cole joined her father on “Unforgettable”, only she was nominated for the record of the year and best traditional pop performance. (The track won both awards.) The rule now is that artists must have recorded their vocals in the past five years, which excludes long-dead artists.
10. Albums and singles can compete in the same category.
Until the early 1990s, albums and singles competed for performance awards. Here is one of the most extreme examples. In 1971, the multi-artist rock opera on double disc Jesus Christ Superstar competed for the best pop vocal performance for a duo, group or chorus with the cheerful single “All I Ever Need Is You” by Sonny & Cher, which had a quick 2:34 run. (The others nominated in the category were “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” by Bee Gees and the album full of hits by the Carpenters Wood workers.)
11. Rock and pop artists competed in the same categories.
Before 1979, rock did not have its own dedicated categories, so rock and pop artists competed. Among the named tracks or albums that would probably have been classified as rock if such categories existed at that time: Joe Cocker English and crazy dogs (1970), Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee” (1971), Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1976), Eagles’ Hotel California (1977), Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors (1977) and Jackson Browne’s Running in the void (1978).
12. R&B and rap artists competed in the same categories.
Before 1988, rap had no categories of its own, so rap artists and R&B competed. In 1986, Run-DMC’s Raising Hell (which contained Aerosmith’s classic “Walk This Way” remake) and a rap success, Chicago Bears Shufflin ‘Crew “The Super Bowl Shuffle” were nominated for best R&B performance by a duo or group.