Strangest Grammy Nominations of All Time
Every year around Grammy nomination time, pundits point out how certain artists repeatedly appear on the ballot while others are glaringly overlooked. Just as interesting are the occasionally bizarre songs and performers that wind up in contention for, and sometimes winning, top honors. Here are 13 of the strangest nominations to date.
The envelope, please...
1974: Dawn featuring Tony Orlando was nominated for Song of the Year for "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." Hokey by today's standards, the tune was a worldwide hit in 1973 and sold millions of copies.
1980: Frank Zappa’s disdain for commercialism didn't stop voters from nominating him for Best Rock Vocal Performance – Male for the disco-spoof "Dancin' Fool." Another pop satire by Zappa, "Valley Girl," featuring his daughter Moon Unit, was nominated three years later for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.
1985: Chainsaw wielding, car-detonating Wendy O. Williams scared the Grammy committee into nominating her first solo album, WOW, for Best Rock Vocal Performance – Female. Songs like "Bump and Grind" clearly resonated with mohawked voters.
1988: TV theme songs don't usually nab Grammy nods. But soulful jazz singer/songwriter Al Jarreau was nominated for Best Male Vocal for "Theme From Moonlighting." Man, that theme for “Rosanne” always gets overlooked!
1989: The Grammy committee meant well when by introducing the Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal category, but voters were perplexed and selected Jethro Tull’s lukewarm Crest of a Knave, overlooking Metallica’s …And Justice For All, which seemed a shoo-in for the category.
1990: Three years after the Tonight Show Band with Doc Severinsen was nominated for Best Pop Instrumental for "Johnny’s Theme," Paul Shaffer received a nod for the "Late Night" theme.
1991: Somehow, Grammy voters didn’t realize the main hook for Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" was a blatant rip-off of David Bowie and Freddie Mercury’s hit "Under Pressure” and gave Vanilla a nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance.
Also in 1991, funky alt-hip-hop group Digital Underground were nominated for Best Rap Performance by Duo or Group for their zany track "The Humpty Dance." Maybe more rappers should wear white fur hats and Groucho Marx glasses, especially when singing lines line, "My name is Humpty/pronounced with 'Umpty/ Yo ladies, oh how I like to funk thee."
1995: Usually artists nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group actually have a strong vocalist. That wasn't the case for Crash Test Dummies, whose bullfrog-throated singer Brad Roberts received accolades for the phlegmatic "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm."
2001: Electronic music pioneers Fatboy Slim, the Chemical Brothers, and Moby all had strong singles in 2001, but Baha Men inexplicably won Best Dance Recording for "Who Let the Dogs Out," which originally appeared in Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. The reggae-rap anthem soon became a favorite at sporting events across the country.
2002: Palmdale, Calif. stoner Afroman’s sing-songy novelty track "Because I Got High" was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance. The song tells the story of a slacker whose plans are all thwarted because of his greed for weed.
2011: Had voters had more guts, Record of the Year could have gone to Cee-Lo Green for his '60s-Motown –inspired , "F*** You," the venom of which was directed at the fickle, cutthroat music business. It was the first time a song featuring an "F"-bomb in the title was nominated for the category.
