Grammy Award Trivia

The 2019 Grammy Awards will air tomorrow evening. I decided to take a look at the history of this prestigious music award.

Now that I have a few facts, let’s play trivia.

• When were the first Grammy Awards held?
• Where did the awards’ ceremony take place?
• Who were some of the big winners?
• What songs were recognized?

Here’s what I found. The first awards’ ceremony was held in 1959 to recognize musical accomplishments from 1958. Two separate ceremonies took place simultaneously—one in Beverly Hills, CA and one in New York City. The big winners in that year were Ella Fitzgerald, Ross Bagdasarian, Count Basie, Domenico Modugno, and Henry Mancini. I know a few of those names. I wasn’t familiar with Ross Bagdasarian, but I was familiar with the song he performed, and I’m certain that you will be too. Ross Bagdasarian sang under the name David Seville—yes, as in, David Seville and the Chipmunks. That was one of the songs recognized in the children’s category that year. Here are some others. Hopefully, something will touch a pleasant memory.

• Catch a Falling Star, by Perry Como (Best Vocal Performance – male)
• Fever, by Peggy Lee
• Come Fly with Me, by Frank Sinatra
• Only the Lonely, by Frank Sinatra
• Irving Berlin Songbook, by Ella Fitzgerald (Best Vocal Performance – female)
• Music from Peter Gunn, by Henry Mancini (Album of the Year)
• Tom Dooley, by The Kingston Trio
• Tequila, by The Champs
• Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu, by Domenico Modugno (Record of the Year and Song of the Year)
• The Chipmunk Song, by Ross Bagdasarian

There’s another great female vocalist whose name is not among this list. Adaline (aka Adda Marsh) was only a Grammy nominee in my fictional novel, The Street Singer. She attended the Beverly Hills ceremony where Ella Fitzgerald took the award.

I hope you enjoyed this walk down memory lane, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading The Street Singer, now available for pre-sale at the following stores.

Amazon,

Barnes and Noble, 

PBG