10 Times the Grammys Got It Wrong
Forget, if you can, the fact that Queen, Jimi Hendrix and the Who have never won a Grammy. Those are big-picture oversights that only add fuel to the tons of Grammy hate that's raged since the '60s. It's the Recording Academy's knack for getting it head-smackingly wrong year after year that shows just how meaningless the awards really are.
It wasn't easy, but we pared down a whole lotta groan-worthy moments to come up with our list of the 10 Times the Grammys Got It Wrong.
The first thing you'll notice is that the Grammys have a long history with this sorta thing. Like it wasn't bad enough they pretty much ignored rock 'n' roll for those first crucial years, when Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley and other future legends were shaping the music during its most formative period. But then when the Beatles reconfigured the entire pop music landscape, in one of the most significant years in pop culture's history, the Grammys handed out a major award to a Broadway musical.
It didn't stop there. Everyone from the Beach Boys and the Jefferson Airplane to the Eagles and Pink Floyd were stung by Grammy voters over the years. And who can forget Metallica's now-famous loss to Jethro Tull, who won the awards' first-ever metal nod back in the late '80s?
There are times, of course, where the Grammys got it right. Lots of rock legends have finally earned awards over the years, whether for new or archival records. But the times they got it wrong just seem to stand out more, as you'll see in our above gallery.