Mitchell, Green Get Grammys

Joni Mitchell, Al Green, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney and Count Basie will all be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards in conjunction with the 2002 Grammy Awards, to be held February 27th in Los Angeles.

Mitchell emerged from the New York folk scene in 1967, and went on to score mainstream success with hits like "Help Me" and "Big Yellow Taxi," and the classic album Blue.

Green, one of soul music's greatest vocal talents, earned nine Grammy Awards over the course of his career thanks to hits like "Tired of Being Alone," "Let's Stay Together" and "I'm Still in Love With You."

Clooney and Como both helped to define the smooth vocal style of the 1950s, Clooney with a jazz-based style and standards like "Come On-a My House," and Como in the pop arena, where his "Catch a Fallin' Star" earned him Best Male Vocalist honors at the first Grammy Awards ceremony in 1959.

The New Jersey-born Basie, who passed away in 1984, was among the biggest bandleaders of the swing era.

Handed out each year by the trustees of the Recording Academy, the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes artists for lifelong contributions to the recording medium.

Also announced were recipients of the Trustees Award, which honors non-performing contributions to the industry, and will be given in 2002 to pioneering producer Tom Dowd and legendary DJ Alan Freed, who is credited with popularizing the term "rock & roll."

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“The Pretender”

Foo Fighters | 2007

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter