Where Will All the Grammys Go

Come Wednesday night, two of the biggest acts of 1997 may get shut out of the Grammys. The awards, which typically embrace big sellers, is casting a critical eye towards a couple of the chart toppers. For starters, pop sensations the Spice Girls didn't even get nominated. Perhaps still feeling the sting over its Milli Vanilli fiasco a couple years back, Grammy is staying away from too much sugar. Meanwhile, despite delivering some of the biggest crossover pop hits of the year, rapper Puffy Combs' nominations are basically relegated to the rap ghetto.

So it looks like a wide open field. Will it be the year of the Baby Boomer (Bob Dylan, James Taylor, John Fogerty)? The year of the New Kids (Hanson, Fiona Apple, Maxwell)? Or the year of Paula Cole (who bagged seven nominations)? Our guess is Grammy will be spread itself evenly, with no consensus winner going home with a fist-full of trophies. Who'll win? Who knows? (And really, who cares?) But here's what we think, along with some nominations of our own.

Record of the Year

"Where Have All the Cowboys Gone," Paula Cole
"Sunny Came Home," Shawn Colvin
"Everyday Is a Winding Road," Sheryl Crow
"MMMBop," Hanson
"I Believe I Can Fly," R. Kelly
(Missing In Action: "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy & Faith Evans featuring 112)

Look at that list. Does Grammy love female singer/songwriters or what? (What, no SarahMcLachlan?) But here the women rule each other out and the boy wonders from Tulsa takehome the honors.

Album of the Year

The Day, Babyface
This Fire, Paula Cole
Time Out of Mind, Bob Dylan
Flaming Pie, Paul McCartney
OK Computer, Radiohead
(MIA: Life After Death, Notorious B.I.G; Middle of Nowhere, Hanson)

Perhaps the easiest call of the night. Grammy loves Babyface, but he hardly dominated in '97. In the end, Paula Cole's biggest prize may just be getting nominated. (Remember Joan Osborne who got a bunch of nominations two years back and went home empty-handed?) McCartney's nomination for Flaming Pie represents nostalgia run amok. And the critically acclaimed OK Computer by Great Britain's commercially struggling Radiohead probably stands a better chance of the Nobel Peace Prize this year than it does a Grammy. That leaves Minnesota's own Robert Zimmerman; Bob Dylan, c'mon down, as Grammy welcomes the poet home.

Song of the Year

"Don't Speak," No Doubt
"How Do I Live," LeAnn Rimes/Trisha Yearwood
"I Believe I Can Fly," R. Kelly
"Sunny Came Home," Shawn Colvin
"Where Have All the Cowboys Gone," Paula Cole
(MIA: "One Headlight," Wallflowers; "Building a Mystery," Sarah McLachlan; "Candle in the Wind '97," Elton John (it *is* the best-selling single in the history of recorded music.)

The most interesting rivalry here surrounds the multi-format hit, "How Do I Live" written by Diane Warren and performed by both Rimes and Yearwood (go to related story). In an upset though, the Grammy goes to Shawn Colvin. (Did we mention Grammy loves thoughtful, women singer/songwriters?)

Best New Artist

Fiona Apple
Erykah Badu
Paula Cole
Puff Daddy
Hanson
(MIA: Robyn; Spice Girls; Matchbox 20)

Will this be the bone thrown to Puffy? Probably not. Like Cole, who already put out two records before her most current hit, Puffy's been producing and writing for so long he hardly seems like a new act. In the battle of the young divas, Badu wins out because Grammy respects good manners.

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

"Butterfly," Mariah Carey
"Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" Paula Cole
"Sunny Came Home," Shawn Colvin
"Foolish Games," Jewel
"Building a Mystery," Sarah McLachlan
(MIA: "Criminal," Fiona Apple)

With Jewel seeming like last year's news, the Grammy goes to McLachlan for her Lilith Fair creation as much as for this song.

Best Male Pop Performance

"Everytime I Close My Eyes," Babyface
"Candle in the Wind '97," Elton John
"Whenever Wherever Whatever," Maxwell
"Fly Like An Eagle," Seal
"Barely Breathing," Duncan Sheik
(MIA: "Your Woman," White Town)

The second easiest call of the night: Elton for his eulogy.

Best Performances By a Duo Or Group With Vocal

"Silver Springs," Fleetwood Mac
"MMMBop," Hanson
"Virtual Insanity," Jamiroquai
"Don't Speak," No Doubt
"Anybody Seen My Baby," Rolling Stones
(MIA: "Semi-Charmed Life," Third Eye Blind; "How Bizarre," OMC)

Why are Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones nominated in the pop group category and then later in the rock group category? Ah, the mysterious ways of Grammy. Doesn't matter 'cause neither one are going to win. Hanson rules.

Best Pop Album

This Fire, Paula Cole
The Dance, Fleetwood Mac
Traveling Without Moving, Jamiroquai
Surfacing, Sarah McLachlan
Hourglass, James Taylor
(MIA: A Few Small Repairs, Shawn Colvin; Life, the Cardigans; Bringing Down the Horse, the Wallflowers; Middle of Nowhere, Hanson)

What does Grammy love almost as much as smart women with acoustic guitars? Smart men with acoustic guitars. J.T. makes it feel like the '70s again.

Best Female Rock Vocal Performance

"Criminal," Fiona Apple
"Bitch," Meredith Brooks
"Shy," Ani DiFranco
"Four Leaf Clover," Abra Moore
"1959," Patti Smith
(MIA: "Pretty Deep," Tonya Donelly)

A total toss-up. We'll take Moore's near-perfect "Four Leaf Clover" any day.

Best Male Rock Performance

"Dead Man Walking," David Bowie
"Cold Irons Bound," Bob Dylan
"Blueboy," John Fogerty
"Just Another Day," John Mellencamp
"Thunder Road," Bruce Springsteen
(MIA: "New Pollution," Beck)

Remember just a few years back when there was no Best Female Rock Vocal Performance category because Grammy supposedly couldn't find enough qualified entries? Well, if there were any justice, this would have been the year to scrap the male category. Part of the problem is that male rock singers are a vanishing breed. (Quick, aside from Beck, name a solo male rock singer. Tough, eh?) So Grammy has to peel nominees from the past. And man, did Grammy peel. Bruce Springsteen is nominated for a 20-year-old song that he re-recorded live six years ago for an MTV special, but the actual record was only released in the States last year. If there's any justice, Fogerty wins and all is forgiven.

Best Rock Song

"Bitch," Meredith Brooks
"Crash Into Me," Dave Matthews Band
"Criminal," Fiona Apple
"The Difference," Wallflowers
"One Headlight," Wallflowers
(MIA: "The Freshman," Verve Pipe; "#1 Crush," Garbage; "Sell Out," Reel Big Fish; "Tubthumping," Chumbawamba; "New Pollution," Beck; "The Impression That I Get," Mighty Mighty Bosstones)

Matthews beats out a field that could have been much stronger.

Best Rock Album

Nine Lives, Aerosmith
Blue Moon Swamp, John Fogerty
The Colour and the Shape, Foo Fighters
Bridges to Babylon, Rolling Stones
Pop, U2
(MIA: Let's Face It, Mighty Mighty Bosstones; So Much for the Afterglow, Everclear)

The nominees include four classic rockers (hey, U2 has been around 18 years), and a band that had trouble getting anyone's attention last year. Well, at least one of the classic rock records was itself an instant classic: Fogerty's Blue Moon Swamp.

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance

"On & On," Eryka Badu
"Honey," Mariah Carey
"I Believe in You and Me," Whitney Houston
"Summertime," Chaka Khan
"When You Talk About Love," Patti LaBelle
(MIA: "Do You Know," Robyn, which would raise the interesting question of whether a white singer from Sweden could ever win an R&B honor)

If Badu's ever had an easier field to beat, we've never seen it. Light the incense now.

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance

"I Believe I Can Fly," R. Kelly
"For You," Kenny Lattimore
"Back to Living Again," Curtis Mayfield
"You Make Me Wanna," Usher
"When You Call On Me/Baby That's When I Come Runnin,'" Luther Vandross
(MIA: "Return of the Mack," Mark Morrison)

Kelly's gospel-flavored graduation theme vs. Usher's suggestive make-out mix. We'll go with Kelly, 'cause it's the year of positivity.

Best Rap Solo Performance

"Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See," Busta Rymes
"The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)," Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot
"Ain't Nobody," LL Cool J
"Hypnotize," Notorious B.I.G.
"Men In Black," Will Smith
(MIA: "Cold Rock A Party," MC Lyte)

Grammy frowns upon gangland-style assassinations (especially unsolved ones), so the race is really between the "Men in Black" movie jingle and the Heaven-sent "Rain." Grammy gets supa dupa and Missy gets the prize.

ERIC BOEHLERT(February 23, 1998)

For more information on this year's nominees, be sure to visit our special Grammy section!