MY FAVORITE SONGS OF 1972

Back in 1972, I was nine years old for most of the year until I turned ten in November. This was also the time when I became quite serious about music. I would look forward to watching first "American Bandstand" and then tune in to "Soul Train" on Saturdays to see the latest songs performed by the artists. I would learn the name of the singers and then get my mother to take me to our local record store to buy these records. I would then spend hours listening to these songs over and over. Here are some of my favorite songs of 1972 in no particular order with an emphasis on those tunes that you just don't hear that often anymore:

THE 61ST ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS

What a difference a year makes.

Last year, Lorde was the only female nominated for Album Of The Year and the only spot she was offered on the show was being a part of the Tom Petty tribute (which she respectfully turned down). Now with The 2019 Grammy Awards, there were five female artists receiving a place in the Best Album category. And the fifteen-time Grammy winner, Alicia Keys was selected as the host of the telecast which is the first time a woman has done that in fourteen years. With this year's Grammys, women dominated the evening by delivering some of the most electrifying performances of the night while also receiving a fair share of the trophies handed out including the top prize of Album Of The Year.

Ms Keys proved to be a perfect host, bringing a positive energy and laid-back style to the event. She brought some excitement almost immediately when she brought out an impressive roster of powerful women to the stage; Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and the very missed, former First Lady, Michelle Obama who all shared the importance of music in their lives. Keys later in the program displayed why she won all those Grammys as she impressively played two pianos at the same time (which she acknowledged was in the style of jazz pianist, Hazel Scott) and performed a melody of her favorite old tunes (a tribute to birthday girl, Lauryn Hill) and new (Ella Mai's Grammy-winning hit, "Boo'd Up").

This year had a particularly strong line-up of musical performances that kicked off with Camilla Cabello celebrating Latin music in a lively production number of her hit, "Havana" with some help from Ricky Martin and J Balvin, which they ended the performance with his song, "Mi Gente". A tribute to Dolly Parton, who was this year's MusiCares honoree, was a respectable affair to the beloved country artist starting with Kacey Musgraves and Katy Perry doing a shaky version of "Here You Come Again". Parton, who seemed to take over this retrospective medley at this point, sang with Miley Cyrus for a cover of "Jolene"  before they were joined by Maren Morris for a beautiful rendition of "After The Gold Rush". Little Big Town came out to join Parton on a new song from the "Dumplin" soundtrack, "Red Shoes" before everyone took the stage to close with Dolly's biggest hit, "9 To 5".

Unlike Ms Parton, Diana Ross didn't need anyone's help to pay tribute to her career. With her proudly announcing she's celebrating her seventy-fifth birthday next month, the still quite stunning singer had the usually jaded industry crowd mesmerized as she did lively versions of "The Best Years of My Life" and "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". Sure, she was a little pitchy but she still displayed why she has remained a musical legend.

Other highlights include Janelle Monáe tearing it up with a futuristic fembot staging of her songs, "Make Me Feel", "Django Jane" and "Pynk"; H.E.R. taking advantage of her first major television appearance and delivered a solid performance with "Hard Place"; Dua Lipa and St. Vincent bringing a sensual Sapphic vibe to a mash-up of their songs "One Kiss" and "Masseduction" while briefly shouting out Aretha in the middle and we had Andra Day, Yolanda Adams and Fantasia together to sing "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" which I think was one of the best tributes for the Queen of Soul to date.

Cardi B had a very good night for her first time at the Grammys. She dazzled during a performance of "Money" in a Busby Berkeley styled production (with a few stripper moves added) before she was left almost uncharacteristically speechless after winning Best Rap Album which she became the first woman to take that prize.

My absolutely favorite moment of the night was when the sister act, Chloe X Halle did a perfectly harmonized version of Donny Hathaway (who was honored this year with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award) and Roberta Flack's "Where is The Love?" before presenting an award. It was stunning and way too short.

And that leads me to what I thought was the worst moment which was Jennifer Lopez doing a musical tribute for the 60th anniversary of Motown Records. I could have thought of many different ways to honor one of the first black-owned record labels that brought soul music to a worldwide audience and helped create respected African-American pop superstars but JLo and her high-flying, Vegas showgirl routine would not have been one of them. And no, the brief appearance by Motown legend, Smokey Robinson in the middle did not help.

While it was inspiring and long overdue in honoring so much female musical talent, I'm just hoping this is not some short-lived event for the Grammys. During her acceptance speech for Best New Artist, Dua Lipa reminded the audience of the words by the now-outgoing President of the Recording Academy, Neil Portnow implying that female artists needed to "step up" in order to win the award that stirred a backlash last year. It may seem like this might be an overreaction to that uproar but it is important to recognize that in order to have diversity and inclusion, a conscious effort has to be made to ensure that can happen.

Here is a partial list of winners of the 2019 Grammy Awards:

Album of the Year: "Golden Hour" - Kacey Musgraves
Record of the Year: "This Is America" - Childish Gambino
Song of the Year: "This Is America" - Donald Glover and Ludwig Goransson, songwriters (Childish Gambino)
Best New Artist: Dua Lipa
Best Pop Vocal Album: "Sweetener" — Ariana Grande
Best Pop Solo Performance: "Joanne (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?)" — Lady Gaga
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: "Shallow" — Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: "My Way" — Willie Nelson
Best Rock Album: "From the Fires" — Greta Van Fleet
Best Rock Performance: "When Bad Does Good" — Chris Cornell
Best Rock Song: "Masseduction" — Jack Antonoff and Annie Clark, songwriters (St. Vincent)
Best Alternative Music Album: "Colors" — Beck
Best Rap Album: "Invasion of Privacy" — Cardi B
Best Rap Song: "God’s Plan" — Aubrey Graham, Daveon Jackson, Brock Korsan, Ron LaTour, Matthew Samuels and Noah Shebib, songwriters (Drake)
Best Rap Performance: "King’s Dead" — Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Future and James Blake and "Bubblin" — Anderson .Paak (tie)
Best Rap/Sung Performance: "This Is America" — Childish Gambino
Best R&B Album: "H.E.R." — H.E.R.
Best R&B Song: "Boo’d Up" — Larrance Dopson, Joelle James, Ella Mai and Dijon Mcfarlane, songwriters (Ella Mai)
Best R&B Performance: "Best Part" — H.E.R. featuring Daniel Caesar
Best Traditional R&B Performance: "Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand" — Leon Bridges and "How Deep Is Your Love" — PJ Morton featuring Yebba (tie)
Best Urban Contemporary Album: "Everything Is Love" — The Carters
Best Dance/Electronic Album: "Woman Worldwide" — Justice
Best Dance Recording: "Electricity" — Silk City and Dua Lipa featuring Diplo and Mark Ronson
Best Country Album: "Golden Hour" — Kacey Musgraves
Best Country Song: "Space Cowboy" — Luke Laird, Shane Mcanally and Kacey Musgraves, songwriters (Kacey Musgraves)
Best Country Solo Performance: "Butterflies" — Kacey Musgraves
Best Country Duo/Group Performance: "Tequila" — Dan + Shay
Best Bluegrass Album: "The Travelin’ Mccourys" — The Travelin’ Mccourys
Best Jazz Vocal Album: "The Window" — Cécile Mclorin Salvant
Best Jazz Instrumental Album: "Emanon" — The Wayne Shorter Quartet
Best Latin Pop Album: "Sincera" — Claudia Brant
Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album: "Aztlán" — Zoé
Best Reggae Album: "44/876" — Sting and Shaggy
Best Americana Album: "By the Way, I Forgive You" — Brandi Carlile
Best American Roots Performance: "The Joke" — Brandi Carlile
Best American Roots Song: "The Joke" — Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)
Best Folk Album: "All Ashore" — Punch Brothers
Best Gospel Album: "Hiding Place" — Tori Kelly
Best Gospel Performance/Song: "Never Alone" — Kirk Franklin and Victoria Kelly, songwriters (Tori Kelly featuring Kirk Franklin)
Best Roots Gospel Album: "Unexpected" — Jason Crabb
Best World Music Album: "Freedom" — Soweto Gospel Choir
Best Comedy Album: "Equanimity & the Bird Revelation" — Dave Chappelle
Best Musical Theater Album: "The Band’s Visit" — Etai Benson, Adam Kantor, Katrina Lenk and Ari’el Stachel, principal soloists; Dean Sharenow and David Yazbek, producers; David Yazbek, composer and lyricist
Best Song Written for Visual Media: "Shallow" — Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper)
Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media: "The Greatest Showman" — Alex Lacamoire, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Greg Wells, compilation producers (Various Artists)
Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media: "Black Panther" — Ludwig Göransson, (composer)
Best Music Film: "Quincy" — Alan Hicks and Rashida Jones, (video directors); Paula Dupré Pesmen, (video producer)
Best Music Video: "This Is America" — Childish Gambino
Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books and Storytelling): "Faith - A Journey for All" — Jimmy Carter
Producer of the Year (Non-Classical): Pharrell Williams

ALL 58 BEST NEW ARTIST GRAMMY WINNERS

Out of all the categories of the Grammy Awards, the one that remains the most questionable, divisive and maligned is Best New Artist. While many of the winners did go on to have enduring and admired careers like Sade, The Carpenters, Mariah Carey, Tom Jones, Bette Midler, Adele and The Beatles, there are just as many artists who won this award that never repeated their initial success and the winning of this Grammy was the highlight of their careers.  Anyone remember The Swingle Singers, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Starland Vocal Band, Marc Cohn, Debby Boone, Evanescence and Milli Vanilli, who actually had their award rescinded after it was discovered that the duo did not sing a note on their album. The Wrap does a run-down of all the Grammy winners of this prize and the other nominees in the category. Some of the surprising losers include Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Kanye West, The Eagles, Elvis Costello, Green Day and Luther Vandross.

Click below to read the article:

The 58 Grammy Best New Artist Winners

And here are a few of my favorite songs from some of the winners of Best New Artist:

2019 OSCAR NOMINEES FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG

With the Kevin Hart hosting scandal creating some unwanted attention to this year’s Oscars, the Academy have found themselves in another mess but this time it appears to be of their own making. A rumor surfaced that the telecast would only invite two of the five Best Original Song nominees to perform (with the two being the pop hits from Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga). The issue intensified when the Academy did not deny this was accurate which created swift backlash. Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted to the Academy his unhappiness with this plan and reminded them the importance of hearing all of the nominees on the program. I agree completely with Mr Miranda that the songs have always been an enjoyable part of the Oscars and feel strongly that you should either invite all or no one. I think it’s rude and disrespectful to the nominees to be picking and choosing who gets to perform on the show.

But it seems the Academy have come to their senses (and apparently with a little nudge from Lady Gaga) and announced that all the five Original Songs will be performed live although in a shorter 90 second format. I’m not sure yet what is worse.

So that means we will see Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper recreating their moment in the movie, "A Star Is Born" with "Shallow"; Jennifer Hudson performing "I'll Fight", the theme song for the smash documentary, "RBG" about Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg which was written by Diane Warren who has received her tenth nomination in this category (and most likely to lose for the tenth time); David Rawlings and Gillian Welch, the writers of the song, "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings" from the Coen Brothers' western comedy, "The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs", will sing their nominated tune and a "Surprise Special Guest" will perform the song from "Mary Poppins Returns", "The Place Where Lost Things Go" since actress, Emily Blunt, who sang the song in the movie, declined. There is no official word yet if Kendrick Lamar and SZA will appear to perform their hit song, "All The Stars" from "Black Panther". As for the winner, I think "Shallow" has a slight edge to take the Oscar but my personal choice would be "All The Stars". But we will see on February 24th when the 91st Annual Academy Awards will be presented. Here are all five Best Original Song nominees for your listening pleasure:

"All The Stars" from "Black Panther": Music by Kendrick Lamar, Mark “Sounwave” Spears and Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith; Lyric by Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith



"I'll Fight" from "RBG": Music and Lyric by Diane Warren



"The Place Where Lost Things Go" from "Mary Poppins Return": Music by Marc Shaiman; Lyric by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman



"Shallow" from "A Star Is Born": Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt



"When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings" from "The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs": Music and Lyric by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch

JAMES INGRAM (1952 - 2019)

A gifted r&b vocalist best known as a romantic balladeer, James Ingram was also an award-winning songwriter and producer who has sadly passed away on January 29th at the age of sixty-six. He had been quietly battling brain cancer. He is survived by his wife, Debra and they had been married since 1975.

Born in Akron, Ohio, Ingram sang in his church choir as a child and taught himself how to play the piano. Not long after finishing high school, he made his way to Los Angeles to try his luck as a professional musician. He played keyboards for several bands (including briefly backing for Ray Charles) and worked as a demo singer. It was during the time that Quincy Jones was looking for material for what would become his 1981 album, "The Dude" that would change the course of James Ingram’s career. Jones heard the demo for "Just Once", written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and he became not only interested in the song but also the singer. He used Ingram not only on that track but also "One Hundred Ways". Both songs became top-twenty hits and would help Ingram win his first Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

Some other highlights in his musical career includes Ingram performing a duet with Patti Austin, another protégé of Quincy Jones, on the love ballad, "Baby, Come To Me" which became his first number one on the pop chart. The two paired up again for another love song, "How Do You Keep The Music Playing?" for the 1982 film, "Best Friends" which earned a Grammy and Oscar nomination. Ingram became a go-to artist for singing songs on movie soundtracks with his most notable being a duet with Linda Rondstadt with "Somewhere Out There" for the 1986 animated feature, "An American Tail". He was also nominated twice for a Best Original Song Oscar with the songs he co-wrote for the movies, "Beethoven's 2nd" (1993) and "Junior" (1994). And in 1990, Ingram received his second number one pop single and only one as a solo artist with "I Don't Have The Heart".

With a distinctive voice that could effortlessly go from a tender whisper to a passionate growl, James Ingram managed to deliver a heated sensuality to his songs of romance yet always kept it classy. He was a masterful talent whose contributions to music will greatly be missed. Here are a few of my personal favorites by the one and only James Ingram: