1st Annual GRAMMY Awards | 1959

In the beginning, there was heaven and earth and the 1st Annual GRAMMY Awards—more or less in that order.

On May 4, 1959, many of music’s elite—including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Gene Autry, Johnny Mercer, Henry Mancini and André Previn—gathered for a black-tie dinner and awards presentation inside the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. At the same time, other new Academy members were gathering at a function held simultaneously in New York City. “The GRAMMY Awards were a formal event from the beginning and very much in keeping with the times,” says Christine Farnon, who was instrumental in organizing the first show and would go on to become The Academy’s Executive Vice President. “As I recall, no one objected to dressing black-tie back then, though like so much else, that would change eventually.”

But this GRAMMY night, and several to follow, was held in hotel ballrooms on both coasts. The Los Angeles event was emceed by popular political comedian Mort Sahl and featured a musical sketch titled “How South Was My Pacific.” The night was by numerous accounts a significant success. Billboard—then actually still called The Billboard—ran its account of the first night of Music’s Biggest Night with a headline declaring that “Academy Smoothly Moves Into Orbit: First Awards Well-Organized Affair As Top Stars Go On Parade.” The trade magazine even favorably compared the GRAMMY’s debut to the far more established Oscars and Emmys: “It sharply contrasted similar affairs staged by the two older entertainment academies in its precision-like pace in handling the presentations.”

As well organized as the night may have been, from the very start at the GRAMMYs, there would be surprises on GRAMMY night. While Sinatra led all nominees with a grand total of six nominations, he would not turn out to be the night’s biggest winner. Rather the very first Record of the Year and Song of the Year awards both went to “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)” by Domenico Modugno, while Album of the Year went to The Music from Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini.

As for Sinatra, he fortunately didn’t go home empty-handed. He won his first GRAMMY not for singing, but rather as art director for his Only the Lonely album that won Best Album Cover. And though only 28 categories were presented on this first GRAMMY night—the least ever—the first winners suggested the diversity that would come to mark the GRAMMY Awards, with winners that ranged from Ella Fitzgerald (Best Vocal Performance, Female, and Best Jazz Performance, Individual) to David Seville and the Chipmunks (Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording For Children, while Best Engineered Record—Non Classical went to Ted Keep for “The Chipmunk Song”), from the Kingston Trio’s “Tom Dooley” (Best County & Western Performance) to the Champ’s “Tequila” (Best Rhythm & Blues Performance).

Much more—in every conceivable way, and some ways still inconceivable—was still to come.

Winners

Category Winner Nomination
Album Of The Year Henry Mancini The Music From Peter Gunn All Nominees
Best Album For Children David Seville And The Chipmunks (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) The Chipmunk Song All Nominees
Best Arrangement Henry Mancini The Music From Peter Gunn All Nominees
Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording Stan Freberg The Best Of The Stan Freberg Shows All Nominees
Best Classical Performance - Opera Cast Or Choral Roger Wagner Virtuoso All Nominees
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album Renata Tebaldi, soprano Operatic Recital All Nominees
Best Comedy Album David Seville & The Chipmunks (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) The Chipmunk Song All Nominees
Best Country & Western Recording Kingston Trio Tom Dooley All Nominees
Best Engineered Album, Classical Sherwood Hall III Duets With A Spanish Guitar All Nominees
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Ted Keep The Chipmunk Song All Nominees
Best Instrumental Composition Nelson Riddle Cross Country Suite All Nominees
Best Jazz Instrumental Album Count Basie Basie All Nominees
Best Jazz Performance By A Soloist Ella Fitzgerald Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book All Nominees
Best Musical Theater Album Meredith Willson The Music Man All Nominees
Best Orchestral Performance Felix Slatkin, conductor Gaiete Parisienne All Nominees
Best Recording Package Frank Sinatra Only The Lonely All Nominees
Best Rhythm & Blues Recording Champs Tequila All Nominees
Best Sound Track Album, Original Cast - Motion Picture Or Television Andre Previn Gigi All Nominees
Chamber Music Performance Hollywood String Quartet, Alvin Dinkin, Paul Shure, Eleanor Aller Slatkin, Felix Slatkin Beethoven: Quartet 130 All Nominees
Female Pop Vocal Performance Ella Fitzgerald Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Irving Berlin Song Book All Nominees
Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestr Andres Segovia Segovia Golden Jubilee All Nominees
Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestr Van Cliburn Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 In B Flat Minor, Op. 23 All Nominees
Male Pop Vocal Performance Perry Como Catch A Falling Star All Nominees
Pop Instrumental Performance Billy May Billy May's Big Fat Brass All Nominees
Pop Instrumental Performance Count Basie Basie All Nominees
Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals Keely Smith, Louis Prima That Old Black Magic All Nominees
Record Of The Year Domenico Modugno Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare) All Nominees
Song Of The Year Domenico Modugno Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare) All Nominees