2nd Annual GRAMMY Awards | 1960

The first thing you should know about the 2nd Annual GRAMMY Awards is that they weren’t actually “annual” at all. In fact, this awards presentation marked the only time in GRAMMY history that two awards presentations were ever made in one year, with both the 1st and 2nd GRAMMYs falling in 1959. Call it a slightly embarrassing case of premature validation.

The 2nd GRAMMYs did, however, mark another first: the first GRAMMYs to be presented on television as a taped “NBC Sunday Showcase,” which aired on November 29, 1959. Hosted by Meredith Willson—who wrote the Broadway show “The Music Man”—the television program offered performances by classical pianist Van Cliburn, comedian Shelley Berman, Nat "King" Cole, Bobby Darin, folk singer Jimmy Driftwood, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, trumpeter Jonah Jones, the Kingston Trio and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Say this for the GRAMMYs—it always had range.

The award winners themselves were announced at private dinner ceremonies held in Los Angeles and New York. Following the awards presentations, the audience watched the broadcast of the first GRAMMY special. With the ’60s about to get underway and the times about to start a-changing, Darin and Frank Sinatra emerged as the big winners. Darin was named Best New Artist of 1959—the first winner in that category—and he also won Record of the Year with his timeless version of “Mack the Knife.” Sinatra took Album of the Year for Come Dance with Me and Best Vocal Performance, Male, for its title track (which also won Billy May a GRAMMY for Best Arrangement).

Other winners included Jonah Jones’ Best Jazz Performance, Group, award for his very ’50s album I Dig Chicks, poet Carl Sandburg for narrating A Lincoln Portrait, and the iconic Ethel Merman for Best Broadway Show Album for Gypsy, which tied with Gwen Verdon for Redhead.

For all that, even in its earliest TV incarnation, there was never a shortage of critics both willing and able to take their shots at the young if not innocent GRAMMY show. Writing in the New York World Telegram, Harriet Von Horne noted, “But…the pandering to the primitive, uninformed taste that mars so much of TV fare, was on view here…Here was a costly show, brilliantly produced…and it had the whole range of music to choose from. So we had a reading by Shelley Berman instead of Carl Sandburg. We had the clanging, twanging Kingston Trio when we might have had Ethel Merman…”

Others were more understanding, even supportive. Variety said, “GRAMMY Makes Good In TV Bow” in a front page banner headline, and The Hollywood Reporter announced “GRAMMY Telecast Cut Above Average Award Programs.”

Through the good, the bad and the ugly, there would be many more cuts and many more kudos in the years to come.

Winners

Category Winner Nomination
Album Of The Year Frank Sinatra Come Dance With Me All Nominees
Best Album For Children Peter Ustinov Peter And The Wolf All Nominees
Best Arrangement Billy May Come Dance With Me All Nominees
Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording Carl Sandburg A Lincoln Portrait All Nominees
Best Classical Performance - Opera Cast Or Choral Erich Leinsdorf Mozart: The Marriage Of Figaro All Nominees
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album Jussi Bjoerling, tenor Bjoerling In Opera All Nominees
Best Comedy Album Shelley Berman Inside Shelley Berman All Nominees
Best Comedy Album Homer And Jethro The Battle Of Kookamonga All Nominees
Best Contemporary Song Nat "King" Cole Midnight Flyer All Nominees
Best Country & Western Recording Johnny Horton The Battle Of New Orleans All Nominees
Best Engineered Album, Classical Lewis W. Layton Victory At Sea, Vol. I All Nominees
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Ted Keep Alvin's Harmonica All Nominees
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Robert Simpson Belafonte At Carnegie Hall All Nominees
Best Folk Performance Kingston Trio The Kingston Trio At Large All Nominees
Best Instrumental Composition Duke Ellington Anatomy Of A Murder All Nominees
Best Jazz Instrumental Album Jonah Jones I Dig Chicks All Nominees
Best Jazz Performance By A Soloist Ella Fitzgerald Ella Swings Lightly All Nominees
Best Musical Theater Album Ethel Merman Gypsy All Nominees
Best Musical Theater Album Gwen Verdon Redhead All Nominees
Best New Artist Bobby Darin All Nominees
Best Orchestral Performance Charles Munch, conductor Debussy: Images For Orchestra All Nominees
Best Recording Package Robert M. Jones Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 All Nominees
Best Rhythm & Blues Recording Dinah Washington What A Diff'rence A Day Makes All Nominees
Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media (Includes Film And Television) Duke Ellington Anatomy Of A Murder All Nominees
Best Sound Track Album, Original Cast - Motion Picture Or Television Various Artists Porgy And Bess All Nominees
Chamber Music Performance Artur Rubinstein Beethoven: Sonatas No. 21 In C (Waldstein) And No. 18 In E Flat All Nominees
Female Pop Vocal Performance Ella Fitzgerald But Not For Me All Nominees
Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestr Artur Rubinstein Beethoven: Sonatas No. 21 In C (Waldstein) And No. 18 In E Flat All Nominees
Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestr Van Cliburn Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 All Nominees
Male Pop Vocal Performance Frank Sinatra Come Dance With Me All Nominees
Pop Instrumental Performance Duke Ellington Anatomy Of A Murder All Nominees
Pop Instrumental Performance Andre Previn Like Young All Nominees
Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) Battle Hymn Of The Republic All Nominees
Record Of The Year Bobby Darin Mack The Knife All Nominees
Song Of The Year Jimmy Driftwood The Battle Of New Orleans All Nominees