10 artists who won Grammy’s for the wrong album
The Grammy Awards are fast approaching, and many nervous artists sit and wonder whether it might be their year. While winning any Grammy Award is an achievement, the most sought-after of the night is album of the year. It’s a massive honour for any artist to win album of the year, as it validates that the hard work they put into a record was worth it. Previous winners include Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles.
A lot of artists who have won Grammys have done so fairly. They have made an excellent album, and it has been credited for as much. However some artists might have won ‘Album of the Year’, but it has come too early or too late, as other records they’ve made have been much more worthy of the accolade.
There is no science behind who deserves to win a Grammy and what an album should contain in order to be an award winning record, but the ones contained on this list stand out as something special, which wer exceptional when they were released and since have stood the test of time.
Here, we will discuss some of the artists who have previously won a Grammy but have done so for the wrong album.
Artists who won Grammys for the wrong record:
Michael Jackson – ‘Thriller’
What they should have won for: Off The Wall
Michael Jackson won a Grammy for his album Thriller, and given how much it took over the world, this hardly seems like a surprise. “Over the course of the next year, Thriller was everywhere. It became inescapable. It was, for a little while, American life, and during the year that it occupied the centre of popular culture, it united everyone,” said Questlove, reflecting on the album’s release. “Who liked Thriller? You did. White people, black people, skinny people, fat people, straight people, gay people, punks, rockers, hip-hop kids, thugs, nerds. You. Everyone alive.”
While Thriller was an excellent album, Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall was a much more complete body of work. It was more cohesive, had a distinct sound, and arguably stood the test of time better. Thriller definitely deserved a Grammy, but Off The Wall failed to get the recognition that it deserves.
Steely Dan – ‘Two Against Nature’
What they should have won for: Can’t Buy a Thrill
Steely Dan stopped touring to make more interesting albums, and one of the most enjoyable and layered records was Can’t Buy A Thrill. While many people might put other records forward, this is the album that’s aged the best and is still great fun to listen to.
Many people have divided opinions on the best Steely Dan record, which shows why they’re such a hard band for the Grammys to commemorate. They were finally given a Grammy in 1993 for Two Against Nature, but there are other records that could have sealed the deal for them.
Outkast – ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’
What they should have won for: ATLiens
Outkast was more than a rap group; they were a definitive moment in the history of hip-hop. Never before had rappers from the South made such an impact with music that was so true to where they were from. When Outkast created this new style of hip-hop, they changed the genre forever, and yet this innovative record isn’t what they won a Grammy for.
Outkast won a Grammy for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, but they should have won one for their record that changed rap, ATLiens. This whole album is filled with historical songs, but one of the biggest is ‘Elevators,’ which set the tone for Southern hip-hop and showed the world the South had something to say.
Bruno Mars – ’24K Magic’
What they should have won for: An Evening with Silk Sonic
Bruno Mars has changed his creative style multiple times throughout his career, but nothing has been more exciting and extreme than the soulful iteration of Mars on the record An Evening with Silk Sonic. Teaming up with Anderson Paak and with features from Bootsy Collins, this is a record straight out of Soul Train, and yet the Grammys didn’t think it was worthy of an award.
He won with 24K Magic, which is also a very fun album, but there is less happening on that album, and it hasn’t cemented itself as a classic quite as much. An Evening With Silk Sonic is the most fun album Bruno Mars has ever been attached to, and it deserves to be recognised for as much.
Tyler, The Creator – ‘IGOR, Call Me If You Get Lost’
What they should have won for: Flower Boy
Tyler, The Creator, has been no stranger to Grammys recently. Previously, he was never an artist that the award ceremony would look twice at, as his lyrics were controversial, and his rapping style was somewhat aggressive. He has never been afraid to change stylistically with each release, though, and that constant drive towards new creative directions has led to him making Grammy-worthy records.
He won ‘Best Rap Album’ in 2020 and 2022 for his albums IGOR and Call Me If You Get Lost. While this is a huge achievement, his album Flower Boy, nominated in 2018, was also a record that deserved to win. This beautiful blend of pop and rap that touched upon money, loneliness, and sadness was a massive achievement and should have bagged Tyler the trophy. Granted, it was a tough year, as Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, Jay Z, Rapsody, and Migos were also nominated.
The Beatles – ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’
What they should’ve won with: Revolver
Revolver didn’t crawl so Sgt Pepper could stand. It didn’t even walk so Sgt Pepper could run. Revolvercartwheeled into the future with a smile on its monochrome face, daring to go where music didn’t even know it could go. Sgt. Pepper might have added a dazzling technicolour spin to that bold leap, but behind the lustre, there wasn’t quite the same bewildering substance.
Revolver was alchemy; Sgt Pepper was theatre. Anthems like ‘A Day in the Life’ might have rightfully brought the house down, but it was a house that was built by the effort that went before. So, when The Beatles finally won an ‘Album of the Year’ Grammy in 1968, it was haunted by the sense that it was a year too late. Frank Sinatra was old hat by ’67, and it’s a sin that Ol Blue Eyes pipped the Fab Four with a forgotten record that won out over a masterpiece that changed music to such an extent that The Beatles had to throw the kitchen sink at a bid to top it, and in the end, threw enough to earn a Grammy, but maybe through a but too much in retrospect.
Bob Dylan – ‘Time Out of Mind’
What he should’ve won with: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Where do you start with the record that Bob Dylan should’ve won a Grammy for? Well, in my view, the start is as good as any. His second album – and his first consisting of original material – is a waterline moment in music. There is a period before The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and then there is a period after it. There isn’t a songwriter on earth who wouldn’t agree with that sentiment, yet it took the original vagabond until 1998 to find an LP honoured by the Grammys.
The whys and wherefores behind this anomaly are anyone’s guess. He brought a newfound intelligence, individualism, profundity and a league of other adjectives to pop songwriting, and for some reason, none of these were deemed worthy of the Grammys’ most fitting award for a fellow who operates in LPs. It’s not that Time Out of Mind is an unworthy record, but there are about nine or ten in his discography that are more worthy.
Ray Charles – ‘Genius Loves Company’
What he should’ve won with: What’d I Say
The very inception of the Grammys, an event designed to ensure musicians had a shot at a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, set it up for criticism regarding its sincerity. Awarding Genius Loves Company with ‘Album of the Year’ certainly plays into that problem. If the Grammys is just about the press hobnobbing with the biggest names, then ensuring a record that features not only Ray Charles but also Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson and James Taylor, among others, is a good way to get a huge selection of famous faces on stage.
The album itself is perfectly fine in a sort of novel way, but it can hardly be considered a progressive musical triumph. Charles had a plethora of those efforts in his career, but the Grammys were too busy endlessly awarding Frank Sinatra when those came along. Therefore, we don’t get praise heaped upon his magical blend of the blues and country, nor do we see his heartbreaking soul record rise to the top of the ranks—but the one where he had a bit of a laugh with his buddies.
Billy Joel – ’52nd Street’
What he should’ve won with: The Stranger
For a start, 52nd Street’s victory highlight an issue with the Grammys’ eligibility period—claiming the award for ‘Album of the Year’ in 1980 despite the record being released in ’78. That’s not all the awards were a little late on. 52nd Street might be a great album, but Joel’s masterpiece came a year earlier.
The Stranger is a supreme record featuring tracks like ‘Scenes From An Italian Restaurant’ and ‘Vienna’. Joel himself proclaims it as his classic album. It captures his songwriter at its purest. These anthems define his oeuvre. They are little vignettes of life, given the polish of a writer’s prose and the sweet orchestration of a Tin Pan Alley composer. However, it lost out to Saturday Night Fever, and Joel had to wait a few moments for an ever so slightly worse record to launch his career commercially.
Daft Punk – ‘Random Access Memories’
What he should’ve won with: Discovery
If you ask the world about the best Daft Punk album, then Random Access Memories may well be your answer. However, if you ask their fans the same question, the median answer would undoubtedly be Discovery. It was an album that carried all the prescient creation of their debut forward with polish, poise and heightened invention. It’s a classic that would still sound like the future if it weren’t for the fact it is imbued with swathes of nostalgia.
Meanwhile, Random Access Memories seems to exist as an extension of the same theme that the band were always pursuing. The songwriting and musicianship are more polished than what they had achieved previously, but in the 12 years between Discovery and Random Access Memories, not much more than refinement and a few musical friends seems to have been achieved. Granted, that refinement sounds great, but isn’t anywhere near as Promethean as their groundbreaking days.
