The first rock record to win ‘Album of the Year’ at the Grammy Awards
Since the award was first bestowed upon Henry Mancini over six decades ago, the Grammys Awards’ ‘Album of the Year’ category has become the most coveted title in the music industry. Each year, artists battle for the prestigious trophy, hoping to join an impressive list of previous winners which includes the likes of Adele, Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Wonder.
The category has often been dominated by pop music – Taylor Swift has taken home the award three times, while the title currently belongs to Harry Styles – but it’s not uncommon for a rock artist to crop up as a worthy contender. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss earned the title in 2009, Mumford and Sons claimed it in 2013, and Beck took the award home in 2015.
Though it’s no longer out of the ordinary to see a rock record take home ‘Album of the Year’, it took a decade for the Grammys to first award the trophy to an album within the genre. In the early years, the winners of the category tended to operate within the sphere of traditional pop, occasionally veering into jazz or comedy.
Perhaps expectedly, as with most early milestones in the music industry, it was The Beatles who would break the mould. The Fab Four were nominated twice for the coveted award before they finally claimed it, losing to Frank Sinatra in 1966 and 1967. Though Help! and Revolver both narrowly missed out on the award, The Beatles went head to head with Sinatra once more in 1968 with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Released in 1967, Sgt. Pepper is one of The Beatles’ most well-loved releases, spawning timeless tracks like ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ and ‘A Day In The Life’. The album rightfully claimed a win for The Beatles and for rock, becoming the first album within the genre to take home the award. It also took home the title of ‘Best Contemporary Album’.
Perhaps more importantly than taking home the title for ‘Album of the Year’ in 1968, Sgt. Pepper’s also takes the title for Paul McCartney’s preferred Beatles record. When the songwriter was asked to pick out his favourite in a 1991 interview, he seemed reluctant to do so but admitted that he would pick Sgt. Pepper’s “if [he] had to”.
“I’d pick Sgt. Pepper’s, meself, because I had a lot to do with it,” he stated, “It wasn’t entirely my idea but to get us away from being ‘The Beatles’ I had this idea that we should pretend we’re this other group.” Though it marked a turning point for the band, that strategy certainly seemed to work, as Sgt. Pepper’s went on to earn a permanent place in music history.
Revisit the iconic record below.
