Which song gave Elvis Presley his first Grammy?
Everyone knows by now that awards shows don’t match up with true success or true cultural impact. Some of the best artists in history, the best albums ever put to tape, or even the best films ever made, have gone without trophies as award bodies, like the Grammys, shun icons or only realise their worth in retrospect.
When thinking back on the most important and influential artists of the last however many decades, it would be expected that they’d all be flaunting Grammy Awards. However, plenty managed to be disregarded repeatedly, or simply not considered, as they simply weren’t respected enough at the time.
Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys, Oasis, Guns N’ Roses are all names who have never bagged one of the shiny trophies, or in the case of people like Led Zeppelin, they only picked up their first in 2005 when they were granted a celebratory ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’, but lost out for ‘Best New Artist’ back in their own era of 1970.
That alone feels like a funny thing, as it’s strange to think of artists who are now timeless heroes once being in the running for rising star awards. In 1965, The Beatles picked up the award for ‘Best New Artist’, while Led Zeppelin lost out in favour of Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Elton John lost in 1971 in favour of The Carpenters. In hindsight, fleeting awards feel somewhat meaningless when it comes to artists with immeasurably impactful careers, but it’s always interesting to see how these bodies seem to fail to recognise the talent and potential when it’s right there and fresh in front of them.
For example, regardless of Elvis Presley’s history-shaking, world-renowned, culture-shifting impact, it took a while for ‘The King’ to pick up a trophy.
So, which song gave Elvis Presley his first Grammy?
The golden age of Elvis Presley was arguably around the mid- to late 1950s, when he had the charts in a chokehold as his movement from Sun Records to RCA saw him become a complete and utter bona fide star, levelling up to the true big time.
He was releasing hit after hit after hit, breaking into the mainstream as well, as he moved from the country charts into dominating the general category. However, the answer for why the Grammys didn’t award him then makes sense: it literally didn’t exist.
The Grammys only started in 1959, so Presley’s peak was completely missed, but as soon as they were born, he was nominated for ‘A Big Hunk o’ Love’, though he didn’t win. That said, between then to 1968, Presley was nominated ten times and only won once, picking up his first trophy in ’68 for ‘How Great Thou Art’, the title track from his ’67 religious album.
Given that the track is a hymn, it also didn’t win in any of the major categories, instead picking up the award for ‘Best Sacred Performance’. In the following years, this pattern would continue as Presley never won in any of the top award classes, but only for ‘Sacred Performance’ or ‘Inspirational Performance’. He was granted the honorary ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ in 1971, but in terms of being awarded for his work, as he was doing the work, he was largely snubbed.
