Who has won the most Grammys without ever having a number one?
Whether we like it or not, awards like the Grammys invariably have a certain sense of gravitas in the music world that can, on one hand, boost your status exponentially – but also put a weighted target on your back that seeks out the opportunity for failure at every turn.
In this sense, that moment where your name is called at the glitzy ceremony may be the best of your life as an artist, but it’s the aftermath that spits up so many more problems in terms of being able to follow through with a wave of commercial success to match your seal of critical approval. Quite simply, if you’ve won a Grammy but aren’t able to score a number one in its wake, it inevitably leaves the cynics questioning whether you were even all that deserving in the first place.
It goes without saying that the more grounded of us will realise that there is far more to life and music than an award win or that coveted space at the top of the charts – after all, Bob Dylan is one of the most celebrated and prolific artists to ever exist, and yet he only scored his first ever number one in 2020. That chart reign is not the be-all and end-all, nor frankly is the Grammy, but in most cases, it does seem like the pair go perfectly hand in hand.
That is, of course, unless you are poor Sheryl Crow. She has a slew of successes already racked up and held firmly under her belt: 50 million record sales, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, and, not least, nine of those prized Grammys. But the one accolade that has somehow managed to evade her all these years? A shot at number one, as the data on the winners of the ‘Big Four’ Grammy categories reveals, she is the only winner without a chart-topping hit in tow.
What Grammys has Sheryl Crow won?
There was a time in history when Crow was on a regular conveyor belt, round and round, returning to the Grammys for year after year. These efforts weren’t at all without the fruits of her labour, either; out of 32 nominations over decades, she has come away with no less than nine of the trophies, most notably for ‘All I Wanna Do’, which shot her to fame back in the mid-’90s and garnered her ‘Record of the Year’.
But despite all the glamorous decoration of this awards success, the barrage of number ones never quite ensued in the same way as the delivery of the contents of her trophy cabinet did. To be fair, it was never as if Crow’s presence in the charts was ever non-existent – the 1994 album Tuesday Night Music Club spawned a whole slew of huge hits, not least ‘All I Wanna Do’ alongside ‘Strong Enough’ and ‘Can’t Cry Anymore’ – cementing her as one of the best-selling American artists of the decade.
Although many of these songs got unspeakably close to getting over the finishing line to glory, ultimately it was never to be. Of course, you can never say never, and Dylan proves that the prize can arrive at the most unexpected times, but in Crow’s case, she might just have to console herself that her nine Grammys may be her lot.
