year goes to welcome to watchmojo.com
and today we’re counting down our picks
for the top ten unexplainable album of
the year grammy wins before we begin we
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this list we’re not saying that these
are necessarily bad albums as some are
quite good often it’s a case of a good
album winning the trophy when one or
more groundbreaking albums were passed
over number 10 MTV Unplugged Tony
Bennett we can understand the Recording
Academy voters love for a live
retrospective from the raspy-voiced
crooner whose career had already spans
more than 40 memorable years but 1994
was also the year of Johnny Cash’s
triumphant comeback American Recordings
the first of a multi-album collaboration
with Rick Rubin she was lowdown and
trifling
it wasn’t even nominated in the Best
Album category and had to settle for a
win as Best Contemporary folk album and
then there’s Green Day’s breakthrough
album Dookie Rolling Stones his album of
the year and winner of the alternative
music Grammy both took a backseat to an
unplugged album from a legendary singer
number nine a man and his music Frank
Sinatra Billy
The Beatles put rock into the album of
the Year category with 1965 s help but
lost to Frank Sinatra’s September of my
years the beatles must have been feeling
deja vu as Revolver lost to a man and
his music at the next year’s ceremony
all blue I did lay down classics love
and marriage and come fly with me but
revolver was transformative it makes
rock psychedelic and soil while still
maintaining the Beatles track record of
catchy harmonic hits it’s number three
on Rolling Stones is greatest albums of
all time number two on that list is
another ignored groundbreaker Pet Sounds
by the Beach Boys which wasn’t even
nominated the musical revolution would
have to wait
number eight genius loves company Ray
Charles
[Music]
why oh why didn’t Academy voters give
Ray Charles album of the year for 1962’s
masterful groundbreaking country soul
mashup modern sounds and Country and
Western music instead they waited first
posthumous release a series of duets
with an admittedly impressive stable of
legendary artists that year’s ceremony
continued a long-standing Grammy
tradition of choosing the right artists
at the wrong time Charles was nominated
alongside Green Day’s American Idiot
Kanye West’s the college dropout and the
diary of Alicia Keys hopefully these
icons don’t have to wait for decades for
[Music]
number seven river the Joni letters
Herbie Hancock you can admit it the
first time you heard about Herbie
Hancock’s River the Joni letters was
when Quincy Jones announced it’s Grammy
win for album of the year we can’t argue
with the quality of the album or of
Hancock injecting a jazz flavor into the
Canadian legend songbook but on Grammy
night River had moved around 55,000
albums and was competing against two
multi-platinum classics graduation by
Kanye West and what was unfortunately
Amy Winehouse’s final album Back to
when you think about 2007 you think
about chart-topping classics like rehab
or stronger Courtin spark
not so much
[Music]
okay Swifty’s settle down 1989 was an
awesome album it’s so good that all
Crocker Ryan Adams did a full album
tribute
however the songstress already had
received the award for fearless and
album she released at the ripe old age
of 18 but it could be argued that 2015
belonged to Kendrick Lamar’s to pimp a
butterfly 24/7 365 days tabs two hours
got to play and get an elevated hiphop
Rolling Stone Entertainment Weekly Spin
Magazine billboard pitchfork any more
all had butterfly as their album of the
year we might have even given Kanye West
a pass if he had bum rushed the stage on
Grammy night Swift fans that disagree
with 1989’s inclusion on this list can
well shake it off number 5 – against
nature Steely Dan from 1972 through 1980
Steely Dan was a rock radio mainstay
with seven albums and 10 top 40 singles
but then they disbanded understandably –
against nature their first studio album
in two decades brought its fair share of
anticipation did it deliver it depends
on who you ask
Recording Academy voters answered with
on Grammy night most people in the
building expected the winner to be one
of the two albums considered master
works kid a by Radiohead or the Marshall
Mathers LP by Eminem if you even want to
talk to me outside to concert dude in
half could have signed an autograph a
match paid a made many lists as the
greatest album of the 2000s and the
Marshall Mathers LP propelled Eminem
into superstardom but it was Steely Dan
who took home the trophy
instead number four blood sweat and
ah 1969 one of the greatest years in
music there were two Beatles albums
the hoos rock opera Tommy and Led
Zeppelin’s first two albums what
masterpiece was chosen to represent the
year of peace love and music that would
be blood sweat and tears the 1968
self-titled album from a New York City
brass rock collective it’s hard to argue
with its quadruple-platinum success it’s
also hard to argue with Rolling Stone
who said first they play folk then they
play jazz then they play Latin but never
but do you know what did merge into one
the music on album of the Year nominee
Abbey Road you may have heard it number
three falling into you silenzio
[Music]
falling into you rightfully made
silenzio a worldwide sensation and have
they tear-jerking because you loved me
though rousing ballad it’s all coming
back to me now and the stunning cover of
all by myself but what it comes down to
is the difference between great singers
and great musicians do and her team
cherry picked songs from great
songwriters like Diane Warren and Jim
Steinman good on the other hand the
genre defying odelay by back the
eclectic alternative hip hop of the
score by the Fugees and the grandiosity
of the Smashing Pumpkins 2 disc album
Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness
[Music]
number two Christopher Cross Christopher
Cross pop quiz who was the first artist
to win Best New Artist record song and
album of the year all in one night Elvis
the Beatles
Simon and Garfunkel maybe Bob Dylan hope
it was the captain of the short-lived
Yacht rock genre Christopher Cross our
critics hated it but adult contemporary
audiences couldn’t get enough fellow
nominee the wall a double album by Pink
Floyd would go on to sell 23 million
but with Pink Floyd having started a
hiatus in 1994 and only attempting mini
reunions since then the early 80s were
likely the last great opportunity to
honor the kings of the concept album
meanwhile Kross fell victim to the best
new artist curse never going platinum
again at least Ron Burgundy still loves
him before we unveil Grammys most
unexplainable choice for album of the
year here are a few honorable or in this
[Music]
by the time I make Oklahoma
you’ll be sleeping
can’t slow down ultimately sold twenty
million and garnered five top ten hits
everybody dance till dawn with the
Caribbean infused all night long and
hello gave us the bust forever sculpted
in our memories but in 1984 two icons
put out iconic albums Bruce
Springsteen’s born in the USA took
listeners into the lives of veterans and
blue-collar Americans as well as into
his 30-something angst but with the
then there’s Purple Rain a soundtrack
that intertwined rock funk R&B and
psychedelia into a nine track
masterpiece its title track landed
Prince and Oscar but not Grammys highest
honor
maybe they canceled each other out and
voting or maybe people wanted to party
Karamu fiestas forever more than we
thought
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