May 4, 1959: The 1st Grammy Awards

May 4, 1959: The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held, recognizing musical accomplishments for 1958. There were actually two ceremonies: One at the Park Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, and one at the Beverly Hills Hotel outside Los Angeles. ABC televised.

If you're looking for rock and roll performers among the winners, you've come to the wrong place. The nominees for Record of the Year (for performers) were "Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra, "Catch a Falling Star" by Perry Como, Peggy Lee's cover of Little Willie John's "Fever," "The Chipmunk Song" (a.k.a. "Christmas, Don't Be Late") by David Seville and the Chipmunks, and the winner, "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blue (Volare)," sung in Italian by Domenico Modugno.

"Volare" also won Song of the Year (for writers), for Modugno and Franco Migliacci. In fact, 4 of the 5 nominees were the same: "Witchcraft," by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh; "Catch a Falling Star," by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance; and "Fever," by Eddie Cooley and Johnny Davenport. "The Chipmunk Song" was not nominated for Song of the Year, but Vic Damone's version of "Gigi," from the musical of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, was.

You wanna talk albums? This was the era in which the best-selling albums were classical recordings and original cast recordings of musicals and films. Composer-conductor Henry Mancini won for The Music from Peter Gunn. Two separate Sinatra albums were nominated: Only the Lonely and Come Fly with Me. The other nominees were Van Cliburn for the recording that recently made him world-famous, Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 In B-Flat Minor, Op. 23; and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book.

Ella won Best Jazz Recording for Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book. You think the Grammys are out of touch now? Keep in mind: As great as they were, Berlin was about to celebrate his 71st birthday, and the Duke had just turned 59. Neither of them had been hitmakers since World War II. Then again, Lady Gaga did duets with Tony Bennett, and Dua Lipa sort-of has with Elton John.

Ella's Irving Berlin album also won Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. Como, for "Catch a Falling Star," won Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male. The Kingston Trio, a folk group, won Best Country & Western Performance, for "Tom Dooley." And "Best Rhythm & Blues Performance"? The Champs, for their instrumental "Tequila." There were 6 members of The Champs, and all of them were white.

From 1959 to 1970, awards dinners were held in the following locations simultaneously on the same day: 1959-61, in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and New York; 1962-64, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York; 1965-70, Los Angeles, Chicago, Nashville and New York.

Venues from 1971 onward:

* Los Angeles and environs: 1971, 1974, 1976, 1977, Hollywood Palladium; 1978-80, 1982-87, 1988-90, 1993, 1995-96, 1999, Shrine Auditorium; 2000-02, 2004-17, 2019-20, Staples Center/Crypto.com Arena; 2021, Los Angeles Convention Center. (UPDATE: The Crypto.com Arena has hosted again from 2023 onward.)

* New York: 1972, 1997, 2003, 2018, Madison Square Garden; 1975, Uris Theater; 1981, 1987, 1991-92, 1994, 1998, Radio City Music Hall.

* Nashville: 1973, Tennessee Theatre.

* Las Vegas: 2022, MGM Grand Garden Arena.

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May 4, 1959 was a Monday. Football, basketball and hockey were out of season. These baseball games were played on the day:

* The New York Yankees swept a doubleheader from the Washington Senators at Yankee Stadium. They won the opener, 6-3. Mickey Mantle hit a home run in support of Whitey Ford. They won the nightcap, 3-2. Yogi Berra hit a home run in support of Don Larsen, but it was Norm Siebern who singled Mantle home in the bottom of the 10th inning, to make a winner of Duke Maas.

* The Boston Red Sox swept a doubleheader from the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Sox won the 1st game 3-2, when Don Buddin hit a home run in the top of the 10th inning. The Sox won the 2nd game 5-1, thanks to a home run by Frank Malzone. Neither Ted Williams nor Brooks Robinson played in either game.

* A doubleheader was split at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Philadelphia Phillies won the 1st game, 6-3. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the 2nd game, 7-6. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-5 in the 1st game, and got the 2nd game off. Sparky Anderson, the future Hall of Fame manager in his only season as a major league player, had an RBI triple in the 2nd game.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Athletics, 7-6 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) The Tigers got home runs from Charlie Maxwell, Lou Berberet and Rocky Bridges, and Al Kaline went 1-for-4. Roger Maris hit 2 home runs for the A's.

* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Cleveland Indians at Comiskey Park in Chicago. They won the 1st game 5-4, when Bubba Phillips singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th. They won the 2nd game 5-0, with former Phillies "Whiz Kid" Del Ennis hitting a home run in support of Early Wynn, who pitched a 4-hit shutout. But Ennis would be released before the White Sox could clinch their 1st American League Pennant in 40 years, beating the Indians out by 5 games.

* The Milwaukee Braves swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds at Milwaukee County Stadium. They won the 1st game 12-4, when Eddie Mathews hit a home run off former Brooklyn Dodger ace Don Newcombe. They won the 2nd game 2-1, when Hank Aaron hit a walkoff single off Joe Nuxhall. Frank Robinson went 4-for-9 with a solo home run in the doubleheader.

Arch-rivals split a doubleheader at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. The Chicago Cubs won the 1st game 10-9, when Earl Averill Jr., son of a Hall-of-Famer, hit a home run in the top of the 11th. Bobby Thomson, nearly 8 years removed from his Polo Grounds heroics, hit 2 homers for the Cubs. The St. Louis Cardinals won the 2nd game, 8-7, when Curt Flood singled home Gino Cimoli in the bottom of the 9th. 

Stan Musial went 3-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs in the 1st game, then unsuccessfully appeared as a pinch-hitter in the 2nd game. Ernie Banks went 1-for-9 with an RBI in the doubleheader.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Seals Stadium in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 1-for-3.