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.

March 1, 1994: Billy Joel Stands Up for Frank Sinatra

March 1, 1994: The Grammy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, are held at Radio City Music Hall in New York, broadcast on CBS. Whitney Houston opens the show with Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which she sang in the film The Bodyguard. It wins Record of the Year.

Frank Sinatra, 78 years old, is presented with a Grammy Legend Award. He had previously won 11 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Peabody Award. (He would win 2 more regular Grammys. He was nominated for 4 Emmy Awards, but didn't win any.)

The award was presented to him by Bono, lead singer of U2, who recently recorded with him on his Duets album. His acceptance speech suggests that he's not exactly with it anymore. He drifted around, and said some things that suggested that some racial, ethnic and religious terms that were once considered okay were no longer so.

The "Your time is up" music was played. It was a tough decision: Is it showing Sinatra more respect by letting him finish, or by stopping him from embarrassing himself?

Billy Joel, himself the winner of 5 Grammy Awards and a Grammy Legend award, was nominated for 4 awards: Album of the Year for River of Dreams; and, for the title track, Record of the Year (for the performer), Song of the Year (for the writer), and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. (He didn't win any of them.)

As a Song of the Year nominee, he was obligated to sing his nominated song. He was just about to start his 4th and final verse, when he stopped. That wasn't surprising: On the original recording, there's a three-second gap there.

This time, though, he stood at his piano, and looked at his watch, and said, "Valuable advertising time going by." The crowd at Radio City got it immediately, laughed, and cheered. He said it again: "Valuable advertising time going by. Dollars. Dollars. Dollars." After 23 seconds, he returned to the song, and finished it.

Frank was the biggest music star of the immediate pre-rock and roll era. But, occasionally, rock stars have shown his influence on them, and their respect for him. Billy was sending a message: "I don't care if you are CBS, or the Recording Academy: Nobody, but nobody, shows disrespect to Frank Sinatra." Especially in what amounted to both men's hometown: Hicksville, Long Island stood up for Hoboken, New Jersey that night.

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March 1, 1994 was a Tuesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 9 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Sacramento Kings, 100-88 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Detroit Pistons, 108-98 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 109-103 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 102-99 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 106-94 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Miami Heat beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 110-102 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Orlando Magic, 97-85 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 114-109 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 112-96 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Washington Capitals, 4-3 at the USAir Arena (formerly the Capital Centre) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Calgary Flames, 5-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-4 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.