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Album Of The Year GRAMMY Winners: '50s And '60s

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Album Of The Year GRAMMY Winners: '50s And '60s

The Beatles, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand are among the artists who took home music's biggest album prize

GRAMMYs/Oct 27, 2016 - 03:27 am

An incalculable number of albums have been released in music history, but only 58 have earned the coveted distinction of Album Of The Year GRAMMY winner so far. From Henry Mancini's The Music From Peter Gunn to Taylor Swift's 1989, some of these elite albums have arguably surprised, some were seemingly consensus choices and still others have fostered lasting debate. In part one of Album Of The Year GRAMMY Winners, explore the albums that won — and were runners-up for — music's biggest prize for 1958–1969.

1958 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The Music From Peter Gunn
Henry Mancini

"Peter Gunn," the noir-ish television detective series created by Blake Edwards, first aired in 1958 and was one of the first to feature an original score. Penned by composer Henry Mancini, the show's cool jazz strains became integral to the tone of the show. Mancini, only 34 at the time, was already a veteran film composer, having written for The Glenn Miller Story and The Benny Goodman Story. Over the years, "Peter Gunn"'s insistent show theme has been covered by artists of all genres (the Art Of Noise, Jimi Hendrix and Quincy Jones, among others), and remains one of the most recognized — and hippest — of all time.

Other Nominees: 
Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1, In B-Flat Minor, Op. 23, Van Cliburn
Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Irving Berlin Song Book, Ella Fitzgerald
Come Fly With Me, Frank Sinatra
Only The Lonely, Frank Sinatra 

1959 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Come Dance With Me!
Frank Sinatra

One of the most successful and popular albums of Frank Sinatra's career, Come Dance With Me! features classic compositions by songwriting titans, including Lerner & Loewe ("I Could Have Danced All Night"), Irving Berlin ("Cheek To Cheek"), Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne ("Saturday Night [Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week]"), and Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein ("The Song Is You"). Produced by Capitol Records' Dave Cavanaugh, and featuring iconic swing arrangements by Billy May, the album parked itself on Billboard's charts for more than two years.

Other Nominees: 
Belafonte At Carnegie Hall, Harry Belafonte
Victory At Sea, Vol. 1, Robert Russell Bennett
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3, Kiril Kondrashin, Van Cliburn and the Symphony Of The Air Orchestra
More Music From Peter Gunn, Henry Mancini

1960 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart
Bob Newhart

The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart won out over some serious competition: Frank, Harry and Nat, as well as a pair of classical heavyweights. But remember — this was an era when comedy albums (including those by Shelley Berman, Allan Sherman and Vaughn Meader) were extraordinarily popular. How much so? The Button-Down Mind … topped the Billboard charts for weeks (even fending off Elvis Presley and the original cast album to The Sound Of Music). Newhart was also named Best New Artist, something never again achieved by a comedian, so far. Primarily known for his stand-up to this point, he became a major star when the Emmy-nominated "The Bob Newhart Show" debuted in 1972.

Other Nominees: 
Belafonte Returns To Carnegie Hall, Harry Belafonte
Wild Is Love, Nat "King" Cole
Brahms: Concerto, Erich Leinsdorf and Sviatoslav Richter
Puccini: Turandot, Erich Leinsdorf
Nice 'N Easy, Frank Sinatra

1961 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Judy At Carnegie Hall
Judy Garland

At this stage in her career, the 39-year-old Garland had shifted from performing in films to television, and was one of the highest-paid performers to appear in Las Vegas. But this double album — recorded at Carnegie Hall in New York on April 23, 1961 — reinvigorated her position as a singer of impressive vocal power, class and rarified status. A winner of four GRAMMYs, Judy At Carnegie Hall remains steadfastly popular to this day.

Other Nominees:
Genius + Soul = Jazz, Ray Charles
The Nat "King" Cole Story, Nat "King" Cole
West Side Story — Motion Picture Soundtrack, John Green
Breakfast At Tiffany's — Motion Picture Soundtrack, Henry Mancini
Great Band With Great Voices, Si Zentner and Johnny Mann Singers

1962 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The First Family
Vaughn Meader

Beating out Tony Bennett's I Left My Heart In San Francisco was no small feat, but Vaughn Meader's The First Family was a smash-hit comedy album that sold an unheard-of 1 million copies in the fall of 1962. Clearly, Meader's lighthearted parody of life with the Kennedys struck a chord with Americans during the brightest days of Camelot. Ironically, only months later, the 5th Annual GRAMMY Awards show was preempted for coverage of John F. Kennedy's assassination. (Out of deference, Meader did not appear on the rescheduled telecast.)

Other Nominees:
I Left My Heart In San Francisco, Tony Bennett
Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music, Vol. 1, Ray Charles
Jazz Samba, Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd
My Son, The Folk Singer, Allan Sherman

1963 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The Barbra Streisand Album
Barbra Streisand

By 1963, 20-year-old Barbra Streisand was just beginning to make a name for herself on the Broadway stage. It makes sense, then, that her debut solo album would feature selections from shows such as "The Fantasticks" and "A Taste Of Honey." With sweeping arrangements by Peter Matz (known for his work up to this point with Harold Arlen and Noël Coward) and works by Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart, the collection kicks off with a moving take on "Cry Me A River" (written by Arthur Hamilton and made famous by torchbearer Julie London). The Barbra Streisand Album won three GRAMMY Awards, establishing Streisand as a musical force.

Other Nominees:
Honey In The Horn, Al Hirt
The Singing Nun, Soeur Sourire
Bach's Greatest Hits, the Swingle Singers
Days Of Wine And Roses, Andy Williams

1964 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz & João Gilberto

The 7th Annual GRAMMY Awards marked a time of change in the world of popular music — although the ceremony was still black tie and gown, the "longhairs" were starting to make some noise (the Beatles were named Best New Artist). And during this period, as silky bossa nova began to grace American hi-fi's, the pairing of tenor saxophone great Stan Getz and renowned Brazilian composer João Gilberto would take home Album Of The Year as well as Record Of The Year for its lilting single "The Girl From Ipanema," sung by Gilberto's wife, Astrud. Recorded in spring 1963, and impeccably produced by Creed Taylor and engineered by Phil Ramone, the album also features the immeasurable contribution of Brazilian guitarist/pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Other Nominees:
Cotton Candy, Al Hirt
The Pink Panther, Henry Mancini
Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand, Bob Merrill and Jule Styne
People, Barbra Streisand

1965 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

September Of My Years
Frank Sinatra

In 1965 Frank Sinatra was at the top of his game: His albums were consistently touched by Midas, he was headlining Vegas with the Rat Pack and he was an established film star (Can-CanOcean's 11 and The Manchurian Candidate). He also made his debut as a film director with the release of None But The Brave. Produced by Reprise Records' Sonny Burke, Sinatra's reflective September Of My Years earned Album Of The Year honors, and one of its tracks — the Ervin Drake-penned "It Was A Very Good Year" — took home GRAMMYs for Best Vocal Performance, Male and Best Arrangement Accompanying A Vocalist Or Instrumentalist.

Other Nominees:
Whipped Cream & Other Delights, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass
The Sound Of Music — Motion Picture Soundtrack, Julie Andrews and Cast
My World, Eddy Arnold
Help!, the Beatles
My Name Is Barbra, Barbra Streisand

1966 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

A Man And His Music
Frank Sinatra

Only two artists — Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra — have captured the prestigious Album Of The Year GRAMMY in consecutive years. A Man And His Music is a double-disc retrospective of the Chairman's career up to 1965, particularly noteworthy in that the year marked his 50th birthday. Because many of the songs had been previously released on his former labels (including RCA, Columbia and Capitol), Sinatra chose to re-record them and release the album on Reprise Records, the label he founded in 1958. A TV special of the same name would capture Emmy and Peabody awards.

Other Nominees:
What Now My Love, Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass
Revolver, the Beatles
Dr. Zhivago — Motion Picture Soundtrack, Maurice Jarre
Color Me Barbra, Barbra Streisand

1967 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles

For three years in a row, Frank Sinatra and the Beatles would be nominated for Album Of The Year, with Sinatra capturing it twice. But with their epic psychedelic trip Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles would reign supreme for 1967. The group had for the most part retired from touring by 1966, choosing to instead retreat to Abbey Road Studios and its newfound technological advances. Sgt. Pepper's ... — whose memorable collage artwork cover won the GRAMMY for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts — became one of the most influential albums in rock history, opening doors for other recording artists to the infinite possibilities of studio recording.

Other Nominees:
My Cup Runneth Over, Ed Ames
It Must Be Him, Vikki Carr
Ode To Billie Joe, Bobbie Gentry
Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim

1968 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

By The Time I Get To Phoenix
Glen Campbell

After years as one of the busiest on-call sidemen in the music business (including service as a touring member of the Beach Boys as well as the acclaimed Phil Spector-favored "Wrecking Crew" session players), Glen Campbell began to stretch out on his own as a country solo artist. The year prior to Campbell's win for Album Of The Year, he brought home four GRAMMYs for the tracks "Gentle On My Mind," written by John Hartford, and "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," written by Jimmy Webb. The latter was one of the first of many successful partnerships between Webb and Campbell, including the classics "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston."

Other Nominees: 
Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles
Feliciano!, José Feliciano
A Tramp Shining, Richard Harris
Bookends, Simon And Garfunkel

1969 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears

Every album nominated in 1969 remains an essential listen, especially the winner. Featuring pop hits "And When I Die" (written by Laura Nyro), "Spinning Wheel" and "You've Made Me So Very Happy" — as well as the delicate "Variations On A Theme By Erik Satie" — Blood, Sweat & Tears' second album is an accessible mix of rock, jazz, R&B, and classical that showed rock could sample from many palettes as it entered the '70s. The group's massive, ever-rotating lineup was akin to a superstar big band with long hair and bell-bottoms: This recording features vocalist David Clayton-Thomas, guitarist Steve Katz, alto sax/piano man Fred Lipsius, drummer Bobby Colomby, and bassist Jim Fielder.

Other Nominees: 
Abbey Road, the Beatles
Johnny Cash At San Quentin, Johnny Cash
Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby, Stills & Nash
The Age Of Aquarius, 5th Dimension

2024 GRAMMYs: Taylor Swift Makes GRAMMY History With Fourth Album Of The Year Win For 'Midnights'
Taylor Swift accepts Album Of The Year at the 2024 GRAMMYs.

Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

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2024 GRAMMYs: Taylor Swift Makes GRAMMY History With Fourth Album Of The Year Win For 'Midnights'

'Midnights' earned Taylor Swift her fourth Album Of The Year win at the 2024 GRAMMYs — the most of any artist of all time.

GRAMMYs/Feb 5, 2024 - 04:42 am

Taylor Swift has made GRAMMY history once again.

The pop superstar won the GRAMMY for Album Of The Year for Midnights at the 2024 GRAMMYs, marking her fourth win in the Category — the most Album Of The Year wins of any artist at the GRAMMYs. (She had been tied with Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon.) 

Swift was shocked as she accepted the award, bringing up her producer Jack Antonoff — who had already won the GRAMMY for Producer of the Year — and collaborator Lana Del Rey, who was also nominated for Album Of The Year for Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. She acknowledged both in her acceptance speech, calling Antonoff "a once in a generation producer" and Del Rey "a legacy artist, a legend in her prime right now." 

She continued, "I would love to tell you that this is the best moment of my life, but I feel this happy when I finish a song, or when I crack to code to a bridge I love, or when I'm shortlisting a music video, or when I'm rehearsing with my dancers or my band, or getting ready to go to Tokyo to play a show. For me the award is the work. All I wanna do is keep being able to do this. I love it so much, it makes me so happy." 

The 66th GRAMMY Awards were already a big night for Swift before her Album Of The Year victory. Midnights won Best Pop Vocal Album earlier in the telecast, marking her 13th win; as Swifties know, 13 is Swift's lucky number because of her Dec. 13 birthday.

And at the 2024 GRAMMYs, it was her lucky number indeed: along with making history, Swift used her first win to announce a brand-new album. Swift will release her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19.

2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Full Nominees List

Songbook: A Guide To Stephen Sondheim's Essential Works & Classic Tributes
Stephen Sondheim at the Fairchild Theater in East Lansing, Michigan, in February 1997.

Photo: Douglas Elbinger/Getty Images

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Songbook: A Guide To Stephen Sondheim's Essential Works & Classic Tributes

With his name appearing in three categories at the 2024 GRAMMYs, musical theater icon Stephen Sondheim's legacy continues to thrive. Take a deep dive into the masterful works of the late composer/lyricist, from "Company" to "Sweeney Todd."

GRAMMYs/Jan 11, 2024 - 05:41 pm

Stephen Sondheim had three rules when speaking about his own writing: Less is more,  God is in the details, and content dictates form. While the first two are rather self-explanatory, when it comes to a career as storied as Sondheim's, the third begs the question, how can you possibly describe this content?

Over his lifetime, Sondheim — who lived to be 91 years old, dying of cardiovascular disease in 2021 — was first and foremost a composer and lyricist of the musical theater. He wrote music and lyrics for 16 shows, counting the posthumously produced "Here We Are," and lyrics solely for three (or four, depending on how you count) more, two of which — "West Side Story" and "Gypsy" — are among the most famous and highly-regarded productions of all time. 

Even two years since his passing, his influence is still being honored. At the 2024 GRAMMYs, Sondheim's likeness appears twice in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category: for Vol. 3 of the popular Broadway concert series, Sondheim Unplugged (The NYC Sessions), and for Liz Callaway's tribute project, To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim. What's more, the 2023 Josh Groban-starring Broadway revival of Sondheim's famed musical "Sweeney Todd" earned a nod for Best Musical Theater Album. ("Sweeney Todd" won Sondheim a GRAMMY in 1980 for Best Cast Show Album, one of seven GRAMMYs he won in his lifetime.)

All of that barely begins to describe his accomplishments. Sondheim, a protégé of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, revolutionized the art form that his mentor helped to invent. Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers created "Oklahoma!," considered one of the first examples of the "integrated musical," a show where the music, the lyrics, the book, and the dances all work together to tell a story. Sondheim would take those lessons to heart, simultaneously expanding and blowing apart the structure. 

Take his 1970 show "Company," for example, which has no real plot at all, and is often referred to as a "concept musical." It's a series of vignettes, and it's unclear whether they happen consecutively or are months or years apart. 

That was only the beginning of his experimentation. He did a show featuring ghosts ("Follies"), a show about cannibalism ("Sweeney Todd"), a show about geopolitics ("Pacific Overtures"), a show about historical pariahs ("Assassins"), even a show where time goes backwards ("Merrily We Roll Along"). But no matter how far out he got, there was always coherence and heart at play. Everything about the songs his characters sang — the harmonic language, the musical style, the delivery, the melody, the vocabulary, the rhyme choices — was determined by the character and the story. 

And what wonderful characters and stories they were. While his shows appeal to all ages, Sondheim's best work is mostly for adults. His characters have known disappointment, love unattainable people, are not where they saw themselves in life, and have hard choices to make in complicated situations. Sometimes they make the challenging but necessary decision to "Move On"...and sometimes they kill a President. To take those complexities and make them sing, well, that's the root of his genius.

Because Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics (and lived to his nineties), there are a nearly infinite amount of ways to experience his work. The best, of course, is to go out and see a show in person. Three of his shows are playing in New York right now ("Sweeney Todd," "Merrily We Roll Along," and "Here We Are"), and "Company" is currently on tour.

Aside from live theater, there are countless other ways to delve into the work of musical theater's Shakespeare. Below, Sondheim's career is broken down by seven categories, each of which include a mix of canonical classics and personal favorites. This is in no way comprehensive or definitive, so apologies for missing your favorite Gypsy revival cast album or Sondheim birthday concert. And away we go!

Cabaret Albums

Hearing Sondheim songs without the context of a show can be surprising at first. After all, everything about the material is meant for a particular moment in a specific story. And yet, hearing one singer interpret a range of numbers can be a revelatory experience. You can find different meanings (and in at least one case we'll examine shortly, different lyrics!), and hear new interpretations. 

The most famous interpreter of Sondheim is arguably Barbra Streisand, who recorded eight of his songs on her massively successful LP The Broadway Album (and three more on Back To Broadway). Her singing is (unsurprisingly) stunning, but what's most notable is that she actually got Sondheim to write new material — to rework "Putting It Together" to make it about a singer instead of a painter, and to write a new bridge for "Send In The Clowns." 

English singer and actress Cleo Laine released Cleo Sings Sondheim in 1988, and she smartly got Sondheim's longtime orchestrator Jonathan Tunick to conduct. So you can not only hear songs Tunick orchestrated in their original stage productions, you can also hear his arrangements of songs from before he and Sondheim started working together in 1970. Curious what a Tunick-orchestrated "Anyone Can Whistle" or "Evening Primrose" might have sounded like? You can get a taste here.

Several actors who have been in Sondheim shows have further honored his greatness by interpreting his material. Three quick examples: Bernadette Peters' superb Sondheim, Etc.: Live At Carnegie Hall; Mandy Patinkin's Mandy Patinkin Sings Sondheim; and Liz Callaway's GRAMMY-nominated To Steve With Love (which includes a great version of a nearly-forgotten comic song from "Do I Hear A Waltz?"). Patinkin's deserves special note because his only accompanist is the living musical theater jukebox pianist Paul Ford.

Books

The gold standard for books on Sondheim are the ones he wrote himself: the two-volume memoir/book of lyrics Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat. But if you're not ready for that investment yet, there are other alternatives. 

Meryle Seacrest's Stephen Sondheim: A Life is a comprehensive and extremely readable single-volume biography. It manages to reveal some aspects of Sondheim's life without feeling exploitative, and gives tremendous insight into both his work and the personal and professional relationships that informed it.

There are also a number of excellent books about the process of making individual shows; the two best come from opposite ends of the production spectrum. James Lapine, the book writer and original director of "Sunday In the Park With George," created an oral history of the making of that show called Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim And I Created Sunday In The Park With George. All the way on the other side of the power structure, Ted Chapin, a gofer during the rehearsal process for Follies, turned his detailed journal entries into Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies

On the more scholarly end, check out Joanne Gordon's Art Isn't Easy: The Achievement of Stephen Sondheim. If you really want to go all the way down the rabbit hole (and have a piano handy to play the musical examples), there's Stephen Banfield's extremely thorough Sondheim's Broadway Musicals.

Movies

Turning a stage musical into a movie can be a tricky business; some of the greatest shows have been turned into middling films. The less said about the movie versions of "Sweeney Todd" or "Into the Woods," the better (though it should be noted, in its defense, that Sondheim himself actually liked the former). The movie version of "A Little Night Music" is so forgotten that it's basically impossible to find.

But there are some marvelous Sondheim-related films. Most famous, of course, is West Side Story, the 1961 movie of which was so popular — and acclaimed, winning a whopping 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 1962 — that it turned a successful but risky Broadway show into an immortal classic. It also inspired several remakes: not just the Oscar-nominated, Spielberg-directed one from 2021, but even a late-'70s Egyptian adaptation. The 1990 movie Dick Tracy contained five Sondheim songs, three of which were sung by Madonna, successfully introducing countless '80s babies to his work.

The Last of Sheila contains no music, so it's a bit of an oddity here. But Sondheim turned his lifelong obsession with games and puzzles into a fun murder mystery movie, co-written with Anthony Perkins. When you watch this 1973 gem, you might recognize some themes and ideas that would later show up in the Knives Out series, in particular Glass Onion (director/writer Rian Johnson has been very open about this).

Speaking of Perkins, he is the star of one of Sondheim's great filmed musicals, the disturbing "Evening Primrose." He plays a young poet who sneaks into a department store after hours so that he can have some privacy to write. What he discovers there is funny, heartbreaking, and ultimately horrifying. Think The Twilight Zone with songs written by a genius. 

Finally, no mention of Sondheim and movies would be complete without D.A. Pennebaker's 1970 documentary Original Cast Album: "Company." It is, at root, Pennebaker and crew filming the recording of "Company"'s cast album. But it's so much more than that. It's about how, as Sondheim once said, "Art isn't easy," and how the actors and musicians are trying — under several very watchful sets of eyes, including the composer/lyricist's — to do the near-impossible in a very limited time. The film has become so iconic that the satirical series Documentary Now! did a hysterical 25-minute-long parody, complete with original songs that are loving send-ups of "Company" numbers.

Tributes/Anthologies

This category combines two similar types of projects. First is the tribute concert, where a bunch of notable singers come together on a single night and each do one or a few songs. Then there are anthologies, where a small group of performers put together a show using songs originally meant for other purposes. Sometimes they have plots, and sometimes they're revues. 

Among the best of the latter category is "Side by Side by Sondheim," the 1976 revue in which three English singers strung together an extremely well-chosen and well-sequenced collection of songs. This was the show that really cemented Sondheim's reputation in England, and justly so. 

In the big one-night-only category, 1992's Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall is right up there at the top of the list. The array of talent at that one show is simply unbelievable, and will never be duplicated. Sondheim regulars like Betty Buckley and Bernadette Peters were there, but so were Liza Minelli and Billy Stritch; Patti LuPone; ballet legend Robert LaFosse; Glenn Close; Karen Ziemba; and even the Boys Choir of Harlem, all roped in to perform some of the finest songs in the musical theater canon.

Sondheim's 90th birthday celebration is also noteworthy. Because it was in the early days of the pandemic, it was all done remotely. The actual live broadcast was a bit of a mess, with false starts and tech snafus (hey, who knew how to work Zoom in April 2020?). Luckily, Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration has been edited down and archived on Broadway.com's YouTube page, and is well worth your time.

Revivals/Concert Productions

Another convenient bridging of categories here. Revivals are versions of shows done after the original production has stopped running. Concert productions are exactly that: people perform all the songs, with minimal (or sometimes no) staging or costumes. The amount of dialogue performed can vary wildly as well. 

Among concert productions, the 1985 New York Philharmonic concert cast recording of "Follies" is justly the most well-known. This is in part because, due to budget restrictions, the original cast recording of "Follies" doesn't contain most of the show's music. So to finally have a full recording of all the material — performed by a who's who of actors including Mandy Patinkin, Barbara Cook, Lee Remick, George Hearn, Elaine Stritch, Jim Walton, and even the legendary writing team of Comden and Green — well, it's as magnificent as it sounds. There's even a documentary to go along with it. 

Another of the top concert recordings arrived a decade later: the 1995 concert version of "Anyone Can Whistle." Angela Lansbury, who starred in the original Broadway production for all of the nine performances it lasted, comes back as the narrator. Bernadette Peters and Madeline Kahn are absolutely incredible, and have an all-time-great duet in the usually cut song "There's Always a Woman," gloriously restored for this production. If you really want to get deep into "…Whistle" (a flop at the time, but a fascinating show), there's also a complete recording released in 2020 that is the closest thing to what you might have experienced in the theater in 1964 — it even restores all the dance music.

Revivals…well, where to start? A good place would be one you can see right now, "Merrily We Roll Along." There is a superb cast recording of the production currently playing on Broadway with Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, and Daniel Radcliffe

There have been a handful of major reimaginings of "Company" over the years. The best were a stripped-down version where the cast plays its own instruments, and a gender-swapped one where inveterate bachelor Bobby is portrayed as perpetually single woman Bobbie. 

Points also go to the 2004 Broadway cast recording of "Assassins," and not just because Neil Patrick Harris does such a great job. The whole album captures the project's challenging beauty.

Original Cast Recordings

An original cast album of a Sondheim show will reveal countless treasures if you dig into it. It is often the best way to hear a show, since the actors are the ones who originated the roles, whether it's Ethel Merman as the obsessed stage mother Mama Rose in "Gypsy" or Donna Murphy as the tortured Fosca in "Passion." 

The 1970s have a surfeit of treasures. To take a few not yet mentioned, there's "Sweeney Todd," with timeless performances by Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou; and "A Little Night Music," perhaps Sondheim's ultimate example of writing music for character. It's nearly impossible to hear the show's two main female characters as anyone else but the late Glynis Johns as the actress Desiree Armfeldt and Hermione Gingold as her mother.

If you haven't already heard the original cast recordings of "Gypsy" and "West Side Story," do so immediately. Both are iconic pieces of 20th century art. (Music for the former is by Jule Styne, and for the latter by Leonard Bernstein).

Proshots

Luckily, productions — many featuring the original casts — of many of Sondheim's shows have been captured on tape, so you can see and hear them in their entirety. They are often referred to as "proshots," a portmanteau of "professionally shot." 

"Pacific Overtures" works well as an album, but it really comes alive when you can see the gorgeous staging. "Sweeney Todd" gains extra comedy and menace in its proshot. There's a New York City Opera version of "A Little Night Music" that is masterful. You can't really understand "Passion" without seeing Donna Murphy. "Merrily We Roll Along"'s complicated story becomes comprehensible when viewing the filmed revival.

But the most unmissable are two of the 1980s productions. There's "Sunday In the Park With George," a classic meditation on the life of the artist Georges Seurat starring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters; it was filmed for TV in 1986. Because this is a show largely about a painter and the creation of his most famous painting, actually seeing the show — literally seeing the painting come to life — is essential.

Arguably the most important of all, though, is the filmed play that introduced generations of children to Sondheim's work. His fairy tale show "Into the Woods" was taped in 1989 (though not aired until 1991), and its frequent TV showings have made it a gateway drug for theatergoers ever since. 

The show is not just a collection of children's tales and songs. It uses the background of those stories to really delve into uncomfortable truths about parents and children, growing up, consequences, and what it really means to be good. Its themes, music, and sophistication, all while still being absolutely appropriate for, and speaking to, children, make it, as scholar Stephen Banfield wrote in 1993, "Sondheim's finest achievement yet."

That "yet" is a lot sadder now than it was when Banfield wrote it. But the show still stands as the epitome of a legendary writer and genius composer — one whose legacy and songs are already proving to live on past his lifetime. 

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Liz Gillies Shares The Holiday Tunes That Make Her Feel Merriest
Liz Gillies performs at the 91st annual Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting in 2023

Photo: Scott Gries/NBC via Getty Images

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Liz Gillies Shares The Holiday Tunes That Make Her Feel Merriest

"I just remember being completely enveloped in Christmas music," the songstress says. Her collaboration with Seth MacFarlane, 'We Wish You the Merriest' is "as close to a classic feeling, warm, fuzzy, nostalgic Christmas album you’re gonna get."

GRAMMYs/Dec 22, 2023 - 02:28 pm

With a new album of holiday cheer, We Wish You the Merriest, under their belts, Liz Gillies and Seth MacFarlane have become one of the most popular recording duos of the season. Yet their sonic story goes back a decade.

Gillies, who starred as Fallon Carrington on "Dynasty," met the "Family Guy" at a karaoke bar and noticed they were singing in similar styles.  She was singing her go-to: Julie London’s "Cry Me a River" and recalls MacFarlane singing Frank Sinatra.

"We immediately realized that we both shared a deep love and affinity for this music," Gilles told GRAMMY.com by phone about their mutual admiration for jazz and crooning styles of the 1940s and 50s.

She started joining his Los Angeles concerts at the Catalina Jazz Club in 2014/2015 and then went with him on tour. "When you find somebody that you share that kind of common ground with and you have great chemistry with –  it sort of feels like you'd be doing a disservice not to explore it," she says.

They released a joint un-official album, Songs From Home, in spring 2021 and fans quickly clambered for a Christmas album. In November, Gillies and MacFarlane finally delivered.

Their 13-track We Wish You the Merriest features many classics — from "Frosty the Snowman" to "That Holiday Feeling" — sung in the styles of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. "This is as close to a classic feeling, warm, fuzzy, nostalgic Christmas album you’re gonna get these days," Gilles says.

"Seth is sort of like this youthful energy, as much as he loves these older songs. I truly present myself like a 50 to 60 year old woman from 1950," says 30-year-old Gillies. "So onstage it really works. We love a lot of the same movies. A lot of the way we banter and our jokes are very similar." 

Singing has long been a part of Gillies' repertoire, beginning with her Broadway debut at 15 years old in "13: The Musical" alongside Ariana Grande. They both went on to star and sing on Nickelodeon’s "Victorious" and have sustained a friendship ever since. Gillies even appeared in Grande’s "Thank U, Next" music video.   

They recently went viral for their Halloween costume reveal. "We already know what we’re doing next year," Gillies teased. "We have this all mapped out. It's been a fun, new tradition that we started and it's just a blast. It lets us be wacky, free and creative."  

Asked whether they’d ever perform together again – Gillies said it’s all about timing. "If there’s an opportunity that makes sense, we would love to be on stage together, create something together. We're always talking about it," she said.  

Right now, the focus has been her partnership with MacFarlane.  

Recording a Christmas album was especially meaningful to Gillies, who  remembers listening to these classics during her childhood  in New Jersey. The holidays were "the most important time of year" for Gilles' music-loving family. "I just remember being completely enveloped in Christmas music," she recalls.

"[Holiday music] was very much a part of my childhood and a part of my upbringing in my education, musically," Gillies notes. "The fact that I'm even on a Christmas record — let alone with this amazing orchestra and with these arrangements — is pretty surreal for me. 

"They feel so familiar to me," she continues. "That's why I was happy to do a more classic album because I don't think I would succeed doing a pop Christmas album. I wouldn't know where to start." 

In honor of We Wish You the Merriest, Gillies shares some of her favorite holiday songs and why.  

"The Christmas Waltz" - Frank Sinatra 

"The Christmas Waltz" is one my grandma always would sing. She sang it the other night as well — I just had my family Christmas party this past weekend. We have so many traditions and so many beautiful memories and things that we do at parties during the holidays. 

I know it's Seth’s favorite Christmas song, I believe, and it's one of mine as well. Several members of my family play the piano and after dinner and before dessert, we always went over to the piano. [This happened] since I was a kid, and generations before I existed sang Christmas carols. 

"Winter Wonderland" - James Taylor 

I remember my dad having this huge stack of CDs and the first one always that went in was actually James Taylor's Christmas album, believe it or not. The first song on that album is "Winter Wonderland." Once that started, I would get a very Christmassy feeling in my house and I would know that it was Christmas time. 

"The Christmas Song" - Nat King Cole

To me, the quintessential Christmas song is "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole. That is the song I think Nat has, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful voices of all time. That song, no matter where I am when I hear it, I stop.   

"Sleigh Ride'' - Ella Fitzgerald

That's another one that I really love. It's so effortless, jazzy and fun. I tried to emulate little parts of each of these [songs] in our record although our arrangements are different.  

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - Frank Sinatra  

Judy [Garland’s version] is very beautiful and very sad, so I don't listen to it as much. Frank’s is almost haunting. I believe it starts acapella. It’s so beautiful and his voice sounds so rich and velvety. I love that version of that song.  

New Holiday Songs For 2023: Listen To Festive Releases From Aespa, Brandy, Sabrina Carpenter & More

2023 Latin GRAMMYs: Karol G Wins Album Of The Year For 'Mañana Será Bonito'
Karol G poses with awards during the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023 in Seville, Spain

Photo: Courtesy of The Latin Recording Academy/Borja B. Hojas, Getty Images © 2023

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2023 Latin GRAMMYs: Karol G Wins Album Of The Year For 'Mañana Será Bonito'

Karol G won the Latin GRAMMY for Album Of The Year for 'Mañana Será Bonito' at the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs.

GRAMMYs/Nov 17, 2023 - 12:57 am

Karol G won the Latin GRAMMY for Album Of The Year for Mañana Será Bonito at the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs.

Pablo Alborán's La Cu4rta Hoja, Paula Arenas' A Ciegas, Camilo's De Adentro Pa Afuera, Andrés Cepeda's Décimo Cuarto, Juanes' Vida Cotidiana, Natalia Lafourcade's De Todas Las Flores, Ricky Martin's Play, Fito Paez's Eadda9223, and Carlos Vives' Escalona Nunca Se Había Grabado Así were the other nominees in the category.

Karol G first made a splash by cross-pollinating reggaeton and Latin trap; these days, she has eyes on an entire country: her native Colombia.

Musical powerhouse, reggaetonera and general bichota, Karol G is one major reason why all eyes are on Colombia. After establishing herself as a hit-making star in the adjoining worlds of reggaeton and Latin trap, she is clearly enjoying her success and savoring the moment.

As its sunshine-and-rainbows-festooned cover suggests, Mañana Será Bonito was one of 2023's most irresistible albums — it radiates verve, panache and sexuality. Not only that: it’s filled with inspired features by the likes of Romeo Santos, Shakira, Carla Morrison, and Sean Paul. Mañana Será Bonito debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 200, making it the first all-Spanish language album by a female artist to hold that impressive distinction.

Check out the complete list of winners and nominees at the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs.