Linda Ronstadt

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Linda Ronstadt's 'Canciones De Mi Padre' | For The Record

Revisit the iconic country-rock singer’s foray into traditional Mexican mariachi music

GRAMMYs

Mar 29, 2018 - 6:13 pm

By 1987, Linda Ronstadt had conquered the '70s as the sweetheart of country rock and spent nearly two decades releasing solid albums, including GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inductee Heart Like A Wheel, covering a wide swath of musical styles. But the GRAMMY-winning singer's musical roots were aching to be revisited. Ronstadt dove into the soundtrack of her childhood, revisiting the traditional Mexican mariachi music on Canciones De Mi Padre.

For The Record: Linda Ronstadt’s 'Canciones ...'

As a bona fide superstar, Ronstadt was able to enlist the help of three of the best mariachi bands around at the time: Mariachi Vargas, Mariachi Los Camperos and Mariachi Sol De Mexico. Together, and with help of GRAMMY winner Peter Asher, they tackled a collection of songs from Sonora, Mexico, that harkened back to Ronstadt's family traditions and formative musical memories.

Ronstadt stretched and flexed her vocal and interpretive abilities for Canciones De Mi Padre, paying homage to late Mexican singer Lola Beltran, whom she credited as a prominent influence on her own singing style.

Her reverence paid off. The album went double platinum, and at the 31st GRAMMY Awards Canciones De Mi Padre won Best Mexican-American Performance.

The project also ushered in a period in Ronstadt’s career that saw her release two additional Spanish-language albums over the following five years. Her 1991 pseudo-sequel, Mas Canciones, won Best Mexican-American Album at the 35th GRAMMY Awards.

More than 30 years after Canciones De Mi Padre, Ronstadt's lasting legacy as one of her generation’s greatest voices resonates that much wider due to the versatility, authenticity, and range she showed by revisiting the music that shaped her remarkable life and her outstanding career.

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David Bowie

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David Bowie's '…Ziggy Stardust…' | For The Record

Return to the time when one of a generation's greatest artists introduced one of his most memorable characters

Nate Hertweck

GRAMMYs

Aug 14, 2018 - 5:02 pm

"Ziggy played guitar…"

Three years after he created the character of Major Tom in his breakout hit, "Space Oddity," and four years before the Thin White Duke arrived on Station To Station, art-rock icon David Bowie introduced the world to a new alter-ego that would immortalize both the character and its creator.

David Bowie's '…Ziggy Stardust…' | For The Record

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was released June 16, 1972, Bowie's fifth studio album and perhaps the most widely recognizable and identifiable project of his career. Visually, the character of Ziggy Stardust would become emblazoned in the memory of pop culture history. Musically, he had the rock and roll universe singing along to something entirely new.

Recorded in London's Trident Studios in late 1971 and early 1972, the album was produced by Ken Scott. Even today, over 45 years after its release, …Ziggy Stardust… seems to careen through the universe as something entirely new, encapsulating a spaceman's journey through the cosmos as told by an androgynous storyteller. In an era where concept albums began to take over the art-rock cannon, Bowie and Scott achieved a special blend of conceptual cohesion and sonic and artistic experimentation.

From the album's orchestral space take-off opening track, "Five Years," and the psychedelic trip of "Moonage Daydream" though well-known Bowie classics such as "Starman" and "Ziggy Stardust" to raucous rock anthems such as the "Star" and "Suffragette City," …Ziggy Stardust… dances, soars, rambles, and rocks.

Bowie's vocal range from fragile croon to rebel roar is on full display, and the Mick Ronson-led Spiders From Mars build an adventurous musical backdrop to the album's concepts, making for one of the greatest of many great projects Bowie gave us during his career.

In 1999, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame. In 2017, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" by the Library of Congress.

Just two days after his 69th birthday and the release of what would be his final masterpiece, Blackstar, Bowie died on Jan. 10, 2016. The lasting legacy of …Ziggy Stardust… lives on as a compelling time capsule to be dug up, appreciated and enjoyed by generations of music fans to come.

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The Beatles

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The Beatles Take Aim With 1966's 'Revolver': For The Record

Their final album before retiring from live shows, find out how the Fab Four's seventh studio album changed their sonic direction

Renée Fabian

GRAMMYs

Aug 2, 2018 - 11:07 am

By 1966, the Beatles — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr —were ready for a change in their musical direction. Namely, they planned to retire from live performances. Before that, however, they released their seventh studio album on Aug. 5, 1966, Revolver.

Revisit The Beatles' 'Revolver'

Because Revolver was the final album the band made before retiring from live shows, the Fab Four never intended to perform it, so they freed up their creativity in the studio, incorporating groundbreaking techniques such as tape loops and backward recordings on "Tomorrow Never Knows." They also stretched their instrumentation, employing a string octet ("Eleanor Rigby"), French Horn ("For No One") and sitar on multiple tracks.

On the strength of these songs and other now classic Beatles hits such as "Yellow Submarine," "She Said She Said," "Good Day Sunshine," and "Got To Get You Into My Life," the album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

At the 9th GRAMMY Awards, Revolver earned the Beatles a GRAMMY nomination for Album Of The Year, while the album's cover designer Klaus Voormann won Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts for the LP's cover.

In 1999 Revolver was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, one of seven Beatles albums currently in the Hall. The track "Eleanor Rigby" was inducted in 2002.

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Beach Boys

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Remembering The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds': For The Record

Take a look back at the album that revolutionized the sound of the classic band

Renée Fabian

GRAMMYs

Jul 19, 2018 - 12:24 pm

If there's one band that could encapsulate the sound of summer it would be the aptly named Beach Boys. Since their inception in 1961, the GRAMMY-winning California band has taken us straight to the source of sun, sand and surfing with a string of hit albums. But with their 11th studio album, 1966's masterpiece Pet Songs, masterminded largely by Brian Wilson, the band created a new, more complex soundscape that cemented their place in music history.

Revisit The Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds'

The story goes that Wilson had crafted much of what would become Pet Sounds by the time the rest of the band — comprising at the time vocalist Al Jardine, vocalist Bruce Johnston, vocalist/co-writer Mike Love, guitarist/vocalist Carl Wilson, and drummer/vocalist Dennis Wilson — returned from a tour of Japan and Hawaii.

The album's musical and lyrical direction marked a departure from the surf rock the Beach Boys had been known for, but Brian Wilson was adamant about the evolving direction of the band's sound, which included many orchestral instruments and unconventional sound effects using bicycle bells, Coca-Cola cans and barking dogs.

"The result was autobiographical, but it wasn't Wilson's autobiography," writes Liel Leibovitz about Wilson's masterpiece. "[It's] a collective autobiography of everything we all feel when we wake up in the morning and are moved by the mystery of how impossible it is, how inevitable, and how stupidly joyful just to try and reach out to another human being."

"A lot of love went into Pet Sounds. And people pick up on that too, and they really like it 'cause they feel the love." Brian performs the classic album tonight at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, NJ. Look for a show coming near you! brianwilson.com/tour #petsounds #love #1966

A post shared by Brian Wilson (@brianwilsonlive) on Jul 19, 2018 at 5:58am PDT

Commercially, however, the album initially didn't reach the same heights as previous efforts. It peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 while popular tracks "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "God Only Knows" and "Caroline, No" achieved chart success in the U.S. and abroad. But as the rest of the world caught up with the genius of the album, it's now earned triple platinum sales status with the RIAA and is hailed as one of the best pop albums of all time.

Accordingly, Pet Sounds was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 1998. In 2001 the Beach Boys were also honored with the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award for the indelible mark they have made on the music industry.

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Guns N' Roses

Photo: Jack Lue/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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Guns N' Roses 'Appetite For Destruction' | For The Record

Revisit the album that delivered fun and games and changed rock and roll forever

Nate Hertweck

GRAMMYs

May 24, 2018 - 2:04 pm

Guns N' Roses erupted out of Hollywood's Sunset Strip like a perfect storm of raw punk energy, rock and roll swagger, and enough post-glam aggression to blow any house down. Their debut album, Appetite For Destruction, perfectly captured the chaos and debauchery — along with a touch of tenderness — on its way to becoming the best-selling debut album in U.S. history with over 18 million copies sold.

Guns N' Roses: 'Appetite ...' | For The Record

Released July 21, 1987, Appetite … arrived at the peak of glam metal's heyday, and while they drafted off the popular genre's aesthetic, there was something much more unpredictable and volatile about GN'R, and that intangible magnetism comes through on their debut. Produced by Mike Clink, the album introduced the world to frontman Axl Rose's masterful whisper-to-a-shriek vocals and lead guitarist Slash's tasteful-sustain-to-blues-on-speed guitar playing.

From the opening delay-soaked guitar notes of "Welcome To The Jungle" to the epic album closer, "Rocket Queen," there's no coming up for air on Appetite For Destruction. Even the album's implied ballad, "Sweet Child 'O Mine" managed to surprise, introducing one of the most enduring opening guitar riffs ever written, showing a sensitive side of Rose, and building into one of Slash's most iconic guitar solos that explodes into a flurry of notes before breaking all the way down to a soft-spoken chant. It seemed like Guns N' Roses could go anywhere they wanted to go on their debut album.

This same invincibility could be felt on the album's more anthemic singles "Paradise City" and "Nightrain" which featured Rose's angst-heavy verses set against melodic choruses that would have stadium audiences singing along. The album also covered edgier ground in the unhinged "Out Ta Get Me" and "You're Crazy," and showcased the group's versatility and ambition in songs such as "My Michelle" and "Think About You"— territory that would be explored further in the G N'R Lies EP and Use Your Illusion albums that would follow.

GN'R released five singles from the album, "It's So Easy," "Welcome To The Jungle," "Sweet Child O' Mine," "Nightrain," and "Paradise City." Appetite… mounted a slow climb up the charts, finally reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in August of 1988, almost a full year after it entered the chart at No. 182. Rolling Stone ranked the album No. 62 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Three decades later, Appetite For Destruction remains one of the most popular and influential rock albums ever recorded. Guns N' Roses reunited in 2016 for the Not In This Lifetime… Tour in 2017 and will commemorate their debut album with Locked N' Loaded, a massive 73-track box-set full of rarities and a remastered two-LP 180-gram vinyl version of Appetite…, due out on June 29.