High and Low Notes

Grammys: The best and worst of the ballot. Michael Endelman analyzes this year's nominees and finds some interesting choices (and glaring omissions)

By Michael Endelman | Jan 04, 2007

Biggest Winner

Mary J. Blige

The heart-baring soul singer gathered up the most nominations this year, a total of eight, including nods in the prestigious Song of the Year and Record of the Year categories. So why are we really psyched about Blige's gaggle of kudos? It means she'll definitely be performing during the Feb. 11 ceremony, and one of her signature throat-scarring performances would be an electrifying highlight of an often staid show.

Biggest Loser

Nickelback

Pour one out for Chad Kroeger. The Canadian rockers have sold 4 million-plus copies of All the Right Reasons since it came out in fall 2005, and it has been settled on the Billboard Top 200 for more than 60 weeks... but they still couldn't get one measly nod from the Recording Academy — not even in the Best Hard Rock Performance slot! There's only one explanation: an ingrained national bias against our north-of-the-border neighbors. (Or maybe the Grammy voters just think the 'back sucks?)

Positive Signs of the Grammys' Increasing Coolness

Nods for Gnarls Barkley, the Raconteurs, and Lupe Fiasco

he famously fusty Academy made some surprisingly hip choices this year, like nominating genre-smashing psychedelic-electro-soul-rap duo Gnarls Barkley for four awards (including the biggies, Album and Record of the Year), alterna-rapper Fiasco for three, and Jack White's retro-rock supergroup for two.

Depressing Signs of the Grammys' Continuing Lameness

Nods for Chris Brown, Pharrell, and John Mayer

ure, Brown is a cute kid with some decent dance moves, but a Best New Artist of 2006? His first single, ''Run It!,'' was a blatant rip-off of Usher's ''Yeah!'' and that's the best tune on his self-titled debut. There were other examples of general lameness and laziness in this year's announcement, like a nod to Pharrell's commercial and critical dud In My Mind in the Best Rap Album group and the inexplicable inclusion of the John Mayer Trio's Try! in the Best Rock Album category (for one, it's a wanky blues album, not a rock record, and secondly... well, it stinks).

Notable Newcomer of the Year

Corinne Bailey Rae

The U.K. songbird's style of mellifluous, easy-going soul is like catnip to the Recording Academy, and she snagged three nominations in big-time categories: Best New Artist, and Record and Song of the Year for the self-empowerment soul tune ''Put Your Records On.''

The Not-Really-New Newcomer of the Year

Imogen Heap

Just like country singer Shelby Lynne, who won Best New Artist in 2000 after recording six major-label albums over a decade, electro-pop chanteuse Imogen Heap isn't actually a rookie. Her first album dropped in 1998, and she released a disc as a member of the trip-hop duo Frou Frou in 2002. Still, her album Speak for Yourself is an impressive work — you probably know the a capella robot-pop of ''Hide and Seek'' from The O.C. finale — so we won't complain too loudly.

Most Glaring Snub, Producer Category

Timbaland

His hip-tweaking, booty-grinding work with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado was nominated, but Timbaland himself did not get nominated in the Producer of the Year category. What gives? The man is arguably the best pop, rap, and R&B producer of his generation, but he still doesn't have a Best Producer Grammy on his mantel. It's shame, shame, shame.

Most Glaring Snub, Country Category

Rascal Flatts

American record-buyers love the high-pitched country softies — their album Me and My Gang has the year's best first-week sales, with a 722,000-copy debut — but Rascal Flatts didn't get picked in any of the big mainstream categories. Instead, they got two lesser mentions in the country races. Guess we know who'll be crying in their Millers this weekend.

Proof that Sales Don't Mean Everything

'High School Musical' snubbed

This chirpy bunch of kids from the Disney Channel have 2006's best-selling album — the High School Musical soundtrack has sold more than 3.3 million copies — but it still wasn't enough to get them a single nomination. Maybe it's because there's no Best Tween Album category?

Most Obvious Fudging of the Rules

U2 & Green Day nominated for ''The Saints Are Coming''

The Academy's rules clearly state that the 49th annual Grammys is for ''recordings released during the Eligibility Year Oct. 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006.'' This rousing cover of a song by punk rockers the Skids wasn't released on iTunes until Nov. 14, 2006 — so what gives? Maybe it's because the song was originally performed during a NFL pregame show at the Louisiana Superdome in late September? If so, it seems like a crass bid to get the two mega-bands to perform on the Grammy telecast.

Token Fogey

Paul McCartney

There are five songs nominated in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category. Four of them were actual radio smashes and or MTV/VH1 hits that were heard by millions around the country in '06. One was not. That tune is Paul McCartney's ''Jenny Wren,'' from an album that came out last year. Just because he was in the Beatles doesn't mean Macca deserves to be nominated. Every. Single. Year.

Token Politico

Jimmy Carter

Joining previous Washingtonian winners Barack Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton, former President Jimmy Carter snagged a nomination this year in the Best Spoken Word Album slot, for his reading of his own book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis. If he wins, I wonder which one will get better placement in his home: the Grammy or the Nobel Peace Prize?

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