38th Annual Grammy Awards


The 38th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 28, 1996, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The awards recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Alanis Morissette was the main recipient, being awarded four trophies, including Album of the Year. Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men opened the show with their Record of the Year nominated "One Sweet Day".
The ceremony was controversial for its unexpected snub of Mariah Carey's Daydream album, which proved to be one of the bestselling and most acclaimed albums of 1995. When the Grammy Award nominees were announced, and Daydream was nominated for six different awards, critics began raving how it would be "cleaning up" that year. Carey, being a multiple award nominee, was one of the headlining performers. Together with Boyz II Men, she sang a live rendition of "One Sweet Day", to a very positive response. The album had lost all of its six nominations, shocking most critics who branded it the "album of the year". Carey did not perform again until the 2006 ceremony, when she was nominated for eight awards for The Emancipation of Mimi.
The ceremony is also significant for Tupac Shakur introducing Peter Criss, Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, and Paul Stanley of Kiss for the first time in full makeup and costume since 1979. Shakur said "And I've seen just about everything now," in response to seeing Kiss walk on stage to announce the nominees for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal.

Performers

Presenters

Award winners

General

;Record of the Year
;Album of the Year
;Song of the Year
  • "Kiss From a Rose"
  • * Seal, songwriter
  • "I Can Love You Like That"
  • * Maribeth Derry, Steve Diamond & Jennifer Kimball, songwriters
  • "One of Us"
  • * Eric Bazilian, songwriter
  • "You Are Not Alone"
  • * R. Kelly, songwriter
  • "You Oughta Know"
  • * Glen Ballard & Alanis Morissette, songwriters
;Best New Artist
  • Hootie & the Blowfish
  • Brandy
  • Alanis Morissette
  • Joan Osborne
  • Shania Twain

    Alternative

  • Best Alternative Music Performance
  • *Nirvana for ''MTV Unplugged in New York''

    Blues

  • Best Traditional Blues Album
  • *John Lee Hooker for Chill Out
  • Best Contemporary Blues Album
  • *Buddy Guy for ''Slippin' In''

    Children's

  • Best Musical Album for Children
  • *J. Aaron Brown, David R. Lehman & Barbara Bailey Hutchison for Sleepy Time Lullabys
  • Best Spoken Word Album for Children
  • *Dan Broatman, Martin Sauer & Patrick Stewart for ''Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf ''

    Classical

  • Best Orchestral Performance
  • *Pierre Boulez & the Cleveland Orchestra for Debussy: La Mer
  • Best Classical Vocal Performance
  • *Christopher Hogwood, Sylvia McNair & the Academy of Ancient Music for The Echoing Air – The Music of Henry Purcell
  • Best Opera Recording
  • *Raymond Minshull, Charles Dutoit, Gary Lakes, Françoise Pollet, Gino Quilico, Deborah Voigt & L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal & Chorus for Berlioz: Les Troyens
  • Best Choral Performance
  • *Herbert Blomstedt, Vance George & the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra & Chorus for Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem
  • Best Instrumental Soloist Performance
  • *Seiji Ozawa, Itzhak Perlman & the Boston Symphony Orchestra for The American Album – Works of Bernstein, Barber, Foss
  • Best Instrumental Soloist Performance
  • *Radu Lupu for Schubert: Piano Sonatas
  • Best Chamber Music Performance
  • *Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma & Richard Stoltzman for Brahms/Beethoven/Mozart: Clarinet Trios
  • Best Classical Contemporary Composition
  • *Olivier Messiaen & Myung-whun Chung for Messiaen: Concert a Quatre
  • Best Classical Album
  • *Karl-August Naegler, Pierre Boulez & the Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus for ''Debussy: La Mer; Nocturnes; Jeux''

    Comedy

  • From 1994 through 2003, see "Best [|Spoken] Comedy Album" under the "Spoken" field, below.

    Composing and arranging

  • Best Instrumental Composition
  • *Bill Holman for "A View From the Side" performed by The Bill Holman Band
  • Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television
  • *Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz for "Colors of the Wind" performed by Vanessa Williams
  • Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
  • *Hans Zimmer for Crimson Tide
  • Best Instrumental Arrangement
  • *Robert Farnon for "Lament" performed by J. J. Johnson & the Robert Farnon Orchestra
  • Best Instrumental Arrangement with Accompanying Vocal
  • *Rob McConnell for "I Get a Kick Out of You" performed by Mel Tormé with Rob McConnell & The Boss Brass

    Country

  • Best Female Country Vocal Performance
  • *Alison Krauss for "Baby, Now That I've Found You"
  • Best Male Country Vocal Performance
  • *Vince Gill for "Go Rest High on That Mountain"
  • Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
  • *The Mavericks for "Here Comes the Rain"
  • Best Country Collaboration with Vocals
  • *Alison Krauss & Shenandoah for "Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart"
  • Best Country Instrumental Performance
  • *Asleep at the Wheel, Béla Fleck & Johnny Gimble for "Hightower"
  • Best Country Song
  • *Vince Gill for "Go Rest High on That Mountain"
  • Best Country Album
  • *Robert John "Mutt" Lange & Shania Twain for The Woman in Me
  • Best Bluegrass Album
  • *The Nashville Bluegrass Band for ''Unleashed''

    Folk

  • Best Traditional Folk Album
  • *Ramblin' Jack Elliott for South Coast
  • Best Contemporary Folk Album
  • *Emmylou Harris for ''Wrecking Ball''

    Gospel

  • Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album
  • *Michael W. Smith for I'll Lead You Home
  • Best Rock Gospel Album
  • *Ashley Cleveland for Lesson of Love
  • Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album
  • *Shirley Caesar for Shirley Caesar Live – He Will Come
  • Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album
  • *CeCe Winans for Alone In His Presence
  • Best Southern Gospel, Country Gospel or Bluegrass Gospel Album
  • *Bill Hearn for Amazing Grace – A Country Salute to Gospel performed by various artists
  • Best Gospel Album by a Choir or Chorus
  • *Carol Cymbala for Praise Him – Live! performed by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

    Historical

  • Best Historical Album
  • *John Pfeiffer, Ray Hall, Thomas MacCluskey, James P. Nichols, Anthony Salvatore, Jon M. Samuels, David Satz, J.J. Stelmach, Gabriel Banat, Grant Beglarian, Robert Cowan, Mortimer W. Frank, Richard Freed, Erick Friedman, Harris Goldsmith, Josefa Heifetz, George Jellinek, Irving Kolodin, Jacob Lateiner, Laurence Lesser, Myra C. Livingston, John Maltese, John Anthony Maltese, Leonard Pennario & Brooks Smith for The Heifetz Collection performed by Jascha Heifetz & various artists

    Jazz

  • Best Jazz Instrumental Solo
  • *Michael Brecker for "Impressions"
  • Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group
  • *McCoy Tyner Trio & Michael Brecker for "Infinity"
  • Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance
  • *Tom Scott for "All Blues" performed by the GRP All-Star Big Band
  • Best Jazz Vocal Performance
  • *Lena Horne for An Evening with Lena Horne
  • Best Contemporary Jazz Performance
  • *Pat Metheny Group for "We Live Here"
  • Best Latin Jazz Performance
  • *Jobim for ''Antonio Brasileiro''

    Latin

  • Best Latin Pop Performance
  • *Jon Secada for Amor
  • Best Tropical Latin Performance
  • *Gloria Estefan for Abriendo Puertas
  • Best Mexican-American/Tejano Music Performance
  • *Flaco Jiménez for ''Flaco Jiménez''

    Musical show

  • Best Musical Show Album
  • *Arif Mardin, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller & the original Broadway cast for ''Smokey Joe's Cafe – The Songs of Leiber & Stoller''

    Music video

  • Best Music Video, Short Form
  • *Ceán Chaffin, Mark Romanek, Janet Jackson & Michael Jackson for "Scream"
  • Best Music Video, Long Form
  • *Robert Warr, François Girard & Peter Gabriel for ''Secret World Live''

    New Age

  • Best New Age Album
  • *George Winston for ''Forest''

    Packaging and notes

  • Best Recording Package
  • *Joni Mitchell & Robbie Cavolina for Turbulent Indigo performed by Joni Mitchell
  • Best Recording Package – Boxed
  • *Frank Zappa & Gail Zappa for Civilization Phaze III performed by Frank Zappa
  • Best Album Notes
  • *Rob Bowman for The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 3: 1972–1975 performed by various artists

    Polka

  • Best Polka Album
  • *Jimmy Sturr for ''I Love to Polka''

    Pop

;Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
  • "No More 'I Love You's'" – Annie Lennox
  • "Fantasy" – Mariah Carey
  • "I Know" – Dionne Farris
  • "One of Us" – Joan Osborne
  • "You Got It" - Bonnie Raitt
  • "Colors of the Wind" – Vanessa Williams
;Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
  • "Kiss From a Rose" – Seal
  • "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" – Bryan Adams
  • "You Are Not Alone" – Michael Jackson
  • "Believe" – Elton John
  • "When We Dance" – Sting
;Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
  • "Let Her Cry – "Hootie & the Blowfish
  • "I Can Love You Like That" – All-4-One
  • "Love Will Keep Us Alive" – Eagles
  • "I'll Be There for You" – The Rembrandts
  • "Waterfalls" – TLC
;Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals
;Best Pop Instrumental Performance
;Best Pop Album
  • Turbulent Indigo – Joni Mitchell
  • * Larry Klein, producer
  • Daydream – Mariah Carey
  • * Walter Afanasieff, Mariah Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Dave Hall, David Morales & Manuel Seal, producers
  • Hell Freezes Over – Eagles
  • * Eagles, Elliot Scheiner, Rob Jacobs, and Stan Lynch, producers
  • Medusa – Annie Lennox
  • * Stephen Lipson, producer
  • Bedtime Stories – Madonna
  • * Madonna, Dallas Austin, Babyface, Dave Hall, and Nellee Hooper, producers