Remembering Amazing Grammy Award Winners Of The 80s

This year’s Grammy Awards presentation takes place Sunday, February 4^th at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Whether or not you’ll be watching the telecast on CBS or Paramount+, it’s always nice to highlight the amazing 1980’s Grammy Award winners. After all, we specialize in playing “the hits of the 80s, 90s and more” on 96.3 KKLZ. In fact, we’re featuring lots of these songs this week on the “Top 3 at 7 Countdown” each weeknight.

Without a doubt, the decade begins with an incredible feat. A soft-spoken singer-songwriter from Texas will sweep all four major trophies for 1980. As a matter of fact, Christopher Cross would win five Grammys in all, including Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. His self-titled debut album features the hits “Sailing,” “Never Be The Same,” and this 80s smash!

How about Pat Benatar winning four consecutive years during the early 80s? From 1980 through 1983, she owns the Grammy category for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Here’s one of those Grammy winners from 1982:

Of course, we cannot forget that amazing ceremony where Michael Jackson sets a Grammy Awards record. In 1984, the “King of Pop” would win an incredible eight Grammys! His record-breaking album Thriller was flying off record store shelves. It features seven top 10 singles on the Billboard Magazine Hot 100 chart, which also set a record at that time.

As expected, Jackson won the Grammy for Album of the Year. The surprising category that year was for Song of the Year. In fact, MJ had two number one hits in that category: “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” However, those songs would lose out to the best-selling single of the year, “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. But Jackson would come back to win two Grammys for “Beat It,” including Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, and Record of the Year.

That’s just a few of the amazing Grammy Award winners of the 1980’s. There are plenty more, so maybe we’ll do Part Two at a later date.

Now, feel free to scroll down to check out more amazing songs from the 80s!

As Valentine’s Day approaches, thoughts of love naturally enter your mind. Even if you aren’t involved in a relationship at this time, you may end up reminiscing about past romantic encounters. Certainly, when you think of love, you think of music. They seem to go hand in hand. With that in mind, we thought we’d try to find what we think are the five best 80s rock band ballads for Valentine’s Day.

Without a doubt, the 1980’s music scene includes so many great rock bands. I just look at the 96.3 KKLZ playlist and see them all. Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Heart, Poison, and Aerosmith, just to name a few. Not to mention all the great “solo” rockers backed by great bands like Pat Benatar, Bryan Adams, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and John Mellencamp. I’m sure I’ve even left out one or two of your favorites.

During this great decade of music, it seems like each rock band would include at least one power ballad or rock ballad on each album. Even hard rockers realized that in order to sell more albums, they needed to broaden their appeal beyond teenage boys. Thus, the advent of the 80s rock band ballad. These songs became some of the biggest chart hits of the decade.

For the purposes of this article, we’re focusing on 80s band rock ballads. Not necessarily power ballads, pop ballads, or R&B ballads. Of course, there are plenty of those to choose from. Furthermore, we’re not going to include great love songs from solo artists. For example, we’re leaving out Bryan Adams’ number one smash, “Heaven.”

Similarly, we’re not including 80s power ballads which refer to lost loves such as “Love Bites” by Def Leppard and “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn” by Poison. Great power ballads but they certainly put a downer on a romantic Valentine’s Day date.

These are all tough decisions, and I’m sure you will disagree with our choices. We are basing this “best of” list on Billboard Hot 100 chart success, as well as how much the 96.3 KKLZ audience loves these songs. They are some of our most popular and most requested tunes.

Some notable 80s rock band ballads which deserve honorable mention include: “Angel” by Aerosmith. “Is This Love” by Whitesnake. “Never Say Goodbye” by Bon Jovi. I’m sure we’re omitting one of your favorites. Either way, have a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

This rockin' power ballad reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1989. "I'll Be There For You" is from Bon Jovi's third studio album, New Jersey. Lead singer Jon Bon Jovi and lead guitarist Richie Sambora co-wrote this song, which became the band's fourth chart-topper.

Even though this song from the Foreigner album 4 never hit #1, it did set a record. In late 1981 and early 1982, "Waiting For A Girl Like You" spent 10 consecutive weeks in the #2 position on the Billboard Hot 100. That's a record which still stands today. This love ballad spent the first 9 weeks in the runner-up spot behind Olivia Newton-John's biggest hit, "Physical," and then a week looking up at "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" by Daryl Hall and John Oates.

The Wilson sisters and their band Heart scored their biggest chart hit of all time with the song "Alone." It spent three weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ended up ranking as the second best-selling song of 1987. Heart's version is actually a cover of an original song by the group i-Ten. No, I've never heard of them either. Anyway, according to Wikipedia.org, it was then covered by actors Valerie Stevenson and John Stamos for their short-lived TV series Dreams in 1984. Finally, Heart recorded it for their 1987 album Bad Animals and would receive a Grammy nomination for their work.

This rock band from Champaign, Illinois toiled for many years before they finally hit the big time. REO Speedwagon formed in 1967. During the 1970's, they scored some big rock hits like "Time For Me To Fly" and "Roll With The Changes." However, they never hit the Billboard Top 40 until they released their 1980 album Hi Infidelity. The rock ballad "Keep On Loving You" not only hit the Top 40, it went all the way to #1. It was the band's first of two chart-toppers during the 80s, the other being "Can't Fight This Feeling," another great rock band ballad.

Believe it or not, with all their great songs, the band Journey never reached the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100. However, they sure did get very close in 1982, and they did it with this amazing ballad. "Open Arms" is their most successful chart hit, having spent six weeks in the #2 position on the pop chart behind "Centerfold" from the J. Geils Band, and then "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Many music critics have called "Open Arms" one of the greatest love songs ever written. VH-1 even named it their top power ballad of all time. Happy Valentine's Day!

Larry Martino is the long-time afternoon drive personality on 96.3 KKLZ. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of Larry Martino and not necessarily those of Beasley Media Group, LLC.

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