Four Tops Receive First Grammy With Lifetime Award—Who Else Has Never Won?

Four Tops Receive First Grammy With Lifetime Award—Who Else Has Never Won?

The Grammy® Foundation announced this week that Motown’s legendary Four Tops will receive the Lifetime Achievement Grammy this year. The Four Tops included “Duke” Fakir, the late Lawrence Payton, the late Renaldo “Obie” Benson and unforgettable baritone lead singer Levi Stubbs—who, sadly, passed away this year. The foursome was one of Motown’s biggest acts in the 60s, churning out classic singles like “Sugar Pie Honey Bunch,” “Bernadette,” “Baby, I Need Your Loving,” and more. But despite having a celebrated chart-topping career that spanned the 60s and 70s, this will be the Tops’ first-ever Grammy. As shocking as it sounds, this is more common than you think for rock and soul artists of the 60s and early 70s—and even some legendary artists who came later. Rolling out decided to rank some of the Grammy’s biggest snubs.

Four Tops Receive First Grammy With Lifetime Award—Who Else Has Never Won?

Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke’s all-too-brief career resulted in a legacy that can never be overstated. His voice was one of the most recognized in music and he was the first soul star to crossover to pop audiences. He was also one of the first popular artists to write his own music, one of the first to understand and control the business aspects of his music and career and one of the first to move from romantically themed pop to more serious, socially aware music. But, in the early 60s, Cooke’s music (and R&B/ rock & roll music in general) was not deemed art—so the Grammys paid little attention.



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The Who
The most
idiosyncratic of British rock’s “Big Three” (along with the Beatles and
Rolling Stones), this quartet transformed concept albums into
groundbreaking ‘rock operas’ like Tommy and Quadrophenia.
But The World’s Loudest Band was too cerebral and angry in the 60s and
70s for the tastes of the Grammy establishment. So while the Fab Four
won Album of the Year for the sophisticated Sgt. Pepper… in 1967, the Who’s similar achievements were basically ignored.


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Parliament-Funkadelic
Building on the funk template established by James Brown and taking the
psychedelic elements introduced by Sly Stone to stratospheric heights,
this George Clinton-led collective took funk and crafted their own
sound and a uniquely conceptual style, incorporating Afro-futuristic
imagery and cartoon-ish individual personas. But like many artists of
their day, they were too groundbreaking for the always-behind-the-times
Grammy Foundation.



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Queen
Probably no one in
the history of music has crafted more stadium-filling anthems than
Queen. Their knack for operatic power pop peaked with the 1976 classic
“Bohemian Rhapsody” and the late Freddie Mercury had one of the
greatest voices in rock history. The arena rock superstars gave the
sports world gems like “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions” and
“Another One Bites the Dust” on their way to becoming one of the
best-selling bands of all-time. Yet they never received a golden
Gramophone.


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Public Enemy
P.E. was the
biggest act in hip-hop in the late 80s and early 90s—and one of the
biggest acts in popular music. Their second album (It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back) and their third (Fear of A Black Planet)
had been multi-platinum, critically-acclaimed masterworks that
confirmed that the political crew had upended Run DMC’s reign at the
top of the rap heap. But they never claimed music’s top prize.
Considering that they led hip-hop’s infamous 1989 boycott of the Awards
(in protest of the then-new “Best Rap Performance” award not airing
during the show’s broadcast), it’s a safe bet they probably never lost
a minute of sleep over it.


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Led Zeppelin
The most
influential hard rock band of all time, Zeppelin merged the blues,
British folk, psychadelia and a little mysticism to make the heaviest
sound that anyone had heard in rock up to that point. They crafted some
of the most acclaimed albums of the classic rock era and “Stairway to
Heaven” holds the record as the most-requested song on radio. But the
legendary Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham
weren’t even loved by rock critics during their heyday so, of course, the Grammys ignored them completely.


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The Supremes
There had never been a ‘crossover’ act as huge as the Supremes.
Releasing hit after hit throughout the 1960s and 70s, the iconic trio
from Detroit was Motown’s biggest stars and the best-selling American
artists of the decade (and the second best selling overall–only the
Beatles sold more). But despite their glossy, sophisticated image and
undeniable pop appeal, Diana Ross & Co. never took home a gold
statue of their own.


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Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix was
one of the greatest artists of the 60s and, through his innovative
approach to playing and recording the guitar, forever transformed the
sonic and artistic possibilities of the instrument. The Jimi Hendrix
Experience’s 1967 debut, Are You Experienced?,
was the best-selling debut album for 20 years; yet Hendrix was
considered too experimental, wild and outlandish for Grammy voters of
the late 1960s.


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2Pac
One of hip-hop’s most
beloved and controversial figures, Tupac Shakur’s relatively short
recording career, (1991-1996) yielded a wealth of brilliant albums, hit
singles and soundtrack appearances. But he didn’t hit his major
commercial/artistic breakthrough until late 1994/ early 1995, a mere 18
months before his murder. Though he was nominated twice for “Best Rap
Album,” he lost both times–to Naughty By Nature in 1996 and the Fugees
posthumously in 1997.


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Bob Marley
He was
celebrated globally as an ambassador of peace and love, the face and
voice of his native Jamaica and his music transcended racial, cultural
and generational divides. Innumerable artists, including Stevie Wonder,
The Clash, KRS-One, U2, The Fugees, and more list his music as a major
influence. And he’s in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His name,
sound and face are recognized the world over. Yet, Robert Nesta Marley
was never given the music industry’s highest award.

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