Amelia Earhart. Jack the Ripper. Stonehenge. These are among the great mysteries of our past, destined to be speculated over with little hope of ever resolving. But none of the head-scratchers are as maddening, as vexing, as downright bizarre, as the mystery that presented itself at the Grammy Awards recognizing musical achievement in 1967. Specifically, the mystery centers on the Best New Artist Award. More specifically, there wasn’t one.
Why? We may never know. The Recording Academy, which oversees the awards, did not comment at the time. And they have never bothered to address the issue in the nearly fifty years since. It’s entirely possible that no one involved in the decision is still around to explain, and even if they are, they may not remember. There could be documents, but no one has seen them.
To backtrack a bit … the Recording Academy did not always award a New Artist prize. In the very first year of the Grammys – an award held in 1959 for recordings released in 1958 – there was not a Best New Artist award. But by the second year, there was. It seemed like a pretty good idea – so much so that there has been an award presented to Best New Artist every year since 1960.
What happened to the Grammy Awards in 1967?
Except in 1967.
The eligibility rules and the number of nominees have changed over the years – a common occurrence in Grammy-land. But the award has remained and has become recognized as one of the Big Four – along with Record, Album, and Song of the year. Recent winners have included Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Dua Lipa. Heavy hitters like Adele, Lauryn Hill, and Mariah Carey have been recognized. There have even been a few boys in the club.
It’s true that if you look for the winner in 1990, you won’t find one. But that’s not because they didn’t award one that year. It’s because the award was rescinded after it became public that the winning duo, Milli Vanilli, did not actually perform their own music. As if that really matters. I personally would like to see Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus get their statuettes back, though to be honest, I’m not really losing sleep over that one.
Not like I am over 1967.
So in 1960, the first New Artist honor went to Bobby Darin. That’s a good choice. Darin was an eclectic performer who mastered multiple genres before succumbing to numerous health problems at 37. After Darin, legendary comedian Bob Newhart won (this is back when comics and classical musicians alike were legitimately eligible for mainstream awards), followed by pianist Peter Nero, crooner Robert Goulet, the Swingle Singers (yeah, I had never heard of them either), and in a decisive nod toward modernity, the Beatles, in 1965.
A wide-ranging group to be sure. But with the exception of Goulet defeating The Four Seasons and Peter, Paul, and Mary, I have no issue with any of these decisions. Even the Swingle Singers. I’m not a big fan of any of the 1964 nominees.
Since the Academy has never commented and does not seem inclined to do so, we can only speculate. Quite frankly, I have never even seen reasonable guesses as to why they pulled the award in '67. So here’s the best thing I can come up with, based on my understanding of how the Grammy function, and what was happening circa 1966.
I think they pulled the award because they were scared. They were scared of Elvis and Jagger and the Beatles, and the entire level of sexuality that these new performers were introducing to the public at large. They were scared to death of Tom Jones.
Jones, the Welshman who inspired women to throw both panties and room keys at the stage, had won the Best New Artist award in 1966. He was an entirely legit recipient. “It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New Pussycat” were monster hits in the eligibility window. Jones was big and he pointed toward a future that sent some older, stodgier members of the Academy into convulsions.
You see, they could get away with giving the big Record or Album awards to older, established stars. Herb Alpert took Record of the Year in 1966 and Frank Sinatra in 1967. I do not mean to suggest that those artists didn’t rankle some feathers in their day, but they were not causing a revolution in the mid-‘60s. It was harder to get away with this when it came to the New Artist award because most of the hot new artists came from rock & roll.
The Byrds, Herman’s Hermits, and Sonny & Cher – among the other new artists nominated when Jones won – may seem kind of quaint today. But in 1966, they had long hair, and they, at times, sang more suggestive songs. I mean, I always thought Sonny Bono was scary as hell.
And so what I’m thinking is that the Recording Academy just punted. Out of sight, out of mind. Someone misplaced a memo with info about New Artist, and no one bothered to follow up. (Under this theory, the ”misplacement” was intentional, but I think there’s about a five percent chance that it was a genuine misplacement. Clerical errors have caused some of history’s greatest mysteries.)
In an effort to right a wrong, I will now present the Grammy Award for Best New Artist of 1967. Given the devil-may-care attitude the awards have always demonstrated when it comes to consistency, I will land on six nominees. You see, there were seven nominees in 1966 (including non-threatening artists Horst Jankowski and Glenn Yarbrough), and there were five when the award magically reappeared in 1968. I’m splitting the difference.
And the nominees are:
The Association
Gordon Lightfoot
The Mamas & the Papas
The Monkees
Simon & Garfunkel
The Young Rascals
Several other prominent artists released their first albums in 1966 such as Buffalo Springfield, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, and the Who. But if I’m using the Academy’s “breakthrough” criteria, then none of them would have been nominated in that year. Two of them – Cream and Jefferson Airplane – were, in fact, nominated for New Artist in later years.
And so, without further delay, let it be known that from this day forward, the winner of the Best New Artist Grammy in 1967, is Simon & Garfunkel. Even though they released an album in 1964, their major commercial breakthrough came in 1966 with the release of Sounds of Silence in January and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme in October.
I will be notifying Paul and Art of their achievement. (By the way, does anyone have their contact info?)