Grammy Awards

The Birth of the Grammy

On May 28 1957 A Group of music industry executives met at the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood California to form a "Record Award Society". They agreed that this new organization would be named the "National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences". About a week later, on June 6th, a press conference was held to introduce this new organization and the Grammy Awards were born.
There would be two chapters of the "Academy"; one in California, and the other in New York City, which was chartered in 1958 under the directorship of President, Guy Lombardo. Some of the earliest members of the "Academy" were; Benny Carter, Rosemary Clooney, Nat "King" Cole, Doris Day, Stan Kenton, Henri Mancini, and Nelson Riddle.

The First Grammy Awards Presentations
May 4th, 1959 the first Grammy Awards dinner was held. There were actually two of them held simultaneously; The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills California, and the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City. There were 28 categories in which candidates would compete (compared to 110 categories today).

The Grammy Awards, presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), are considered the most coveted of the many contemporary music awards. Despite the honor the awards carry and the ratings success of the televised awards show, many industry insiders consider the Grammys to be merely a reflection of mainstream commercial success.

The Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards.