Grammy Awards... Album of the Year

The Grammy for Album of the Year has traditionally been the 'big' award of the night, representing what collection of music was better than all those released during the prior year. As Grammy History has shown... sometimes they get it right, sometimes not, sometimes they go for the 'wild-card' nominee, sometimes they go for an artist's history in the business, and sometimes it just leaves us scratching our heads. If you look at Rolling Stone magazine's '500 Greatest Albums of All Time' (created in 2003): the Top 10 only has 1 Grammy winner for Album of the Year: The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; most of the Top 10 were not even nominees for the category.

Last year, Arcade Fire surprised most every one when their critically acclaimed LP The Suburbs beat out Eminem, Lady Gaga, Lady Antebellum, and Katy Perry. Other surprise winners in comparison to the other nominees over the years include the O Brother Where Are Thou? soundtrack in 2002, Phil Collins in 1986, and Bob Newhart in 1961. The Grammy Awards also has history of being too soft with their choices (with attempts to change that reputation in the past decade) - but 'soft' winners included Celine Dion in 1997, Lionel Richie in 1985, Toto in 1983, and who could forget the domination of Christopher Cross in 1981.

Then there are the winners for good-t0-great LPs by living legends: Herbie Hancock in 2008, Ray Charles in 2005, Steely Dan in 2001, and Tony Bennett in 1995. 'Comeback' albums are popular winners too and include winners Santana, Quincy Jones, and Bonnie Raitt. Sometimes the winners are obvious and sum up the year... U2's The Joshua Tree, Michael Jackson's Thriller, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, and Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key Of Life.

This year, the odds-on favorite to win is Adele's 21. The Foo Fighters and Lady Gaga are Grammy favorites and could pull an upset. Bruno Mars is likely to be a Grammy favorite in the future but not this year, and Rihanna should be just be happy and surprised with the nomination.