Bonnie Raitt, Midler Win Top Grammys

From The Times: Thursday, February 22, 1990

Bonnie Raitt, whose career seemed in jeopardy four years ago when she was dropped by her long-time record company, climaxed a dramatic comeback Wednesday night by winning a Grammy for best album of the year.

Raitt, who also won three other Grammys during the nationally televised ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium, has long been admired in the record industry for her fierce devotion to the blues, including championing veteran artists whose accomplishments have been sometimes overlooked by the pop world.

"This means so much for the kind of music that we do," the red-haired singer said in accepting the best-album award. "It means that those of us who do rhythm and blues are going to get a chance again."

In the other key awards, Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" was named best single record of 1989 and the composition itself, written by Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar, was declared song of the year.

The Grammy awards are determined by the approximately 6,000 active members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

Not only did Raitt, the 40-year-old daughter of Broadway singer John Raitt, come up in 1989 with her most successful album ever, "Nick of Time," she also overcame in recent years a drinking problem that led her to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Delighted by the response to the new album last October, she said in an interview at the time, "In many ways, this is like a first album. . . . It's for a new label (Capitol) and getting all of this attention and critical acclaim

"And it's my first sober album. . . . Being this age and being straight--it's been the greatest time."

In accepting the best-record Grammy, the evening's other most coveted award, Midler said, "I'm stunned and I'm flabbergasted.

"Hey, Bonnie Raitt, I got one, too."

Besides Raitt, other multiple winners Wednesday included jazz great Miles Davis, British soul-dance group Soul II Soul, composer-arranger Dave Grusin and country music's Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Davis, who was also saluted with a prestigious lifetime achievement award, picked up his fifth and sixth career Grammys for best jazz instrumental performance by a big band and by a soloist.

Soul II Soul won Grammys for R&B group vocal award and R&B instrumental. The group, however, lost in the more prized category of best new artist to the duo Milli Vanilli.

Grusin, winner of three previous Grammys, picked up three more, including one for the background score of the film "The Fabulous Baker Boys."

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band won a Grammy for best group vocal and shared a Grammy with Bruce Hornsby for best bluegrass recording.

The evening's most potentially dramatic moment--the much rumored reunion of the surviving Beatles--failed to materialize because neither George Harrison nor Ringo Starr attended the event, though both were nominated for Grammys.

That left just Paul McCartney, who was also saluted by the Academy with a lifetime achievement award. McCartney, currently on his first U.S. tour in more than a decade, thanked his wife, Linda, and their children for their support, gave a brief environment awareness message and described his former band mates as "beautiful people."

The absent Harrison won a Grammy for best rock group vocal as a member of the Traveling Wilburys, the veteran rock group that also featured Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and the late Roy Orbison. But the Wilburys lost to Raitt in the best-album competition.

Starr was nominated in the country vocal collaboration category for a duet with Buck Owens, but also lost.

Related topic galleries: Music Industry, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Kathleen Battle, Danny Elfman, K.D. Lang, Placido Domingo

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