Got this from the same site as the Top 10 Rock & Roll Front Men list I put up.
No major awards show has had a harder time achieving credibility than the Grammys -- and for good reason. What was once the industry standard for success has a history of playing favorites, with such perennial winners as Alicia Keys and John Mayer unable to leave the house without winning multiple Grammys. And while it can be frustrating for dedicated music fans to watch their favorite bands get passed over year after year, every once in a while sweet reprieve comes in the form of a catastrophic error made by those that hand out the awards. Some embarrassing winners color the Grammys’ past, and here’s a look at the top 10 bands that had one glorious year, becoming Grammy one-hit wonders before disappearing into oblivion.
No.10 - Marc Cohn
Marc Cohn’s brief brush with greatness came in 1991, when he won the Best New Artist Grammy on the strength of his hit song “Walking in Memphis.” The song is still a staple of piano and karaoke bars around the world. Although Cohn was never able to follow up with another hit song, his good luck didn’t end in ’91; in 2005, Cohn was carjacked and shot in the head but was not seriously injured when the bullet failed to penetrate his skull.
No.9 - Hootie & the Blowfish
Hootie & the Blowfish released Cracked Rear View in 1994, but it somehow wasn’t until 1996 that the Grammys noticed it. That year, the band won two Grammys: Best New Artist and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the song “Let Her Cry.” The gap between the album’s release and the awards allowed plenty of time for massive overexposure; Cracked Rear View went on to earn an astonishing 16-times platinum certification, but the band soon plummeted into obscurity faster than anyone could’ve predicted.
No.8 - Paula Cole
If you were looking for Paula Cole at the 1998 Grammys, your best bet was to locate the person who sat in her seat pretty much the entire evening. Cole was honored with the Best New Artist Grammy, but didn’t cash in her nominations for Album of the Year, Best Pop Album, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Producer of the Year. Somehow, going one-for-seven on this night would be the height of her critical acclaim.
No.7 - Starland Vocal Band
Starland Vocal Band’s two claims to fame come from the cast of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy singing an a cappella version of “Afternoon Delight,” and from a Simpsons episode in which Homer Simpson proclaims, “Starland Vocal Band? They sucked!” Dubious honors. What people forget, and rightfully so, is that the band won two Grammys in 1977: one for Best New Act and the other for Best Arrangement for Voices. The band tried for four years to capitalize on its success, eventually calling it quits in 1981.
No.6 - Baha Men
Oh, the Grammys would love to have this one back. In 2000, the Grammys handed Baha Men the award for Best Dance Recording for the ridiculous novelty anthem “Who Let The Dogs Out?” After hiring an investigative reporter to dig up what the band has been up to since then, it’s been discovered that the Baha Men have recorded several cover songs for a series of albums called DisneyMania, including “Hakuna Matata” and “It’s A Small World.” To add some insult to injury, Baha Men were sued over authorship of the song by a group that claimed the song’s chorus was actually a jingle written for a radio ad in 1995. The suit was settled out of court.
No.5 - A Taste of Honey
One of the truly bizarre Grammy stories, A Taste of Honey was honored with the Best New Artist award in 1979 after scoring one of the biggest hits of the disco era with “Boogie Oogie Oogie.” Unfortunately for the awards show, they would have to live down the embarrassment of passing over Elvis Costello, who was nominated in the same category. Costello would go on to have a decades-long career as one of the world’s most respected songwriters, eventually releasing a compilation album that he cheekily called (on the promo distribution at least) A Taste of Extreme Honey.
No.4 - Christopher Cross
It’s hard to make a bigger impact with your debut album than Christopher Cross made in 1980 -- and he was rewarded. At the 1981 Grammy Awards, Cross received the “Big Four,” taking home the prizes for Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best Arrangement. (Just to clarify, Song of the Year goes to the song’s composer, while Record of the Year goes to the artist, producer and engineer/mixer). Despite exploding on his first effort, Christopher Cross quickly faded and soon his releases were coming few and far between. To his credit, he hasn’t given up altogether -- he still tours and released a Christmas album in 2007.
No.3 - Coolio
Coolio’s short-lived Grammy moment came in 1996, when he won Best Solo Rap Performance for “Gangsta’s Paradise.” The song was a massive hit (reaching No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100) and it doesn’t really come as a surprise that it won, unless you look back at the other nominees -- a list that includes Dr. Dre, 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G.
Even though Coolio’s music career plummeted after ’96, he wasn’t done making a cultural impact: In 2005, he starred as Captain Bergen in the phenomenally bad made-for-TV film Pterodactyl.
No.2 - Milli Vanilli
Milli Vanilli is the benchmark example of the Grammys’ inability to evaluate artists. The duo was famously humiliated when they were outed as lip-synchers. If anything good came of the situation, it gave the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States the opportunity to show some guts by revoking the Grammy.
No.1 - Lauryn Hill
Milli Vanilli may have proved that the Grammys are terrible at evaluating talent, but Lauryn Hill showed that even they are capable of getting it right once in a while. In 1998, Hill’s stunning debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill owned the Grammys, winning in five of the 10 categories for which it was nominated, including Best New Artist and Album of the Year. In this case, it wasn’t the Grammys’ fault that this would be her only appearance -- after that dizzying success, Hill went off the deep end, releasing the bizarre MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 in 2002, which has been described in many publications as an on-stage nervous breakdown. Hill has only made rare public appearances since then, becoming one of the all-time most mysterious of past Grammy winners.
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