3 Iconic Albums the GRAMMYs Shockingly Overlooked

Yes, music remains subjective—to a degree.

Videos by American Songwriter

The GRAMMYs are widely considered to be the most prestigious of music awards. And setting aside one’s feelings for pitting songs and albums against others for prizes, the Recording Academy claims (or aims) to recognize “excellence in the recording arts and sciences.”

But the Academy’s voters don’t always get it right. Here are three iconic albums the GRAMMYs shockingly overlooked.

Here comes the blind commissioner,
They’ve got him in a trance.

Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan (1965)

The album begins with “Like a Rolling Stone,” a song that forever changed rock and roll. It challenged many conventions of the time, including the acceptable song length for a radio single. Paul McCartney said Dylan’s song taught The Beatles “it was possible to go a little further.” But the GRAMMYs missed one of the most important releases in music history.

To further highlight the miss, one of Dylan’s most iconic songs, “Desolation Row,” bookends his masterpiece. And the seven tracks in between helped rewrite the American songbook. However, the GRAMMYs eventually added Highway 61 Revisited to its Hall of Fame in 2002.

Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses (1987)

With the opening notes of Slash’s Les Paul, “Welcome to the Jungle” arrived like a warning. Even the sound of Axl Rose’s howl mimics a siren. This wasn’t hair metal but the second coming of The Rolling Stones and Sex Pistols combined. Staring at the band photo on the back of the record sleeve, they look like superheroes (with superhero names like Izzy, Duff, Slash, and Axl) created in the gutters of Hollywood to save rock and roll from “Talk Dirty to Me.”

It is tough to find a more stacked debut. If you were a Midwest kid hearing “Out Ta Get Me” for the first time, you were equally terrified and energized. Then there’s “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” A tender love song with one of the greatest rock guitar solos ever. Or “Paradise City,” a seven-minute hymn with a sweet hook and whiplash-inducing riff. Unhinged, debauched, messy, beautiful. Yes, U2 and Bruce Springsteen had big albums too, but come on GRAMMYs.

Back in Black by AC/DC (1980)

The 23rd Annual GRAMMY Awards must have been in a yacht rock kind of mood because Christopher Cross had a really big night in 1981. His self-titled debut won Album of the Year, while “Sailing” took home trophies for both Record and Song of the Year. But the kind of rock AC/DC made wasn’t of the soft variety.

The ominous bells that begin the third-best-selling album in America represent a rebirth for AC/DC. They survived the death of their singer, Bon Scott, with a rock masterpiece. There aren’t many riffs driving more kids toward picking up a guitar than the title track. “You Shook Me All Night Long” then became, like “Back in Black,” one of rock radio’s most-played hits.

Photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage