In the blizzard of facts and feats associated with the 63rd annual Grammy Awards, one of the most impressive is that Beyoncé pulled even with Frank Sinatra as the artist with the most record of the year nominations in Grammy history — seven for each of these icons.
Sinatra received his first record of the year nomination at the very first Grammys, for the year 1958. He received his seventh for 1980. Sinatra’s record of the year tally consists of five solo recordings, a duet with hitmaker daughter Nancy Sinatra and a single on which he shared billing with a children’s chorus.
Beyoncé received her first record of the year nomination at the 2000 awards, when she was nominated as part of Destiny’s Child for “Say My Name.” Her record of the year tally consists of four solo recordings, the aforementioned Destiny’s Child hit, a collab with her future husband Jay-Z and a collab with Megan Thee Stallion.
Like Beyoncé, Sinatra started singing with groups before achieving even greater stardom on his own. Sinatra sang with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey big bands before striking out on his own in 1942.
The artists have little else in common. Sinatra died in May 1998, just as Beyoncé was getting started. (That was three months after the first Destiny’s Child album was released.)
Beyoncé co-wrote all seven of her record of the year contenders. Sinatra didn’t co-write any of his. (When Sinatra started out, few singers wrote their own material.)
Here, you can listen to all of their record of the year nominees.
Beyoncé’s record of the year nominees:
1. Destiny’s Child, “Say My Name” (2000)
The members of Destiny’s Child teamed with Rodney Jerkins to co-write this feminist-themed song, in which they call out a boyfriend who is suddenly acting shady. It was their second No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. From the group’s sophomore album, The Writing’s on the Wall.
2. Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z, “Crazy in Love” (2003)
This sizzling smash was Beyoncé’s first single as a lead artist. It topped the Hot 100 for eight weeks and wound up as Billboard’s Song of the Summer. She co-wrote the song with Jay-Z, with whom she also collaborated on her two record of the year nominees from this year. From Beyoncé’s solo debut album, Dangerously in Love.
3. Beyoncé, “Irreplaceable” (2007)
This was the second of Beyoncé’s record of the year contenders to carry a strong feminist message. She sent a feckless boyfriend packing (literally). She did it not with fury but with cool contempt: “To the left, to the left.” This smash topped the Hot 100 for 10 weeks, longer than any of Beyoncé’s other solo hits. Ne-Yo was among the co-writers. From Beyonce’s second studio album, B’Day.
4. Beyoncé, “Halo” (2009)
Ryan Tedder co-wrote this tender ballad, which former President Obama included on his list of songs that inspired him during his presidency. The lyrics were tweaked for three live performances: tributes to Michael Jackson following his death in 2009, the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and Kobe and Gianna Bryant following their deaths in a 2020 helicopter crash. Beyoncé’s camp entered this song (and “If I Were a Boy”) for Grammy consideration for record of the year in the same year “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” won song of the year. Go figure. From Beyoncé’s third studio album, I Am…Sasha Fierce.
5/Beyoncé, “Formation” (2016)
Beyoncé ended a seven-year gap between record of the year nominations with this song about taking pride in her Black identity. The song references the government’s inept response to Hurricane Katrina. The video includes a placard that says simply “Stop shooting us.” The writing is vivid, witness: “I like my Negro nose with my Jackson 5 nostrils” and “I just might be a Black Bill Gates in the making.” From Beyoncé’s sixth studio album, Lemonade.
6. Beyoncé, “Black Parade” (2020)
This was Beyoncé’s second song about Black consciousness to land a record of the year nod. She gives a shout-out to Curtis Mayfield, who was writing socially relevant songs more than a decade before she was born, and even takes on the controversial issue of reparations. Beyoncé recorded the song to raise funds for the BeyGOOD Black Business Impact Fund. The song, whose release was timed to occur on Juneteenth (Beyoncé doesn’t miss a thing), appears on the deluxe edition of The Lion King: The Gift.
7. Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé, “Savage” (2020)
Beyoncé held her own as a rapper with fellow Houstonian Megan Thee Stallion on this smash, which topped the Hot 100 for one week in May 2020. This is just the third all-female collab in Grammy history to land a record of the year nod.
Frank Sinatra’s record of the year nominees:
1. Frank Sinatra, “Witchcraft” (1958)
This swinging smash was Sinatra’s biggest hit of 1958 — a year in which he topped the Billboard 200 for 10 weeks, longer than any other artist. It’s a song about the dance of seduction. Sinatra sings with an urgency that makes the most of such lines as “Proceed with what you’re leading me to.”
2. Frank Sinatra “and a bunch of kids,” “High Hopes” (1959)
This jaunty song was featured in the film A Hole in the Head, in which Sinatra starred. The song brought Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen their second of three Oscars as a team. (They won their first for writing the tender ballad “All the Way,” also made famous by Sinatra.) Sinatra recorded a special lyric version of “High Hopes” that became John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign theme song.
3. Frank Sinatra, “Nice ‘N’ Easy” (1960)
This cozy song was the title track to a Sinatra album that topped the Billboard 200 for nine weeks, longer than any other Sinatra album. Alan & Marilyn Bergman wrote the lyric.
4. Frank Sinatra, “The Second Time Around” (1961)
This was Sinatra’s first release on his own Reprise label, after moving over from Capitol Records. Bing Crosby introduced the Cahn/Van Heusen song in the 1960 movie Pocketful of Miracles. Nelson Riddle arranged and conducted Sinatra’s version. It’s a pretty tune, but this is nobody’s best work. This single’s nomination capped four consecutive years in which Sinatra had a record of the year nominee. To this day, he is the only artist to achieve that feat.
5. Frank Sinatra, “Strangers in the Night” (1966)
This ballad was introduced in the 1966 film A Man Could Get Killed as an instrumental by its composer, Bert Kaempfert. Sinatra’s sumptuous recording interrupted The Beatles’ run at No. 1 on the Hot 100 with “Paperback Writer.” Sinatra’s album of the same name was his final No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Sinatra is said not to have cared for the song. He was outvoted by his millions of fans and by Grammy voters (this was his only record of the year winner).
6. Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra, “Somethin’ Stupid” (1967)
This smartly conceived, unsentimental love song sat at the midpoint between the musical sensibilities of Frank’s generation and his then-26-year-old daughter’s. This was the first collab by any two artists to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100. Numerous other pairs have covered this song, including Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell and Michael Bublé & Reese Witherspoon.
7. Frank Sinatra, “Theme From New York, New York” (1980)
Liza Minnelli introduced this Kander & Ebb showstopper in the 1977 film New York, New York. The song wasn’t a hit; it bubbled under the Hot 100 and didn’t even receive an Oscar nomination. Sinatra’s 1980 cover made it a standard. Minnelli sang the song with more power and sizzle, but Sinatra’s version had an added poignancy. Sinatra, 64 at the time, approached the song as an aging “king of the hill,” an old lion who was hoping to extend his reign just a little longer. He did just that, though this proved to be his swan song. It was his last top 40 hit on the Hot 100.
