Awards / Music

1985 Grammy Award Winners

Posted by Joe Hummel IIIPosted 41 years ago February 26, 1985

Winners Announced: February 26, 1985
Held at: Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles
Host: John Denver
Eligibility Year: October 1, 1983 – September 30, 1984

Trivia

Thriller Triumphs: Michael Jackson’s album Thriller won multiple awards, including Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical.
Sade’s Smooth Introduction: The British band Sade won Best New Artist, riding high on the success of their debut album Diamond Life.
Tina’s Comeback: Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got to Do With It snagged three Grammys, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Cyndi Lauper’s Debut: Cyndi Lauper took home the Best New Artist award, further cementing the staying power of her debut album She’s So Unusual.
Rock Meets Classical: Purple Rain, Prince’s soundtrack album for the film of the same name, won Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
A Jazzy Note: Wynton Marsalis gained the Best Jazz Instrumental Performance for his work Hot House Flowers.
Country Gets Its Due: The Judds’ Why Not Me won Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

1985 Grammy Winners

Record of the Year:
What’s Love Got to Do With It – Tina Turner

Album of the Year:
Can’t Slow Down, Lionel Richie (Motown)

Song of the Year:
What’s Love Got to Do With It – Graham Lyle and Terry Britten, songwriters

Best New Artist:
Cyndi Lauper

Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male:
Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) – Phil Collins

Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female:
What’s Love Got to Do With It – Tina Turner

Best Pop Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal:
Jump (For My Love) – Pointer Sisters

Best Pop Instrumental Performance:
Ghostbusters (instrumental version), Ray Parker, Jr.

Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male:
Dancing in the Dark – Bruce Springsteen

Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female:
Better Be Good to Me – Tina Turner

Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal:
Purple Rain?Music From the Motion Picture, Prince and the Revolution

Best Rock Instrumental Performance:
Cinema – Yes

Best New Rhythm and Blues Song:
I Feel for You – Prince, songwriter

Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance, Male:
Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) – Billy Ocean

Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance, Female:
I Feel for You – Chaka Khan

Best Rhythm and Blues Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal:
Yah Mo B There – James Ingram and Michael McDonald

Best Rhythm and Blues Instrumental Performance:
Sound-System, Herbie Hancock

Best Jazz Vocal Performance:
Nothin’ but the Blues, Joe Williams

Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist:
Hot House Flowers, Wynton Marsalis

Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group:
New York Scene – Art Blakey

Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band:
88 Basie Street, Count Basie and His Orchestra

Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal or Instrumental:
First Circle, Pat Metheny Group

Best Country Song:
City of New Orleans – Steve Goodman, songwriter

Best Country Vocal Performance, Male:
That’s the Way Love Goes – Merle Haggard

Best Country Vocal Performance, Female:
In My Dreams – Emmylou Harris

Best Country Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal:
Mama He’s Crazy – Judds

Best Country Instrumental Performance:
Wheel Hoss – Ricky Skaggs

Best Gospel Performance, Male:
Michael W. Smith, Michael W. Smith

Best Gospel Performance, Female:
Angels – Amy Grant

Best Gospel Performance By a Duo or Group:
Keep the Flame Burning – Debby Boone and Phil Driscoll

Best Soul Gospel Performance, Male:
Always Remember – Andrae Crouch

Best Soul Gospel Performance, Female:
Sailin’, Shirley Caesar

Best Soul Gospel Performance By a Duo or Group:
Sailin’ on the Sea of Your Love – Shirley Caeser and Al Green

Best Latin Pop Performance:
Always in My Heart (Siempre en mi Corazón), Placido Domingo

Best Tropical Latin Performance:
Palo Pa Rumba, Eddie Palmieri

Best Mexican/American Performance:
Me Gustas Tal Como Eres – Sheena Easton and Luis Miguel

Best Inspirational Performance:
Forgive Me – Donna Summer

Best Traditional Blues Recording:
Blues Explosion, John Hammond, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Sugar Blue, Koko Taylor and the Blues Machine, Luther Guitar Junior Johnson and J.B. Hutto and the New Hawks (Atlantic)

Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording:
Elizabeth Cotten Live!, Elizabeth Cotten (Arhoolie)

Best Reggae Recording:
Anthem, Black Uhuru (Island)

Best Arrangement on an Instrumental:
Grace (Gymnastics Theme), Quincy Jones and Jeremy Lubbock, arrangers

Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s):
Hard Habit to Break – David Foster and Jeremy Lubbock, arrangers

Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices:
Automatic – Pointer Sisters, arrangers

Best Instrumental Composition (tie):
The Natural – Randy Newman, composer
Olympic Fanfare and Theme – John Williams, composer

Best Cast Show Album:
Sunday in the Park With George, Stephen Sondheim, composer and lyricist (RCA)

Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special:
Purple Rain, Prince, John L. Nelson, Lisa and Wendy, songwriters (Warner Bros.)

Best New Classical Composition:
Antony and Cleopatra, Samuel Barber, composer

Best Classical Album:
Amadeus (Original Soundrack), Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Ambrosian Opera Chorus; Choristers of Westminster Abbey (Fantasy)

Best Classical Orchestral Recording:
Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat, Op. 100, Leonard Slatkin conducting Saint Louis Symphony (RCA)

Best Chamber Music Performance:
Beethoven, The Late String Quartets, Juilliard String Quartet

Best Classical Performance, Instrumental Soloist(s) (With Orchestra):
Wynton Marsalis, Edita Gruberova: Handel, Purcell, Torelli, Fasch, Molter, Wynton Marsalis and Edita Gruberova; Raymond Leppard conducting English Chamber Orchestra

Best Classical Performance, Instrumental Soloist(s) (Without Orchestra):
Bach, The Unaccompanied Cello Suites, Yo-Yo Ma

Best Opera Recording:
Bizet, Carmen (Original Soundtrack), Lorin Maazel conducting Orchestre National de France; Choeurs et Maitrise de Radio France; solos: Johnson, Esham, Domingo and Raimondi (Erato)

Best Choral Performance (Other Than Opera):
Brahms, A German Requiem, James Levine conducting Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Margaret Hillis, choral director, Chicago Symphony Chorus

Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance:
Ravel, Songs of Maurice Ravel, Jessye Norman, Jose Van Dam and Heather Harper; Pierre Boulez conducting the Members of Ensemble Intercontemporain and BBC Symphony Orchestra

Best Comedy Recording:
Eat It, Weird Al Yankovic (Rock and Roll)

Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Recording:
The Words of Gandhi, Ben Kingsley (Caedmon)

Best Recording for Children:
Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein (Columbia)

Best Album Package:
She’s So Unusual, Janet Perr, art director (Portrait/CBS)

Best Album Notes Big Band:
Jazz, Gunther Schuller and Martin Williams, songwriters (Smithsonian)

Best Historical Album Big Band:
Jazz, Paul Whiteman, Fletcher Henderson, Chick Webb, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and others (Smithsonian)

Best Video, Short Form:
David Bowie – David Bowie

Best Video Album:
Making Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Michael Jackson (Vestron Music Video)

Producers of the Year:
(Non-Classical) (tie) David Foster
Lionel Richie and James Anthony Carmichael

Classical Producer of the Year:
Steven Epstein