Twin Falls Times News
January 14, 1981
-”¢NEW YORK (UPI) – Singer composer Christopher Cross, the recording industry’s most rapidly rising star, put a virtual hammerlock on the 23rd annual Grammy Award sweepstakes Tuesday, racking up seven nominations to head a pack of 305 entries.
Veterans Barbra Streisand, who teamed with Barry Gibb for her latest output, and Frank Sinatra also were frontrunners in the competition, finals of which will be telecast live from Radio City Music Hall Feb. 25 by CBS.
The ceremony will mark the first time since 1975 that Grammy Awards, which are to the recording industry what Oscars are to Hollywood, have been handed out in New York by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.
Cross parlayed his song “Sailing” into nominations for record of the year, album of the year and song of the year. He also is up for the laurel as best new artist and producer of best pop vocal by, ‘a male. He was nominated for two more awards in the crafts division, which hands out little brass gramophones for everything from arrangements and engineering to best album notes.
Miss Streisand is on tap for six awards, including some in the crafts department. Her “Woman in Love” is a nominee for record of the year and best pop vocal by a female artist and her album “Guilty” was named for album of the year and best pop song by a group or duo. Both were done with ex-Bee Gee Gibb.
Sinatra got the “Trilogy: Past, album-of-the-year nod for his Present and Future” and record of the year and best pop vocal performance by a male artist with his “Theme from New York, New York.” In all, with other nominations in the crafts division, he is up for six awards.
Bette Midler and Kenny Rogers racked up four nominations each.
The academy presents Grammys in 59 categories, covering both musical recordings and dramatic readings, and, repeating their spectacular success at the box office, the producers of “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” collected six nominations for themes and readings released as records.
In the classical music field, violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman received five and four nominations, respectively.
The academy called upon Melba Moore, Roberta Flack, Margaret Whiting, Gerry Mulligan, Martin Bookspan and Rick Derringer to announce nominations in top categories at its press conference. Final ballots will be mailed this week to the academy’s voting members who will select winners to be announced next month
