# 1st Annual Grammy Awards
The 1st Annual Grammy Awards was the inaugural ceremony of the [Grammy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/grammy-awards), held on May 4, 1959, in simultaneous black-tie events in Los Angeles and New York City to honor recordings released in 1958.[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) Organized by the newly formed National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), the event presented 28 awards, the fewest categories in Grammy history, and set the peer-voted format the ceremony has used since.[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) • [2](https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date and venues | May 4, 1959; Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton, Los Angeles, and the Park Sheraton Hotel, New York City[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) |
| Eligibility | Recordings released between January 1 and December 31, 1958[2](https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards/) |
| Categories | 28 awards, the fewest ever presented[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) |
| Album of the Year | Henry Mancini, *The Music From Peter Gunn*[2](https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards/) |
| Record and Song of the Year | Domenico Modugno, "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)"[2](https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards/) |
| Multiple winners | Ross Bagdasarian (three awards), Ella Fitzgerald (two), Count Basie (two), Henry Mancini (two)[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) |
| Television | Not televised; the annual telecast debuted on CBS in 1973[3](https://www.grammy.com/news/list-sinatra-chipmunks-7-things-know-about-1st-grammy-awards/) |
## Organization and setting
The ceremony was staged by NARAS, a recording-industry organization formed a few years earlier by executives of the major labels who wanted an Oscars-like celebration of contemporary recordings.[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-en-ms-grammy-decades-20181220-story.html) At the time of the first awards the academy numbered about 700 members drawn from the creative side of the record industry.[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013)
The event took the form of a sit-down dinner gala rather than a televised show: about 500 guests paid $15 a ticket, and no television cameras were present.[5](https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3153356/1/200747592_Jul2021.pdf) • [3](https://www.grammy.com/news/list-sinatra-chipmunks-7-things-know-about-1st-grammy-awards/) Holding the ceremony on both coasts at once was intended to signal that the honor belonged to the whole American music industry rather than to one city.[6](https://thisdayinhistory.ai/event/first-grammy-awards-held.1192) The name Grammy came from the gramophone design of the statuettes.[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013)
## Winners
**Domenico Modugno** was the night's top winner. [The Italian](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-italian) singer-songwriter's "Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)" won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and it remains the only foreign-language release to win Record of the Year.[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) • [7](https://www.grammy.com/news/list-grammy-rewind-1st-annual-grammy-awards/) The Associated Press reported that the star-filled Beverly Hilton audience seemed surprised but pleased at what it called a gesture of international good will.[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013)
**Henry Mancini** took Album of the Year for *The Music From Peter Gunn*, the soundtrack to the [Blake Edwards](https://www.edgepedia.org/blake-edwards) television detective series that aired from 1958 to 1961, and also won Best Arrangement for the same album.[2](https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards/) • [1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) It remains the only television soundtrack to win Album of the Year, and it began a career total of 20 Grammy wins for Mancini.[3](https://www.grammy.com/news/list-sinatra-chipmunks-7-things-know-about-1st-grammy-awards/) • [7](https://www.grammy.com/news/list-grammy-rewind-1st-annual-grammy-awards/)
**Ross Bagdasarian**, creator of [Alvin and the Chipmunks](https://www.edgepedia.org/alvin-and-the-chipmunks) under his stage name David Seville, received two awards for "The Chipmunk Song": Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording for Children, while the award for Best Engineered Record, Non-Classical went to Ted Keep.[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) • [2](https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards/)
Other winners included [Ella Fitzgerald](https://www.edgepedia.org/ella-fitzgerald), named Best Vocal Performance, Female for *Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book* and Best Jazz Performance, Individual for *Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book*; [Count Basie](https://www.edgepedia.org/count-basie), who won Best Jazz Performance, Group and Best Performance by a Dance Band for his album *Basie*; Perry Como for Best Vocal Performance, Male with "Catch a Falling Star"; the Champs for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance with "Tequila"; the Kingston Trio for Best Country & Western Performance with "Tom Dooley"; [Van Cliburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/van-cliburn) for his recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1; and Meredith Willson's *The Music Man* for Best Original Cast Album.[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) • [2](https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards/)
## Sinatra's losing night
The night's most discussed loser was [Frank Sinatra](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-sinatra). He received a leading six nominations, attended with [Rat Pack](https://www.edgepedia.org/rat-pack) companions [Dean Martin](https://www.edgepedia.org/dean-martin) and Sammy Davis Jr., and took home only one trophy, for the album cover of *Only the Lonely*, an art-direction award rather than a singing one.[1](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013) Both of his 1958 albums, *Come Fly With Me* and *Only the Lonely*, were nominated for Album of the Year, a split that likely canceled out his own votes.[2](https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards/) • [7](https://www.grammy.com/news/list-grammy-rewind-1st-annual-grammy-awards/) Billboard reported that Columbia was the only major label to receive no award at the ceremony.[5](https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3153356/1/200747592_Jul2021.pdf)
## What the first ceremony lacked
There was no Best New Artist category in 1958; the award was first presented at the [2nd Annual Grammy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/2nd-annual-grammy-awards), won by [Bobby Darin](https://www.edgepedia.org/bobby-darin).[7](https://www.grammy.com/news/list-grammy-rewind-1st-annual-grammy-awards/) Rock and roll was largely absent from the nominations, a reflection of the academy's early preference for mainstream popular music, and the exclusion of artists such as [Elvis Presley](https://www.edgepedia.org/elvis-presley) contributed to the awards' low public profile in their first years.[8](https://totalmusicawards.com/grammy-awards/first-grammys-1959/) • [5](https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3153356/1/200747592_Jul2021.pdf)
## Aftermath
A second ceremony followed only six months later, in November 1959, honoring the music of 1959; 1959 remains the only year in which two Grammy presentations were held.[9](https://iq.grammy.com/awards/2nd-annual-grammy-awards) • [8](https://totalmusicawards.com/grammy-awards/first-grammys-1959/) The second ceremony was also the first to be televised, through a pretaped NBC special on November 29, 1959.[10](https://mim.org/news/history-of-the-grammy-awards/) From those 28 categories the awards grew to 109 categories by the 53rd Grammys in 2011.[11](https://www.grammy.com/news/the-academy-continues-evolution-of-grammy-awards-process)
## References
1. [AP Was There: The first Grammy awards, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/3411476fdc495a8e20d196660e7f6013)
2. [1st Annual Grammy Awards 1959, GRAMMY.com](https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards/)
3. [Sinatra To The Chipmunks: 7 Things To Know About The 1st GRAMMY Awards, GRAMMY.com](https://www.grammy.com/news/list-sinatra-chipmunks-7-things-know-about-1st-grammy-awards/)
4. [Six decades of Grammy Awards, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-en-ms-grammy-decades-20181220-story.html)
5. [The First Grammys: What Happened at the 1959 Grammy Awards? and related scholarship, University of Liverpool thesis](https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3153356/1/200747592_Jul2021.pdf)
6. [First Grammy Awards held, May 4, 1959, This Day in History](https://thisdayinhistory.ai/event/first-grammy-awards-held.1192)
7. [Who Won Album Of The Year At The 1st GRAMMY Awards?, GRAMMY.com](https://www.grammy.com/news/list-grammy-rewind-1st-annual-grammy-awards/)
8. [The First Grammys: What Happened at the 1959 Grammy Awards?](https://totalmusicawards.com/grammy-awards/first-grammys-1959/)
9. [2nd Annual GRAMMY Awards, GRAMMY.com](https://iq.grammy.com/awards/2nd-annual-grammy-awards)
10. [History of the Grammy Awards, Musical Instrument Museum](https://mim.org/news/history-of-the-grammy-awards/)
11. [The Academy Continues Evolution Of GRAMMY Awards Process, GRAMMY.com](https://www.grammy.com/news/the-academy-continues-evolution-of-grammy-awards-process)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Music institutions and events › Music awards › Grammy Awards › Grammy ceremonies by year › Early Grammy ceremonies (1st–12th, 1959–1970)*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license