Jackson Tops List of Grammy Acts : Awards: Singer, who will do one song, won’t be the only star on hand. Says the executive producer: ‘This is the strongest lineup we’ve ever had.’

Can anyone top the King of Pop?

Tonight’s 35th annual Grammy Awards telecast at the Shrine Auditorium will be the latest stop of the Michael Jackson juggernaut. The singer will receive a special Grammy Legends Award and--in a typically lavish production number--will perform one song, most likely a track from his 1991 “Dangerous” album.

Jackson’s appearance--a centerpiece of the show being broadcast by tape delay to the West Coast at 8 p.m. on CBS--is the latest in a spectacular media assault that began last month and has included two pre-inaugural event performances, a similar performance at the American Music Awards, the Super Bowl half-time show and the live interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Jackson, who has won 12 previous Grammys, is nominated in two categories this year: best male pop vocal (for “Black or White”) and best male R&B; vocal (“Jam”).

With all the build-up, will this performance dominate the show, which also will feature 11 other music numbers, including songs by Eric Clapton (favored to win the best record and best album awards), Peter Gabriel and Natalie Cole?

Says Pierre Cossette, executive producer of the Grammy Awards show: “If Jackson overpowers the rest of the show, then we don’t have a very good show. (I think) this is the strongest lineup we’ve ever had.”

And one manager suggests that Jackson’s number won’t be the biggest spectacle of the night anyway: “If anyone’s going to be the wildest thing on the show, it will be my boys,” said Lindy Goetz, manager of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who will be performing their Grammy-nominated hit “Give It Away Now,” backed by George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars.

The scheduled three-hour Grammys, which return to Los Angeles after two years in New York, will open with Peter Gabriel performing “Steam” in a colorful visual presentation featuring members of the Cirque du Soleil troupe. Other production numbers will feature the R&B; group En Vogue, rappers Arrested Development and a teaming of the L.A. Master Chorale and an all-star gospel choir for both classical and soul-gospel adaptations of Handel’s “Messiah.”

Also featured will be performances by k.d. lang, Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson (singing “Beauty and the Beast”), a teaming of Natalie Cole and Tony Bennett, country artists Billy Ray Cyrus, Travis Tritt and Marty Stuart and jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval. Comedian Garry Shandling is the show’s host.

Only 12 of the 80 Grammy Awards are scheduled to be given out during the telecast, with the rest announced in a ceremony earlier in the day. The telecast will include, however, recognition for Lifetime Achievement and Hall of Fame winners, who this year are guitarist-producer Chet Atkins, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, blues singer W. C. Handy, rock ‘n’ roller Little Richard, bluegrass king Bill Monroe, folk singer Pete Seeger, jazz artists Thelonious Monk and Fats Waller and jazz critic and author George Simon.

The Grammy Awards are voted on by the more than 6,000 musicians, producers, technicians and executives that make up the recording academy.