The 37th Annual Grammy Nominations : THE PICKS : Plenty to Crow (and Squawk) About : Bonnie Raitt and newcomer Sheryl Crow square off in key categories. The Three Tenors aren’t classical enough for recording academy.

Veteran Bonnie Raitt and newcomer Sheryl Crow form the key matchup in the nominations for the 37th annual Grammy Awards, announced Thursday in Universal City.

Raitt, who dominated Grammy night in 1990, and singer-songwriter Crow, whose early reviews often likened her to Raitt, are competing for record of the year, and both are up for five awards.

Joining Crow’s “All I Wanna Do” and Raitt’s “Love Sneakin’ Up on You” in the record of the year competition (for singles) are Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her,” Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia,” which won an Oscar last spring.

In addition to Raitt’s “Longing in Their Hearts,” the album of the year nominees are Eric Clapton’s electric blues homage “From the Cradle,” English singer Seal’s “Seal” and two live recordings: Tony Bennett’s “MTV Unplugged” and “The 3 Tenors in Concert 1994,” recorded last summer at Dodger Stadium.

The awards, determined by the 7,000-member National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, will be presented March 1 at the Shrine Auditorium in ceremonies televised on CBS. The eligibility period is from Oct. 1, 1993, to last Sept. 30.

“All I Wanna Do,” a collaboration by Crow and four other writers, shares the song of the year field with “Streets of Philadelphia,” Gary Baker and Frank J. Meyers’ “I Swear” (an R&B; hit for All-4-One and a country hit for John Michael Montgomery) and two Elton John-Tim Rice “Lion King” songs--”Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Circle of Life.”

Crow, a Missouri native whose debut album, “Tuesday Night Music Club,” has sold nearly 2 million copies, is also a best new artist nominee, along with Ace of Base, Counting Crows, Crash Test Dummies and Green Day.

Besides Crow and Raitt, artists receiving five nominations are John, Springsteen and Babyface. Carpenter, Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, Green Day, Me’shell NdegeOcello, Rice, Cheryl Studer and Luther Vandross were named four times.

R.E.M., whose 1991 album “Out of Time” received seven nominations (including best album, single and song) was limited to just two nods for last year’s harder-rocking “Monster”: best rock album and best boxed recording package (for singer Michael Stipe’s art direction).

In other oddities, Bob Dylan’s “World Gone Wrong” was placed in the traditional folk category, alongside Cajun band Beausoleil and the Bulgarian State Female Vocal Choir. And L.A. maverick Beck faces off against the likes of Van Morrison, Springsteen and Neil Young in the male rock vocal balloting.

The names you do not see anywhere in the classical music categories are those of Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. That is because the academy screening committee decided that the hugely successful “The 3 Tenors in Concert 1994” wasn’t primarily a classical work.

The names you will see often in the classical categories are those of our old friends Bela Bartok and Samuel Barber. Prominent among the artists representing these composers are the Chicago Symphony, conductors Pierre Boulez, Simon Rattle and Andre Previn, violinists Gil Shaham and Gyorgy Pauk and engineer William Hoekstra.

Four of the five singers nominated for best classical vocal performance have emerged within the last decade: Bryn Terfel, Cecilia Bartoli, Anne Sofie von Otter and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. The only true veteran is tenor Peter Schreier. The nominated instrumentalists are a mix of veterans and recent new stars: pianists Alan Feinberg, Yevgeny Kissin, Yefim Bronfman, Krystian Zimerman and Menahem Pressler, violinist Kyung-Wha Chung, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, among others.

Times music writer Daniel Cariaga also contributed to this story.