And Now a Few Words From Past Grammy Winners

Each year the Grammy Awards honor artists as pillars of their fields. We asked a few past winners what 1996 releases they believe best represented their respective categories--regardless of whether their choices had been nominated this year.

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SAMMY HAGAR (HARD ROCK): Hagar won 1991 best hard rock album Grammy as a member of Van Halen, the band that fired him (or which he quit, depending on who’s talking) last summer. He’s just finished his first post-Van Halen solo album, “Marching to Mars,” due in May, with a tour planned.

“I put down Alice in Chains’ ‘Alice in Chains.’ Rage Against the Machine is nominated in metal, but I don’t think of them as metal, so I almost picked them for hard rock, but I couldn’t go against my buddies in Alice. But Rage is a bad-ass band. The energy of the band, the way they play and the way [singer Zack de la Rocha] is so intense is special. Beck’s ‘Odelay’ is my favorite album of the whole year, so unique. One of the freshest things I’ve heard, so I’d give Beck full honors in any category that was appropriate, unless he was up against my friends.”

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LIONEL RICHIE (ALBUM AND SONG): Richie has won four Grammy Awards, including best album in 1984 for “Can’t Slow Down” and best song in 1985 for the African famine relief anthem “We Are the World,” which he co-wrote with Michael Jackson. After a 10-year hiatus, he returned last year with a new album, “Louder Than Words,” and is currently recording a follow-up and planning his first concert tour in six years for the summer.

“Melodies have come back very strongly, and in melody, Celine Dion has done the trick. Her ‘Because You Loved Me,’ which is a Diane Warren song, couldn’t miss with a missing stick. That’s classic Diane. And the Toni Braxton album [“Secrets”] is fantastic. . . . Such a solid group of songs and production, and, again, she had a Diane Warren song.”

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QUEEN LATIFAH (RAP ALBUM): Latifah won the 1994 Grammy for solo rap performance (the rap album category debuted last year) and has become an established presence on TV (co-starring in the Fox sitcom “Living Single”) and in movies (“Set It Off”). She’s working on a new album while preparing for roles in two new movies: a science-fiction thriller, “The Sphere,” directed by Barry Levinson and starring Dustin Hoffman and Sharon Stone, and “The Kiss,” featuring Danny DeVito and Holly Hunter.

“I would land at a tie between the Fugees’ ‘The Score’ and 2Pac’s “All Eyez on Me.’ The Fugees opened for me on my last tour and I got to see how talented they are. The album they had then didn’t really reflect their talent, but this one did, so they not only get best album from me, but most improved. And I got to watch 2Pac lay down seven songs in three days right after he came home from being incarcerated. He made an excellent album but didn’t get to be here to reap the rewards.”

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GEORGE JONES (COUNTRY): Jones, one of country music’s most enduring figures, won the Grammy for best male country vocal performance with his single “He Stopped Loving Her Today” in 1980, before a best country album category was initiated.

“The reason I would pick Tracy Byrd’s ‘Big Love’ [as the best country album of 1996] is that it’s really from the country scene out there. It would be between him and George Strait, ‘cause they haven’t changed their roots any, nor has Alan Jackson. And Tracy’s song ‘Big Love’ is the most really upbeat country song that’s out now.”

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HERB ALPERT (RECORD OF THE YEAR): The trumpeter owns six Grammy Awards, including a best record for “A Taste of Honey,” one of three he won for 1965 with his Latin-flavored Tijuana Brass instrumentals. The co-founder of A&M; Records now heads the Geffen-distributed Almo Sounds with original partner Jerry Moss, but continues his musical career, returning to Latin sounds with a “salsa-Latin-Puerto Rican-Cuban” feel dominating his upcoming “Passion Dance” album.

“Honestly, I think it’s quite boring out there now. I think we’re all waiting for something new to happen, and it didn’t last year. Song-wise, I think Celine Dion’s ‘Because You Loved Me’ is probably the best song. But Alanis Morissette made the most noise with her music. It’s apples and oranges between those two.”