Big night starts early

It’s no secret: Most agree that what makes for a killer event seems a simple enough recipe: a good mix of folks and a good stack of tunes.

But what if your host DJ happens to be record producer Phil Ramone or record executive Clive Davis?

You get the picture.

For a good portion of the recording industry’s upper tiers, Sunday’s Grammy ceremony was the conclusion of a heady weekend of splashy kickoff events -- enough to make anyone “blase-blase,” as they say, about the actual ceremony.

You’d have been too if you’d jump-started the weekend watching Neil Young completely renovate a Brian Wilson tune at the Hollywood Palladium on Friday night, or Carlos Santana and Alicia Keys rework the grooves of “Black Magic Woman” at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Saturday, all of it semiprivate, thisclose and with no commercial breaks.

The recording industry’s two biggest insider pre-Grammy events -- the Recording Academy’s MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute, produced by Ramone, and BMG head Clive Davis’ highly anticipated Grammy dinner -- have allowed a cozy space for artists to meet and mingle.

Ramone, in his seventh year producing the MusiCares event, cooked up a generation- and genre-spanning tribute to Wilson, a man who has an ear not just for harmony and whimsy but also for melancholy, chaos and the absurd.

The biggest challenge? “You’ve got five people who want to sing ‘God Only Knows,’ ” Ramone said. “And you know each of them would bring something very different to it. The idea is to try to cast it so you hear it a way you never heard it before.”

Though it’s all for a good cause -- the proceeds from the annual person of the year tribute support MusiCares’ Financial Assistance Program, which provides a safety net for people in the music business in financial or personal need -- that doesn’t mean that a good time couldn’t be had by all.

That was the case as things got started at the Palladium, where Wilson’s daughter Carnie could barely navigate the room without being showered with congratulatory hugs and kisses, showing off her husband, Rob Bonfiglio, and her baby bulge. But she was a bit more excited about something else: “I just met Jimmy Page! That was so cool.”

And so was what was beginning to transpire as Ramone’s imagination worked its magic. The Red Hot Chili Peppers took a jagged turn on “I Get Around,” Michael McDonald and Billy Preston cranked up “Don’t Worry Baby,” and Shelby Lynne resketched “Surfer Girl” as a warm meditation.

Taken as a whole, the expanse offered a glimpse of one man’s seesaw path -- such sunny songs from such an inclement soul.

Grammy-nominated jazz singer-pianist Jamie Cullum, paired with the Fred Martin and the Levite Camp Choir, earned the evening’s first standing ovation, turning the already ethereal “Sail On, Sailor” into an anthem-hymn.

“Musicians as young as you like still are influenced by Brian Wilson,” Cullum testified to the crowd. Neil Young spoke of Wilson’s influence as well and then dedicated “In My Room” “for you” and for Wilson’s late brothers, “Carl and Dennis too.”

Then Young just got down to it: carved the song to its core, the journey a road full of hard turns and ruts.

Eventually, Wilson was summoned to the stage, looking every bit the survivor -- with an expression that shifted from happiness to relief to haunted, then back again. “I’m not one for making speeches

Wilson leaped right into “Heroes and Villains,” with its tilted calliope whirls and a cappella harmonies as resonant as a pipe organ. Singer India.Arie joined him for a bittersweet turn on “God Only Knows” that brought her to tears.

Wilson was then left with his band to paint the rest a Day-Glo version of “Good Vibrations,” starring Wilson, seated, back erect, outstretched arms vibrating, his hands wildly aflutter in time with the chorus.

Davis’ affair on Saturday was almost shut down before it started. What began 30 years ago, he recalls, “as a couple of tables at Chasen’s for a few friends” has blossomed into a top-drawer event that people do their best to worm their way into.

“This has definitely been over-invited,” said one of the off-duty cops who was just beginning to show signs of fancy-folk fatigue. Well, that’s what happens when someone’s “plus one” translates into “Me, plus my posse of 19.”

The show portion didn’t get off until nearly 11, the fire marshal repeatedly walking the aisles and clearing them of media members and looky-loos and other assorted hangers-on.

If you could squeeze inside the ballroom, you could see Davis playing host to 50 years of music history, including Quincy Jones, Kanye West, Janet Jackson and Sheryl Crow.

Davis, the impresario behind countless careers, including those of Janis Joplin and Whitney Houston, uses this event not just as a celebration of the past but also as a showcase for what’s to come.

Fantasia, Davis’ latest project, mixed it up with Chaka Khan. Maroon 5 let loose; Usher confessed to his messy heartbreak. “I just have to speak out. I lost a love, you know. But I got a lot of Grammy [nominations], though.”

An elated Jamie Foxx did another turn on Ray Charles, then went impressively head to head with Mary J. Blige, their voices twined in ballad. Then they all made room for the evening’s surprise: Diana Ross.

As the event drew to a close, Sunset Boulevard became an endless string of hired cars, limos and stretch Hummers waiting to collect their charges.

But there was one car, edging closer to the front of the queue with its door open, the driver strumming his acoustic guitar, singing. God only knows, maybe Clive heard.