1976 Grammy Award Winners

Winners Announced: February 28, 1976
Held at: Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, California
Host: Andy Williams
Eligibility Year: October 16, 1974 – October 15, 1975

Trivia and Details

The Album of the Year was Still Crazy After All These Years by Paul Simon. This album also won him a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
Natalie Cole, daughter of the legendary Nat King Cole, won Best New Artist, making her the first African American female artist to win in this category.
Janis Ian’s At Seventeen won both Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Engineered Recording (Non-Classical), bringing attention to the young artist’s talent.
The Captain & Tennille’s catchy tune Love Will Keep Us Together won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Interestingly, the duo also won the Best New Artist award the previous year.
The Staple Singers won their first Best Soul Gospel Performance Grammy with Let’s Do It Again. The group had been around since the 1950s, and this win was a significant milestone in their career.
Not yet a household name for movie scores, John Williams won two Grammys for his work on Jaws — one for Best Original Score and another for Best Instrumental Composition.
Chicago’s Chicago IX – Chicago’s Greatest Hits was one of the year’s best-selling albums but did not win any Grammys. Despite its commercial success, it couldn’t match the critical acclaim of the other nominees.

1976 Grammy Winners

Record of the Year:
Love Will Keep Us Together – Captain and Tennille

Album of the Year:
Still Crazy After All These Years, Paul Simon (Columbia)

Song of the Year:
Send in the Clowns – Stephen Sondheim, songwriter

Best New Artist of the Year:
Natalie Cole

Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male:
Still Crazy After All These Years, Paul Simon

Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female:
At Seventeen – Janis lan

Best Pop Vocal Performance By a Duo, Group or Chorus:
Lyin’ Eyes – Eagles

Best Pop Instrumental Performance:
The Hustle – Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony

Best Rhythm and Blues Song:
Where Is the Love – Harry Wayne Casey, Richard Finch, Willie Clarke and Betty Wright, songwriters

Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance, Male:
Living for the City – Ray Charles

Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance, Female:
This Will Be – Natalie Cole

Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance By a Duo, Group or Chorus:
Shining Star – Earth, Wind and Fire

Best Rhythm and Blues Instrumental Performance :
Fly, Robin, Fly – Silver Convention

Best Jazz Performance By a Soloist:
Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie, Dizzy Gillespie

Best Jazz Performance By a Group:
No Mystery, Chick Corea and Return to Forever

Best Jazz Performance By a Big Band:
Images, Phil Woods with Michel Legrand and His Orchestra

Best Country Song:
(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song – Chips Moman and Larry Butler, songwriters

Best Country Vocal Performance, Male:
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain – Willie Nelson

Best Country Vocal Performance, Female:
I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love With You), Linda Ronstadt

Best Country Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group:
Lover Please – Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge

Best Country Instrumental Performance:
The Entertainer – Chet Atkins

Best Gospel Performance:
No Shortage, Imperials

Best Soul Gospel Performance
Take Me Back, Andrae Crouch and the Disciples

Best Latin Recording:
Sun of Latin Music, Eddie Palmieri (Coco)

Best Inspirational Performance:
Jesus, We Just Want to Thank You, Bill Gaither Trio

Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording:
The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album, Muddy Waters (Chess)

Best Instrumental Arrangement:
The Rockford Files – Mike Post and Pete Carpenter, arrangers

Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists:
Misty – Ray Stevens, arranger

Best Instrumental Composition:
Images – Michel Legrand, composer

Best Cast Show Album:
The Wiz, Charlie Smalls, composer (Atlantic)

Album of Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special:
Jaws, John Williams, composer (MCA)

Album of the Year, Classical:
Beethoven, Symphonies Complete, Sir Georg Solti conducting Chicago Symphony Orchestra (London)

Best Classical Performance, Orchestra:
Ravel, Daphnis et Chloë (Complete Ballet), Pierre Boulez conducting New York Philharmonic

Best Chamber Music Performance (Instrumental or Vocal):
Schubert, Trios nos. 1 in B-Flat Major, ops. 99 and 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 11 (The Piano Trios), Artur Rubinstein, Henryk Szeryng and Pierre Fournier

Best Classical Performance, Instrumental Soloist (With Orchestra):
Ravel, Concerto for Left Hand and Concerto for Piano in G Major; Fauré, Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra, Alicia de Lorrocha; De Burgos and Foster conducting London Philharmonic

Best Classical Performance, Instrumental Soloist (Without Orchestra):
Bach, Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Unaccompanied, Nathan Milstein

Best Opera Recording:
Mozart, Cosi fan tutte, Colin Davis conducting Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; principle solos: Caballé, Baker, Gedda, Ganzarolli, Van Allan and Cotrubas (Philips)

Best Choral Performance, Classical:
Orff, Carmina Burana, Robert Page directing the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Boys Choir; Michael Tilson Thomas conducting Cleveland Orchestra; soloists: Blegen, Binder and Riegel

Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance:
Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, Janet Baker; Leonard Bernstein conducting Israel Philharmonic

Best Comedy Recording:
Is It Something I Said?, Richard Pryor (Reprise)

Best Spoken Word Recording:
Give ‘Em Hell Harry, James Whitmore (United Artists)

Best Recording for Children:
The Little Prince, Richard Burton, narrator

Best Album Package:
Honey, Jim Ladwig, art director (Mercury)

Best Album Notes (Non-Classical):
Blood on the Tracks, Pete Hamill, annotator (Columbia)

Best Album Notes, Classical:
Footlifters, Gunther Schuller, annotator (Columbia)

Best Producer of the Year:
Arif Mardin