Singer and songwriter Bonnie Raitt turned 75 on November 8, 2024.
Raitt is one of the honorees at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.
CBS will broadcast the recorded special next Sunday, December 22, 2024. (Check for local time.)
The 47th Kennedy Center Honors is hosted by Queen Latifah. (She was honored last year.)
For more information on this ceremony, which first started in 1978, I recommend reading the following report: Kennedy Center pays tribute to Coppola, the Grateful Dead, Raitt, Sandoval and The Apollo.
In 1989, the year Raitt turned 40, her crowning achievement Nick of Time was released in March. One year later, at the 32nd awards ceremony, Raitt was awarded the 1989 Grammy for Album of the Year.
When Raitt won that particular category—one of the Big Four in the General field (others are Record of the Year; Song of the Year; and Best New Artist)—she became only the fourth winning solo female artist. Judy Garland became the first, in 1961, for Judy at Carnegie Hall. Barbra Streisand was second, in 1963, for The Barbra Streisand Album. Third was Carole King, in 1971, for Tapestry.
While her album was praised, and warmly embraced was this nomination, not many critics predicted this win for Raitt and Nick of Time. She won not only this much-covered prize but all four categories in which she received nominations. Raitt ended up, at the 1990 ceremony, the most awarded individual. Along with Album of the Year, “Nick of Time” (track) won her Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; Nick of Time (album) won her Best Female Rock Vocal Performance; and—while not on the LP and not presented at the live ceremony—her collaboration with John Lee Hooker on “I’m in the Mood” won them both Best Traditional Blues Recording.
1989 Grammy nominations for Album of Year were: The End of the Innocence, by Don Henley; Full Moon Fever, by Tom Petty; Nick of Time, by Bonnie Raitt; The Raw & the Cooked, by Fine Young Cannibals; Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, by Traveling Wilburys. (Source: 32nd Annual Grammy Awards.)
This was a great win for Raitt…and it was in Time.
The album’s title track, which she wrote, is about being aware of getting older. Raitt, according to Wikipedia, began her professional career in 1971. While having a pure sound in voice, she struggled for years with addictions and failed projects. Many considered her Grammys triumph as having paid her dues. But the album, produced by Don Was, is a masterpiece. You can go over each track and observe blends of Rock, Pop, Blues, Country, and maybe a bit of R&B. “Nick of Time,” most especially, is a poignant song which includes the memorable lyrics which also speak to reality. While observing her parents and herself aging, she also realizes, “Life gets mighty precious…when there is less of it to waste.”
When Raitt was awarded with these Grammys, she was married to Oscar-nominated actor Michael O’Keefe. Her father was musical-theater actor and singer John Raitt (1917–2005). Her mother was Marjorie Haydock (1922–2004). Raitt has two brothers, David and Steve (who died in 2009). Her nephew is Bay Raitt who, according to Wikipedia, is “[an] American Artist, 3D Graphic Novelist, Animator and Video Game Developer” and is “responsible for creating the computer-generated face for [the character] Gollum in The Lord of the Rings.”
Below videos are Raitt winning her 1989 Grammys as broadcast, on CBS, February 21, 1990…and they are followed by a YouTuber’s audios of the tracks from Nick of Time.
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