The late Ray Charles finally had his night at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards.
Charles, who passed away in June, was posthumously honored with Grammys for Album of the Year and Record of the Year for "Genius Loves Company" and "Here We Go Again," respectively, during the ceremony held in the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
"I'm gonna cry," said Norah Jones, who sang the duet "Here We Go Again" with Charles, during the acceptance speech.
In a fitting tribute, Bonnie Raitt and Billy Preston performed Charles' "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind," the song Raitt sang with Charles on "Genius Loves Company."
In addition to Charles' awards, there were others.
The Song of the Year went to John Mayer's "Daughters."
The New Artist award went to Maroon5, the funk/rock band that has made suggestive, double-entendre tunes Top 40 hits.
Alicia Keys graciously accepted the Rhythm & Blues Album prize for "The Diary of Alicia Keys" as she beat out Anita Baker's "My Everything," Al Green's "I Can't Stop," Prince's "Musicology" and Jill Scott's "Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2."
One of the most entertaining acceptance speeches was given by the aforementioned West, who was on hand to accept the Rap Album award for "College Dropout."
"People were wondering what I would do if I didn't win," he told the appreciative audience. Then after a short pause, he said, "I guess we'll never know."
Among the other musical tributes performed throughout the night was a rousing take on Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird."
Gretchen Wilson helped out with "Freebird" just before Keith Urban and Elvin Bishop joined the throng and sang Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love."
Continuing the southern rock tribute, the Allman Bros. Dickey Betts and Tim McGraw took on the Allmans' "Ramblin' Man" before the whole gang wrapped it up with Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama."
Performances were undoubtedly the highlight of the Grammys last night.
Host Queen Latifah sung "Baby Get Lost" from her nominated jazz album "Dana Owens Album." The rapper's convincing jazz performance was stronger than the over-hyped duet of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony singing a somewhat flat "Escapimonos."
The gospel tribute included Mavis Staples and the Staples singers belting out "Let Me Take You There," the Blind Boys of Alabama singing "I'll Fly Away" and Kanye West chanting "Jesus Walk."
Green Day kicked new life into the show at midpoint with their raucous Rock Album of the Year title track "American Idiot." And a collage of artists — Velvet Revolver, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, Steven Tyler, Brian Wilson, Billie Joe Armstrong, Tim McGraw, Alison Krauss and Alicia Keys did their take on the Beatles "Across the Universe" as a tribute for the tsunami relief cause.
Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone tipped their hats to Janis Joplin. The fearless Etheridge, bald from cancer treatment, and New Artist nominee Stone cranked out a dynamic medley of "Cry Baby" and "Piece of My Heart."
Keys and Jamie Foxx, who reprised his role of Ray Charles from the movie "Ray," did their bit with a beautiful rendition of the late Charles' "Georgia on My Mind."
As for Grammys handed out earlier in the day, the "Lord of the Rings" craze continued when Howard Shore took home the award for Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture for "Return of the King," and Annie Lennox was awarded the Song Written for a Motion Picture statue for the song "Into the West" from the same motion picture.
In the new Hawaiian Music category, the various artist album "Slack Key Guitar Volume 2" took home the inaugural award. And Will Ackerman's "Returning" left with the New Age Album award.
E-mail: scott@desnews.com