(February 8, 2025). For as long and deep as the friendly rivalry between the Beatles and Rolling Stones once ran, it is interesting to discover that the two greatest bands of multiple generations — and, arguably, all time — have never competed against one another in a Grammy category. In fact, they had never even been nominated in the same year until now.
The Beatles with 27 nominations and eleven wins, plus a Lifetime Achievement Award, have been Grammy darlings ever since the four Liverpudlians first stepped foot on American soil in 1964. That year’s A Hard Day’s Night album gave them their first-ever Grammy the following year for Performance by a Vocal Group, followed shortly by their Best New Artist win during the same ceremony.
The Stones on the other hand, despite having begun their chart domination around the same time and achieving two No. 1 songs in 1965 — “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Get Off of My Cloud,” — were the dregs of the Grammy elitist society during the group’s best years. Those Bad Boys of Rock ‘n’ Roll, led by age-defying Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, wouldn’t achieve their first Grammy nomination for nearly two decades. It finally came with 1982’s Tattoo You, which lost the award for Rock Performance by a Duo or Group to the Police (“Don’t Stand So Close To Me”). (Funny how songs and albums can compete in the same categories.)
In fact, the Stones were awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1986) before they won their first competitive trophy for, of all things, Best Music Video (“Love Is Strong,” 1995). How many of us remember that one?
Anyway, this year the Beatles and Stones combined to pull off a first. Not only were they both nominated in the same year for the first time — albeit in different categories — but they both took home trophies. The Beatles won Best Rock Performance for “Now and Then,” the half-posthumous/ half-contemporary rendering of an old John Lennon track by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, beating out more contemporary competition including St. Vincent, The Black Keys, Green Day, Idles, and Pearl Jam.
The Stones won Best Rock Album for Hackney Diamonds, their critically acclaimed set of new songs (and their first album of non-cover songs since 2005’s A Bigger Bang). It was only the iconic group’s fourth Grammy win out of eleven nominations in competitive categories. Hackney Diamonds beat out strong competition from Green Day, Pearl Jam, Idles, Jack White, The Black Crowes, and Fontaines D. C.
In the cases of Green Day, Pearl Jam and Idles — the only acts common to both sets of nominations — they each walked away empty handed at this year’s Grammys. But I guess there’s no shame in losing to both the Beatles and The Rolling Stones in the same year, especially when it’s likely to never happen again.
As Sean Ono Lennon said when accepting the Beatles’ award on behalf of his late dad, John, “We need this music in the world, we need peace and love. We need the Sixties to stay alive.”
Well, it wasn’t the Sixties, but it was the closest thing we’ll get to it in our lifetimes — proof that even after all of these years, the Beatles and the Stones are still capable of making history!
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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