Beck, St. Vincent Triumph At The Grammy Awards

The Grammy® winners are cradling their gold gramophones and the lucky musicians include Beck, who triumphed with three awards, including Album of the Year and Best Rock Album honors for Morning Phase, the big prize nearly snatched out of his hands by a marauding (but apparently kidding) Kanye West.  St. Vincent, Sam Smith, Jack White, Aphex Twin, Pharrell and Rosanne Cash also had a very good night. St. Vincent's Annie Clark, who won for Best Alternative Music Album, is, quite astonishingly, the first woman to win in that category since 1991, when Sinead O'Connor received the Grammy® for I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (an award O'Connor refused).

Aphex Twin, the elusive Richard D. James, won his first Grammy for Syro, the first album he's released in a dozen years, while Sam Smith was the happy new boy on the block with four Grammy awards, including Best New Artist. Rosanne Cash had a spectacular run, winning three Grammys, including Best Americana Album for The River & The Thread.

One of the more curious (and successful) odd collaborations of the evening was Jeff Lynne and Electric Light Orchestra jamming with rosy-cheeked Ed Sheeran on classic ELO tunes like "Mr. Blue Sky" and "Evil Woman." Hozier and a ferociously powerful Annie Lennox duetted on the Irish singer's "Take Me To Church," slipping into a torchy cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You," found on Lennox's own 2014 album of covers, Nostalgia (watch video below). Mary J. Blige kicked Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" heavenward, expanding the song's palette sublimely.

Kristin Wiig donned a blonde pageboy wig (yes, Wiig in a wig) and expressively danced, without irony, in a highly theatrical performance of Sia's "Chandelier" while the either canny or bonkers (or both) singer faced a wall and sang, her back towards the audience as is her habit these days. More simply, Beck and Chris Martin connected eloquently, if a bit sleepily, for a gentle, acoustic version of "Heart is a Drum."

Katy Perry took a somber turn with the "By The Grace of God," a song darkly inspired by domestic abuse, while Madonna opted for glitz, debuting a new track, "Living For Love," surrounded by a swarms of masked, horned male dancers who suspiciously resembled Tim Curry's Lord of Darkness in "Legend."

Serial upstager Kanye West, Paul McCartney and Rihanna tentatively trotted out their acoustic single "FourFiveSeconds" from Rihanna's forthcoming album, and Usher was briefly joined by Stevie Wonder on harmonica for a harp-heavy cover of "If It's Magic."

Other performances included AC/DC, who opened the show, Tony Bennett with Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani with fellow "The Voice" judge Adam Levine and the "Selma"-inspired finale, featuring Beyoncé and Golden Globe winners and Oscar nominees John Legend and Common. Sheeran also joined forces with John Mayer, Herbie Hancock and Questlove on his own "Thinking Out Loud"

The Grammy® Lifetime Achievement awards were entirely dominated by men and granted to the late George Harrison, Buddy Guy, Wayne Shorter, the Bee Gees, Pierre Boulez, Flaco Jiménez and The Louvin Brothers.

You can find all of the winners listed on the Grammy® site.

Below, a partial list of tonight's Grammy® winners:

Beck, Morning Phase (Album of the Year,  Best Rock Album, Best Engineered Album)
Sam Smith:  Best New Artist (an award presented by former Best New Artist loser Taylor Swift), In The Lonely Hour (Best Pop Vocal Album) and "Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)" (Song of the Year and Record of the Year)
St. Vincent, St. Vincent (Best Alternative Music Album)
Rosanne Cash, The River & The Thread (Best Americana Album) and "A Feather's Not A Bird" (Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song)
Jack White, "Lazaretto" (Best Rock Performance). He was also art director for The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, Vol. 1 (1917-1927)(Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package).
Aphex Twin, 'Syro' (Best Dance/Electronic Album)
Pharrell, "Happy (live)" (Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Music Video)
Beyoncé and Jay-Z, "Drunk in Love" (Best R&B Performance), Shawn Carter (Jay Z), Beyoncé and six other writers "Drunk in Love" (Best R&B Song) and Beyoncé (Best Surround Sound Album)
Old Crow Medicine Show, Remedy (Best Folk Album)
Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP2 (Best Rap Album)
Clean Bandit, "Rather Be" (Best Dance Recording)
Pharrell, Girl (Best Urban Contemporary Album)
Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer, Bass & Mandolin (Best Instrumental Album)
Kendrick Lamar "I" (Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song)
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Cheek to Cheek (Best Traditional Pop Album)
A Great Big World with Christina Aguilera, "Say Something" (Best Pop Duo/Group Performance)
The Earls of Leicester, The Earls of Leicester (Best Bluegrass Album)
Johnny Winter, Step Back (Best Blues Album)
Tenacious D.,"The Last in Line" (Best Metal Performance)
Paramore, "Ain't It Fun" (Best Rock Song)
Joan Rivers, Diary of a Diva (Best Spoken Word)
"Weird Al" Yankovic, Mandatory Fun (Best Comedy Album)
Max Martin (Producer of the Year, Non-Classical)
Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, "Let It Go" (Best Song Written for Visual Media)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (score/soundtrack album for visual media)
Frozen (best compilation soundtrack)
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, (Best Musical Theater Album) 
Angelique Kidjo, Eve (Best World Album)
Ziggy Marley, Fly Rasta (Best Reggae Album)
"20 Feet From Stardom," (Best Music Film).