At the February 1981 Grammy Awards, something happened that had never happened before and hasn’t happened again since.

At the ceremony where the best musical work of 1980 was being honored, Christopher Cross won in the Best New Artist category.  Okay.  Fine.  Of the nominees that year, The Pretenders would have been the preferred choice of most rock music fans, but otherwise, you couldn’t really argue with Cross and his likable light rock sound.

But then, incredibly, Cross went on to sweep the remaining “Big Four” mainstream categories:  Album of the Year (“Christopher Cross”), Record of the Year for his recording of the hit ballad “Sailing,” AND Song of the Year for composing “Sailing.”  The competition wasn’t all that steep in 1980 (although Pink Floyd’s seismic opus “The Wall” was a nominee for Best Album), but no one, especially a newcomer, had ever won all four major awards.

It’s one of several head-scratching stories to be found when you comb through the history of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences’ 57 years of awarding Grammys to honor each year’s biggest musical achievements.

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Rock ‘n roll lyrics, by and large, tend to be about subjects like rebellion, sex, protest, fantasy, breakups, drugs and drinking, and sometimes just sheer nonsense.  But they’re also about friendship, peace, encouragement, hope and, yes, true love.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I have selected 15 songs that might make a good soundtrack to the time you spend with the one who makes your heart skip a beat…

“Oh My Love,” John Lennon (1971)

There are legions of Beatles fans who have never warmed to Yoko Ono because of the part they believe she played in breaking up the world’s best band.  Lennon himself would tell them to get over it, that the band was starting to grow apart before she entered his life, and that he had found his true soul mate and was very very happy.  Witness “Oh My Love,” Lennon’s touching tribute to Ono from his landmark “Imagine” album.  Theirs is clearly one of the great celebrity love stories of our time.  Sample lyrics:  “I see the wind, oh I see the trees, everything is clear in my heart, I see the clouds, oh I see the sky, everything is clear in our world, oh my love, for the first time in my life, my mind is wide open, oh my lover, for the first time in my life, my mind can feel…”

“Cupid,” Sam Cooke (1961)

The gifted crooner was also a fine songwriter, and his producers asked him to write a tune for a female singer they’d seen on a TV variety show, but once they heard Cooke sing it, they decided he should release it himself, and it reached #17 here and #7 in the UK in 1961.  Critics called it “the perfect pop song,” combining Latin, R&B, jazz and mainstream pop elements.  Sample lyrics:  “Cupid, draw back your bow, and let your arrow go straight to my lover’s heart for me, cupid, please hear my cry, and let your arrow fly straight to my lover’s heart for me…”

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