The 15 biggest Grammy upsets of all time

"American Pie" is an enduring classic of the folk-rock genre and consistently ranks among the top 10 in lists of the best songs of the century. It was up for Song of the Year back in 1973 and seemed to be the outright winner — that is until a Londoner named Ewan MacColl wrote a song for Roberta Flack.

Flack's recording of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" took home top honors that year, though I'd argue that time has been a whole lot kinder to Don McLean's song.

Listen, any other year, this wouldn't have been that big of an upset. "Revolver" didn't lose Album of the Year to "In The Wee Small Hours," "Songs for Swinging Lovers," "Come Fly with Me" or even to "My Way." In the height of Beatlemania, the Fab Four lost to "A Man and His Music," an album that amounted to a compilation of re-recordings of Sinatra hits.

The Beatles only ever won a single Album of the Year award, for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Astute readers will note that this means that their brilliant album "Abbey Road" did not win the award when it was nominated back in 1970. Instead, it was upset by Blood Sweat & Tears' second album "Blood Sweat & Tears"

This is one of those picks that made perfect sense at the time. Disco wasn't quite dead yet back in 1979, and even though it was on its way out, the Bee Gees' soundtrack for "Saturday Night Fever" was a great album. 

That said, looking over the list of nominees, it's hard to see how the Rolling Stones didn't win Album of the Year back in 1979, given the fact that "Some Girls" was nominated and is widely considered to be one of the legendary rock band's best albums ever.

After a long, long 2016, 2015 seems so far away, doesn't it? But it's worth remembering the time Beck's tender and minimalist album "Morning Phase" took home Album of the Year honors over Beyonce's self-titled record.

This was even more of a surprise because the Beyonce record was so innovative in its time. It was a surprise album, released entirely without warning, and came complete with a slate of polished music videos. Beck's win over Beyonce was so surprising that Kanye West almost — almost — reprised his MTV VMA stunt. 

Maybe this isn't all that surprising, given that Nirvana never even got a nomination for Best New Artist, but despite the Grammy Awards' apparent distaste for punk, grunge and alternative music, the fact remains that Green Day was the band of 1994. Many people thought that "When I Come Around" would have been enough to net Green Day the award, not to mention the rest of "Dookie," but the band came up short in the end to Sheryl Crow.

Many music fans who aren't huge fans of the Grammy Awards probably saw this coming, but for rap fans, the fact that 2014's award for Best Rap Album didn't go to Kendrick Lamar was a huge shock. 

The award instead went to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's "The Heist," an album that — by any measure — has not aged nearly as well as Kendrick Lamar's "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City."

Nicki Minaj's loss in 2012's Best New Artist category was a huge upset for a whole bunch of reasons. First of all, Nicki Minaj's meteoric rise was huge for young women in rap and immediately paved the way for a whole host of contemporaries. 

Second of all, by 2012, Bon Iver had released two studio albums, two EPs and no less than five singles across four years. He wasn't really a "new artist."

In one of the most famous (and egregious) upsets ever in the history of the Grammy Awards, Metallica's epic, amazing album "...And Justice for All" lost out to "Crest of a Knave" in the metal and hard rock category.

Jethro Tull, mind you, was never a hard rock or metal group. Jethro Tull's lead vocalist played the flute. The flute.

Everybody knows "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head." It's one of the most ubiquitous Burt Bacharach songs, and a songwriter like Bacharach has a whole bunch of ubiquitous songs. 

He wrote the song for B.J. Thomas, who ended up getting a Grammy nomination for his performance. But despite all this, Joe South's "Games People Play" ended up taking home Song of the Year in 1970.

Let's get this out of the way early on: The Carpenters are a great band, and any other year, they'd be deserving of the Best New Artist award.

But in 1971, on the strength of his first two studio albums "Empty Sky" and "Elton John," he was an odds-on favorite to win the award. The Carpenters, however, swooped in and snagged it instead.

One album was enough to get the Pretenders a nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammys, and a lot of people thought it should have been enough to get the win as well. But no, despite amazing singles in "Kid," "Brass in Pocket" and "Stop Your Sobbing," the Pretenders were upset by Christopher Cross. Related question: Who is Christopher Cross, and has anybody mentioned his name since 1981?

"The College Dropout," by any objective measure, should go down in history alongside "Illmatic" as one of the best debut albums by any rapper ever. Despite all that, and despite the fact that this album was the one that skyrocketed West to his current success and celebrity, Maroon 5 ended up taking home the award for Best New Artist in 2005.

It's hard to remember, but back before 2005, emo wasn't really all that mainstream as a genre. Popular bands like Jimmy Eat World were emo-influenced, sure, but they were very poppy and far removed from what the genre really was.

Fall Out Boy, and in particular the groups album "From Under the Cork Tree," really brought the genre from Myspace and Xanga pages with black backgrounds to the forefront of American music culture. 

No disrespect to John Legend, an amazing artist in his own right, but his win in 2006 was a pretty huge upset.

Do you remember that song "Little Green Apples" by O.C. Smith? No? Me either. It was a huge hit back in 1968, however. Listen, I don't want to take anything away from Smith here, an amazing soul singer in his own right, but "Hey Jude" was not only the best song of its year, it is also one of the best songs of all time. Its Song of the Year loss in 1969 is arguably the biggest upset in the history of the Grammy Awards.