5 Nominations
• Record of the year: "Crazy"
• Best urban/alternative performance: "Crazy""
• Album of the year: "St. Elsewhere" (Downtown/Atlantic)
• Best alternative music album: "St. Elsewhere" (Downtown/Atlantic)
• Producer of the year, non-classical: "St. Elsewhere"; "Pieces of the People We Love" (the Rapture) for Danger Mouse
It was a triumphant year for one Brian Burton, whose rise to the vanguard of modern producers was cemented with "St. Elsewhere," the Downtown/Atlantic debut for his duo Gnarls Barkley with rapper Cee-Lo. As Danger Mouse, Burton became an Internet phenom thanks to his 2004 "Grey Album" bootleg mash-up of the Beatles' "White Album" and Jay-Z's "The Black Album." By 2005, he was producing left-field hits for Gorillaz that blended hip-hop and soul with a uniquely modern production sensibility.
But 2006 was the year the mainstream fully absorbed Danger Mouse's sound, thanks to the runaway success of "Crazy," the first single from "St. Elsewhere." The track was the first to ever reach No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart strictly on download sales and became a multiformat smash in the United States, peaking at No. 2 on The Billboard Hot 100 and No. 7 on Modern Rock.
In addition to producer of the year Grammy nods for Burton's work on "St. Elsewhere" and with New York dance/rock outfit the Rapture, Gnarls Barkley is up for four other Grammys, including record and album of the year.
"He's fond of spaghetti westerns, '60s psychedelia, and he's a hip-hop head," says Downtown co-founder Josh Deutsch, who signed Gnarls Barkley after his first listen to "Crazy." "He's as equally focused on things like song structure and the traditional aspects of record-making that really resonate with people as he is finding new ways to combine sounds and textures conceptually."
Burton refused to tailor format-specific mixes of "Crazy" for radio play, dovetailing with what Deutsch says is a "timeless, classic approach to production. Obviously every format wants its own remixes, but he felt this version completely captured the song. It's hard to remember a record where the same mix was getting played on [New York station WQHT] Hot 97 and [Los Angeles station] KROQ at the same time."
5 Nominations
