Grammys, Grammys, Grammys

The week before the Grammys is always filled with events, mini-concerts and parties leading up to the awards show, which in this year's case - is on Sunday the 31st at 8pm on CBS.

The event on Thursday night was for The Grammy Foundation - which is specifically in support of its efforts to preserve the history of music and its archive of interviews of music pioneers and legends.

The proper name of the event was "Cue the Music: A Celebration of Music and Television" which is the Grammy Foundation's 12th Annual Music Preservation Project and a joint venture with the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. The Grammy Foundation and the Paley Center have worked together in the past and are planning on doing it more and more in the future. Which is good for everyone.

For the event, the Grammy Foundation was the focal contributor and the Paley Center supplied the music-themed television clips that were shown in between the musicals acts and amongst the comments by the evening's MC, Shaun Robinson of Access Hollywood.

Robinson's evening consisted of talking about the importance of music and television, the histories of both as well as the the blending of the two starting in the late 1940's; the history of the Grammy Awards (that started in the late 1950's) and the evolutions of music, television and technology and how each medium has helped the other. The topics that were mentioned most or were the most detailed were the start of television, the music of the I Love Lucy show; variety shows in the 1950's and 1960's, television theme songs throughout the years (and the composers who wrote them); MTV - which started in 1981; the importance of music and songs heard on television programs and the technological advances in music distribution in the 2000's.

During Robinson's narrative story emceeing, performers would come to the stage and sing songs accentuating her points. In chronological order, the performers were Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat singing a medley of Sonny and Cher songs; Jorge Moreno singing a Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) Cuban-themed tune from I Love Lucy; Solomon Burke performing the theme from The Sopranos - which is called 'When I Woke Up This Morning' and was originally recorded by the group Alabama 3 (or 'A3'); Melanie Fiona, who performed the Paul Williams-written, Kermit-the-Frog-sung "Rainbow Connection" track from several incarnations of The Muppets; Pat Monahan, singer from the band Train, belting out the tune that was the first video on MTV "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles and the band closed the show with two songs, one of which was "How to Save a Life," which got its wide exposure from being featured in four television shows - Gray's Anatomy, Cold Case, One Tree Hill and Scrubs.

All of the evening's performers have either been won or been nominated for Grammys - including Caillat, who is nominated twice this year in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocal category; once singing with Mraz and once with Taylor Swift.

If any of the above singers come to your area in concert, try to see their shows - in particular Mraz, who is a fabulous performer. Here are photos of him with Caillat - on the red carpet and live.