Most Influential Albums: Day Six

While many teens were rocking out to Use Your Illusion I and II, Amy Grant was casting a spell on me with her album Heart in Motion. The songs were catchy, fun, wholesome and also she was a major cutie. I did something I'd never done before. I purchased a VHS tape of music videos. It included videos from the Heart in Motion album as well as "The Next Time I Fall" - her 1986 duet with Peter Cetera which reached #1 on the Billboard charts.

Amy Grant was nominated for a total of four Grammy Awards in 1992, including Record of the Year and Album of the Year. I remember being apoplectic that Natalie Cole swept everything that year. Partially because I perceived "Unforgettable" as a huge gimmick and partially because Amy Grant and also Bryan Adams came up empty. At my young age did not fully comprehend the political nature of the Grammys.

I worried that this piece of personal history would cause me to lose my Man Card and so I went into denial. The abandoned video tape sat at my parents house for close to two decades until they forced it back upon me. I promptly gave it away in a family reunion auction. Then one day I was transferring my old recording of the 1992 Grammy broadcast onto DVD and came across her performance of "Baby Baby". Once again, the Amy Grant fairy dust came over me and I was like, "Okay, now I understand how that happened. No regrets."