Gladys Knight and the late Donna Summer were joined by hip-hop artists DJ Kool Herc and the group N.W.A. as well as the late country singer Tammy Wynette as Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipients at the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards ceremony in L.A.
Accepting her award, Knight stressed how everyone in her family sang, spoke about her experiences winning amateur singling contests at ages four and six, the importance of the church in their life and repeatedly remarked on just how good the audience looked.
Summer's second husband, singer Bruce Sudano, and three daughters -- Mimi, Brooklyn and Amanda -- accepted the award for the "Queen of Disco," who died of lung cancer in 2012 at age 63. Speaking of Summer's music, Sudano said it "had the ability to lift us up, to give us hope, to give us encouragement and to give us an escape from a world that is always impersonal."
Peter Asher was one of three Trustees Award recipients. The onetime singer in the 1960s British Invasion duo Peter and Gordon went on to become a talent scout and record producer for The Beatles' Apple Records label and, after discovering and producing James Taylor, worked with Linda Ronstadt and many others as both an artist manager and record executive. Of late he's returned to performing with Peter and Jeremy, with his new vocal partner and fellow British Invasion duo veteran, Jeremy Clyde of Chad and Jeremy.
[Source: Classic Hits Today]