Dean Martin News

The Recording Academy is feeling a great deal of amore for its 2009 Lifetime Achievement Grammy recipients.

Rat Pack crooner Dean Martin is among the seven artists and acts who will be honored during a special ceremony Feb. 7 for his/her/their lasting contributions to the music industry, with more recognition set for the following night during the 51st Annual Grammy Awards at Los Angeles' Staples Center.

"Their outstanding accomplishments, legendary passion and artistry have positively affected our culture and will continue to influence and inspire generations to come," said Recording Academy president Neil Portnow.

On the list of honorees in addition to Martin, who died in 1995:

• Country Music Hall of Famer and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" sweetheart Brenda Lee, who has sold more than 90 million records since her career took off in the 1950s.

• Sound-defining Motown hitmakers the FourTops. Abdul "Duke" Fakirbecame the group's only surviving original member after frontman Levi Stubbs passed away in October.

• The still-touring gospel group the Blind Boys of Alabama, who were joined onstage by Prince during a show at Hollywood's Knitting Factory in March.

• Hank Jones, the 90-year-old jazz pianist and composer who was awarded Congress' National Medal of Arts earlier this year.

• "Singing Cowboy" and radio, TV and film star Gene Autry, who died in 1998.

• Folk singer-songwriter Tom Paxton, a member of the Bob Dylan-nurturing Greenwich Village music scene in the early '60s, whose tunes have been recorded by Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte, Willy Nelson, Dolly Parton and many more. 

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