The Grammy for Best New Artist is famously “cursed.” It isn’t—for every Milli Vanilli, there’s a Beatles or Adele. But whatever became of these more obscure winners of the prize?

Peter Nero (1962)

While most winners of the award have been pop and rock singers, Nero was a pianist, pops conductor, and orchestral composer. While he’s never exactly topped the charts, he’s recorded more than 65 albums, earned 10 Grammy nominations, and was a mainstay of TV specials and variety shows in the 1960s and ’70s.

Jose Feliciano (1969)

A blind, Latin and jazz guitar virtuoso, Feliciano covered the Doors’ “Light My Fire” in his distinctive style in 1968. It went to #3, sold a million copies, and and won Feliciano the Grammy for Best New Artist. However, his career was stymied by his performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1968 World Series. He played it in his Latin guitar style, slowly and experimental, but attempting to sing the National Anthem nontraditionally rankled baseball fans. A year later, however, he released probably his most famous song: the Christmas pop standard “Feliz Navidad.” In 1996, he made a memorable cameo in Fargo.

Debby Boone (1978)

Boone is a one-hit-wonder, but what a hit it was. In 1977, her song “You Light Up My Life” spent 10 weeks at #1—at the time, a record. She won Best New Artist on the strength of that song, which had religious themes. While Boone never had another pop hit, she had plenty of hits on Christian music radio and on the country charts, including the #1 hit “Are You on the Road to Lovin’ Me Again.”

Starland Vocal Band (1977)

This four-part vocal group (whose members had written hits for John Denver) had a #1 hit in 1976 with “Afternoon Delight.” A few months after winning their Grammy, they starred in The Starland Vocal Band Show, a summer 1977 variety series on CBS. After no further success, the group broke up in 1981…although reunited in 1998, with a bunch of new members: the children of the original group’s singers.