This Grammy Awards was held at the Tennessee Theater in Nashville, Tennessee (now razed), the only time the Awards were held anywhere other than New York City or Los Angeles.
The producers of the telecast wanted the stage filled with smoke for Curtis Mayfield's performance of "Freddie's Dead," which included showgirls in silver Afro wigs and dancers writhing on the stage floor. The local stage technicians hired to handle the show were unfamiliar with this effect so they improvised with liquid insect repellent pumped out of smoke machines. When the smoke hit the stage Mayfield, the dancers and the audience in the first few rows all began coughing uncontrollably.