The Black Eyed Peas from left, apl.de.ap, will. i. am, Taboo, and Fergie, perform at the Grammy Nominations Concert on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

One of the most annoying things about award shows is that they’re usually entirely too long, for no reason, because the awards are padded with a lot of filler that has the nutritional equivalent of packing peanuts. CBS’ concert to announce the Grammy nominations is, appropriately, an hour long, because it’s not even an awards show. It’s the coming attractions. So, good on you, CBS. If you can only keep the actual show from bloat, we’ll all be happy.

If anything, the special seemed a little rushed, maybe because the producers, which include host and CBS star L.L. Cool J., were trying so hard to pack it full of relevant content that they loaded it with everything but the kitchen sink. Heck, if the kitchen sink can sing, the more the merrier.

The big winners…er, possible winners…were Beyonce, with 10 nominations, including record and song of the year, Taylor Swift, who was in those two major categories as well, Dave Matthews Band for their elegiac, moving “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King,” dedicated to late member LeRoi Moore, and Black Eyed Peas.

Also getting a major shout-out: Hall and Oates’ “Sara Smile,” from their “Live at the Troubador” album. This confused the audience, and, momentarily, yours truly. I thought maybe there was some sort of mistake – I think the dudes from Linkin Park did, too.

But it’s true – the Philly blue eyed soulsters are up for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group, along with BEP, The Fray, Bon Jovi and Mgt. And honestly, I hope they win, because it’s the best song. And because it’s sexy.

Speaking of sexy, my favorite part of the night was Maxwell’s toe-curling, flirty, gimme-the-smelling-salts-ish version of Michael Jackson’s “Lady In My Life,” one of my favorite “Thriller” cuts and MJ’s most straight-ahead R&B track. It was sexy when Michael did it, sexier than he usually was, but Maxwell is all about the slow jam. And he jammed that thing with offers of toe-painting, back-rubs and other delicious come-ons. There may have been more, but I may have passed out.

The Jonas Brothers fans who seemed to have cluttered the audience may not have been the target audience for that performance – at least they shouldn’t be -but they got a musical present wrapped in a big old Jonas bow, courtesy of Nick, the littlest JoBro, and the meat in that group’s talent sandwich. He and his side project, Nick Jonas and The Administration, rocked with the edgier, rougher-voiced “Who I Am.” Who he is, is cute as a button and headed for something big. (And as adorable as Joe and Kevin are, they better hope this side project stays on the side, because they need that kid.)

Other highlights:

— Sugarland’s “Coming Home,” which is like a blues-country version of Kenny Loggins’ “Celebrate Me Home.” Jennifer Nettles’ voice is a powerful wonder, but I thought she was mugging for the camera in the beginning and it was pretty distracting until the full gospel-blues gut of the song kicked in. I also loved Kristian Bush’s offer to L.L. that they should team up for a song. It was probably just host/talent banter, but that would be fun, right?

— The producers’ insistence on tying the current nominations to the whole of Grammy history was ambitious but humorously incongruous . Linkin Park presented the nominees for “Best Pop Performance” after an intro featuring Karen Carpenter’s chirpy-sad voice asking “Don’t you remember you told me you loved me, baby?” It was so jarring, and so completely different and markedly ’70s compared to BEP. Then again, this was Hall and Oates category, so perhaps there was a theme.

— I felt a little bad for Auto-Tune king T-Pain having to announce the nomination of Jay-Z’s new masterpiece called…”The Death of Auto-Tune.” It’s like tricking Taylor Swift into reading a list of nominees that had Kanye West’s name on it.

— Speaking of which, loved Smokey Robinson’s ad-lib to Record of the Year nominee Taylor that Kanye wasn’t there. We should probably let this go for awhile, not for Kanye’s sake but because it’s time for a new pop culture oddity. Isn’t it neat that between Smokey’s Motown creations and co-presenter Ringo Starr’s presence in The Beatles, they pretty much were the ’60s. And they’ve aged incredibly well. I think there was some…help. But they’re national and world treasures, so I guess monuments get to have maintenance.

— Dwight Yoakam, who appeared to have mugged Alan Jackson for his coat and hat, was the soul of self-deprecation when he noted that he’s had more than 20 Grammy nominations, but only 2 wins.

“You do the math,” he said. On a night that’s all about noting how fabulous people are, it was nice to have a little humility tossed in.

I’m excited enough by the nominations to be looking forward to the show, if only to hope that Kings of Leon perform, that the Grammys have DMB perform as a “sorry” for leaving Moore out of their memorial clip presentation earlier this year, and that Hall and Oates show up to sing a song with Maxwell, and that everybody’s hair spontaneously explodes from all the heat.