British music artists have picked up several prestigious Grammy award nominations in America.

Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John and Radiohead have all been nominated for the most highly sought accolades in the American music business.

But the omnipresent Spice Girls failed to make an impact.

Babyface celebrates with his wife winning the most nominations

For the second year running, the versatile producer and performer Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds topped the nominations with eight mentions.

Babyface won three awards after being nominated 12 times last year.

Sir Elton gained a nomination in the best male vocal performance category for Candle In The Wind '97.

His funeral eulogy to Princess Diana sold 33m copies worldwide, more than 11m of them in the United States.

Radiohead's OK Computer: Considered one of best albums of 1997

The Oxford-based rock group Radiohead and former Beatle Sir Paul are vying for honours in the best album category alongside 60's veteran Bob Dylan, Babyface and Paula Cole.

Sir Paul has been nominated for his successful solo album Flaming Pie, which he said saw him going back to the simplicity of his Beatles days.

Radiohead gain their nomination for OK Computer, recently rated the best album of all time by readers of the music magazine Q.

The Grammy Awards ceremony will be held in New York on February 25.

The star of the Frasier sitcom Kelsey Grammer will host the awards at Radio City Music Hall.

Other nominees were Seal, No Doubt, Sheryl Crow, Hanson, R Kelly and Puff Daddy.

The Pet Shop Boys and Gina G also picked up nominations in the newly created best dance recording category.

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