Grammy Award for Record of the Year


The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to sales or chart position." The Record of the Year award is one of the four "General Field" categories at the awards presented annually since the 1st Grammy Awards in 1959.
According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide, the award is presented:
Arrangers, songwriters, musicians and background singers of a winning recording can apply for a Winners Certificate. Songwriters can only apply for a certificate if it is a new song.
Since the 55th Grammy Awards in 2013, mastering engineers are considered nominees and award recipients in this category.
Record of the Year is related to but is conceptually different from Song of the Year or Album of the Year:
The Record of the Year awards have been awarded since 1959. It is one of the four most prestigious Grammy Awards. Despite both the Song of the Year award and Record of the Year being awarded for a single or for one track from an album, this award goes to the performer and production team of the song whereas the Song of the Year award goes only to the composer of the song. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide, the award is given for commercially released singles or tracks of new vocal or instrumental recordings. Tracks from a previous year's album may be entered provided the track was not entered the previous year and provided the album did not win a Grammy Award to the artist, producer, recording engineer and/or mixer if other than the artist. Associate producers and executive producers are not eligible".
The honorees through its history have been:
Thirty-one of the winning songs have also won the award for Song of the Year.
The category will expand to include eight nominees in 2019.

Achievements

holds the record for most wins in this category as a mastering engineer at four times . Coyne is the only person to win the award four consecutive years. Paul Simon has won three times, more than any other artist. Tom Elmhirst has won three times as an engineer/mixer.
Roberta Flack was the first artist to win Record of the Year in two consecutive years for the 1973 and 1974. This happened again when the group U2 won for the years 2001 and 2002, the only occurrence of an artist winning the award two consecutive years with records from the same album.
Other artists to receive two Grammys for Record of the Year are Henry Mancini ; Art Garfunkel ; The 5th Dimension ; Eric Clapton ; Norah Jones ; Mark Ronson ; Adele ; and Bruno Mars.
Frank Sinatra has the most nominations for Record of the Year as an act and a male artist with seven nominations for "Witchcraft", "High Hopes", "Nice 'n' Easy", "The Second Time Around", "Somethin' Stupid", and "Theme from New York, New York"; he received this accolade once in 1967, with "Strangers in the Night". The Beatles have the most Record of the Year nominations for a group; they had four nominations for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "Yesterday", "Hey Jude", and "Let It Be"; but never won the award. Barbra Streisand and Beyoncé have the most Record of the Year nominations amongst female artists with five nods. Streisand has been nominated for "Happy Days Are Here Again", "People", "Evergreen ", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", and "Woman in Love"; but has never win. Beyoncé was nominated for "Say My Name" as part of Destiny's Child and four times as a solo act with "Crazy in Love", "Irreplaceable", "Halo", and "Formation".
The first woman to win the award was Astrud Gilberto in 1965, for "The Girl from Ipanema". Roberta Flack was the first female artist to win the award twice. She, Norah Jones and Adele are the only women to win the award more than once for their records, winning for "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song"; and "Don't Know Why" and "Here We Go Again" ; and "Rolling in the Deep" and "Hello", respectively. Additionally, both Florence LaRue and Marilyn McCoo also receive this accolade twice as part of The 5th Dimension, with "Up, Up and Away" and "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In".
At 17 years old, Lorde became the youngest main artist to be nominated for "Royals" in 2014, with Billie Eilish becoming the youngest winner at 18 years old for "Bad Guy" in 2020.
Christopher Cross and Billie Eilish are the only artists to receive Grammys for Record of the Year as well as Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artist in a single ceremony. Adele is the first artist to receive the award for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artist, non-consecutively, and first woman to accomplish this feat. Only seven artists took the Record of the Year and Best New Artist awards during the same ceremony: Bobby Darin, Christopher Cross, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Amy Winehouse, Sam Smith and Billie Eilish
Frank Sinatra, Roberta Flack and Steve Winwood are the only artists to receive three nominations in a row for consecutive years for Record of the Year.
The person to appear on the most consecutive Records of the Year was Hal Blaine, the prolific studio drummer who played on six consecutive winners from 1966 to 1971: "A Taste of Honey", "Strangers in the Night", "Up, Up and Away", "Mrs. Robinson", "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Process

Members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences nominate their choices for record of the year. A list of the top twenty records is given to the Nominations Review Committee, a specially selected group of anonymous members, who then select the top five records to gain a nomination in the category in a special ballot. The rest of the members then vote a winner from the five nominees. In 2018, it was announced the number of nominated tracks will be increased to eight

Recipients

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.