| Year | Recipient | Ref. |
| 1963 | Bing Crosby | |
| 1965 | Frank Sinatra | |
| 1966 | Duke Ellington | |
| 1967 | Ella Fitzgerald | |
| 1968 | Irving Berlin | |
| 1971 | Elvis Presley | |
| 1972 | Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson | |
| 1984 | Chuck Berry, Charlie Parker | |
| 1985 | Leonard Bernstein | |
| 1986 | Benny Goodman, The Rolling Stones, Andrés Segovia | |
| 1987 | Roy Acuff, Benny Carter, Enrico Caruso, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Woody Herman, Billie Holiday, B.B. King, Isaac Stern, Igor Stravinsky, Arturo Toscanini, Hank Williams | |
| 1989 | Fred Astaire, Pablo Casals, Dizzy Gillespie, Jascha Heifetz, Lena Horne, Leontyne Price, Bessie Smith, Art Tatum, Sarah Vaughan | |
| 1990 | Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Vladimir Horowitz, Paul McCartney | |
| 1991 | Marian Anderson, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Kitty Wells | |
| 1992 | James Brown, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters | |
| 1993 | Chet Atkins, Little Richard, Thelonious Monk, Bill Monroe, Pete Seeger, Fats Waller | |
| 1994 | Bill Evans, Aretha Franklin, Arthur Rubinstein | |
| 1995 | Patsy Cline, Peggy Lee, Henry Mancini, Curtis Mayfield, Barbra Streisand | |
| 1996 | Dave Brubeck, Marvin Gaye, Georg Solti, Stevie Wonder | |
| 1997 | Bobby "Blue" Bland, The Everly Brothers, Judy Garland, Stéphane Grappelli, Buddy Holly, Charles Mingus, Oscar Peterson, Frank Zappa | |
| 1998 | Bo Diddley, The Mills Brothers, Roy Orbison, Paul Robeson | |
| 1999 | Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Smokey Robinson, Mel Tormé | |
| 2000 | Harry Belafonte, Woody Guthrie, John Lee Hooker, Mitch Miller, Willie Nelson | |
| 2001 | The Beach Boys, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Marley, The Who | |
| 2002 | Count Basie, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Al Green, Joni Mitchell | |
| 2003 | Etta James, Johnny Mathis, Glenn Miller, Tito Puente, Simon & Garfunkel | |
| 2004 | Van Cliburn, The Funk Brothers, Ella Jenkins, Sonny Rollins, Artie Shaw, Doc Watson | |
| 2005 | Eddy Arnold, Art Blakey, The Carter Family, Morton Gould, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jelly Roll Morton, Pinetop Perkins, The Staple Singers | |
| 2006 | David Bowie, Cream, Merle Haggard, Robert Johnson, Jessye Norman, Richard Pryor, The Weavers | |
| 2007 | Joan Baez, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Maria Callas, Ornette Coleman, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, Bob Wills | |
| 2008 | Burt Bacharach, The Band, Cab Calloway, Doris Day, Itzhak Perlman, Max Roach, Earl Scruggs | |
| 2009 | Gene Autry, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Four Tops, Hank Jones, Brenda Lee, Dean Martin, Tom Paxton | |
| 2010 | Leonard Cohen, Bobby Darin, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Michael Jackson, Loretta Lynn, André Previn, Clark Terry | |
| 2011 | Julie Andrews, Roy Haynes, Juilliard String Quartet, The Kingston Trio, Dolly Parton, Ramones, George Beverly Shea | |
| 2012 | The Allman Brothers Band, Glen Campbell, Antônio Carlos Jobim, George Jones, The Memphis Horns, Diana Ross, Gil Scott-Heron | |
| 2013 | Glenn Gould, Charlie Haden, Lightnin' Hopkins, Carole King, Patti Page, Ravi Shankar, The Temptations | |
| 2014 | The Beatles, Clifton Chenier, The Isley Brothers, Kraftwerk, Kris Kristofferson, Armando Manzanero, Maud Powell | |
| 2015 | Bee Gees, Pierre Boulez, Buddy Guy, George Harrison, Flaco Jiménez, The Louvin Brothers, Wayne Shorter | |
| 2016 | Ruth Brown, Celia Cruz, Earth, Wind & Fire, Herbie Hancock, Jefferson Airplane, Linda Ronstadt, Run-DMC | |
| 2017 | Shirley Caesar, Ahmad Jamal, Charley Pride, Jimmie Rodgers, Nina Simone, Sly Stone, The Velvet Underground | |
| 2018 | Hal Blaine, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Louis Jordan, The Meters, Queen, Tina Turner | |
| 2019 | Black Sabbath, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Billy Eckstine, Donny Hathaway, Julio Iglesias, Sam & Dave, Dionne Warwick | |
| 2020 | Chicago, Roberta Flack, Isaac Hayes, Iggy Pop, John Prine, Public Enemy, Sister Rosetta Tharpe | |
