Grammy Award for Record of the Year

The Record of the Year awards have been awarded since 1959.[6] 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(s) 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(s), producer(s), recording engineer(s) and/or mixer(s) if other than the artist. Associate producers and executive producers are not eligible".[7]

The honorees through its history have been:

• 1959–1965: Artist only.
• 1966–1998: Artist and producer.
• 1999–2012: Artist, producer, recording engineer and mixing engineer
• 2013–present: Artist, producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer and mastering engineer

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.[8]

Tom Coyne holds the record for most wins in this category as a mastering engineer at four times (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018). Coyne is the only person to win the award four consecutive years (2015–2018).[9] Paul Simon has won three times, more than any other artist ("Mrs. Robinson" in 1969, "Bridge over Troubled Water" in 1971, and "Graceland" in 1988).[10] Tom Elmhirst has won three times as an engineer/mixer (2008, 2012 and 2017).[11]

Roberta Flack was the first artist to win Record of the Year in two consecutive years for the years 1973 ("The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face") and 1974 ("Killing Me Softly with His Song").[12] This happened again when the group U2 won for the years 2001 ("Beautiful Day") and 2002 ("Walk On"), the only occurrence of an artist winning the award two consecutive years with records from the same album.[13]

Other artists to receive two Grammys for Record of the Year are Henry Mancini ("Moon River", "Days of Wine and Roses"); Art Garfunkel ("Mrs. Robinson", "Bridge over Troubled Water"); The 5th Dimension ("Up, Up and Away", "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In"); Eric Clapton ("Tears in Heaven", "Change the World"); Norah Jones ("Don't Know Why", "Here We Go Again"); Mark Ronson ("Rehab", "Uptown Funk"); Adele ("Rolling in the Deep", "Hello"); and Bruno Mars ("Uptown Funk", "24K Magic").

Frank Sinatra has the most nominations for Record of the Year for an artist and a male artist with seven nominations ("Witchcraft", "High Hopes", "Nice 'n' Easy", "The Second Time Around", "Strangers in the Night", "Somethin' Stupid" (with Nancy Sinatra), and "Theme from New York, New York"); he won the award once in 1967 for "Strangers in the Night".[14] The Beatles have the most Record of the Year nominations for a group; they had four nominations ("I Want to Hold Your Hand", "Yesterday", "Hey Jude", and "Let It Be") but never won the award.[15] Barbra Streisand and Beyoncé have the most Record of the Year nominations amongst female artists with five nods. Streisand has been nominated ("Happy Days Are Here Again", "People", "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (with Neil Diamond), and "Woman in Love") but has never received the award.[16] 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".[17]

The first woman to win the award was Astrud Gilberto in 1965, for "The Girl from Ipanema" (with Stan Getz). Roberta Flack was the first female artist to win the award twice.[18] 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.

Christopher Cross and Billie Eilish are the only artists to receive the Grammy Award for Record of the Year as well as for Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artist in one 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, nonconsecutively, 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 ("Mack the Knife" in 1960), Christopher Cross ("Sailing" in 1981), Sheryl Crow ("All I Wanna Do" in 1995), Norah Jones ("Don't Know Why" in 2003), Amy Winehouse ("Rehab" in 2008), Sam Smith ("Stay with Me" in 2015) and Billie Eilish ("Bad Guy" in 2020)

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.

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."

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.[19] The rest of the members then vote a winner from the five nominees.[20] In 2018, it was announced the number of nominated tracks will be increased to eight [21]

An asterisk (*) indicates this recording also won Song of the Year.

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