| Grammy Award for Record of the Year | |
|---|---|
| Description | quality vocal or instrumental recording tracks |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences |
| First awarded | 1959 |
| Currently held by | Mark Ronson, Uptown Funk (2016) |
| Website | www |
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."[1][2] The Record of the Year award is one of the four most prestigious categories at the awards (alongside Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Album of the Year) presented annually since the 1st Grammy Awards in 1959.
According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide, the award is presented "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."[3] Since the 55th Grammy Awards in 2013, mastering engineers are considered nominees and award recipients in this category.[4]
Record of the Year is related to but is conceptually different from Song of the Year or Album of the Year:
The honorees through its history have been:
Paul Simon holds the record for most wins in this category at three ("Mrs. Robinson" in 1969, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" in 1971, and "Graceland" in 1988).
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"). 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.
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 Fifth Dimension ("Up, Up And Away", "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In"); Eric Clapton ("Tears in Heaven", "Change the World"); and Norah Jones ("Don't Know Why," "Here We Go Again").
Frank Sinatra has the most nominations for Record of the Year for an artist and a male artist with seven nominations; he won the award once in 1967 for "Strangers In The Night". 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. Barbra Streisand has the most Record of the Year nominations for a female artist with five ("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.[5]
During the first 56 years of the Grammys, only six artists took the Record of the Year and Best New Artist awards during the same ceremony: Bobby Darin ("Mack the Knife"), Christopher Cross ("Sailing"), Sheryl Crow ("All I Wanna Do"), Norah Jones ("Don't Know Why"), Amy Winehouse ("Rehab") and Sam Smith ("Stay with Me").
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.[6] The rest of the members then vote a winner from the five nominees.[7]
Twenty-nine of the winners of Record of the Year have also won Song of the Year. An asterisk (*) indicates the composition won Song of the Year as well.
^[I] Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.