The Best Album of the Year Winners, Ranked
Every album that won the Grammy for Album of the Year is here, and the ranking of those winners is yours to argue. The award alone decides who is in. Any Album of the Year win since 1959 qualifies, so comedy records, live sets and soundtracks sit beside studio albums, and that gate carries the list. Two mastheads ranked every winner on 2 February 2026: Paste, by Matt Mitchell, and Billboard, by Andrew Unterberger. A winner both put in their top third, positions 1 to 23, sits in the upper tier, and the lower tier is everyone else. A ranking published before a ceremony could not have placed its winner, so a winner crowned after those pieces ran sits in the lower tier until a ranking that could place it is read, and inside each tier the vote settles the order. Each new ceremony lengthens the roster by one. Links point at Spotify's earliest edition, decided by track count and track titles, not the printed date, and an entry with no clean carrier names what its link adds or drops.
Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) is #1 on “The Best Album of the Year Winners, Ranked”.
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Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
Hill left the 1999 ceremony with five Grammys, a one-night total no woman had reached before, and this was the one that mattered. Ex-Factor is the record's centre: a Wu-Tang sample slowed to a crawl under a breakup she sings and then argues with herself about. Paste has it 4th of 68 and Billboard 3rd.
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Michael Jackson — Thriller (1982)
Nine tracks, seven of them singles, with Quincy Jones producing and Bruce Swedien at the desk. Billie Jean keeps the long intro Jones wanted trimmed, because Jackson said it made him want to dance, and Louis Johnson's bass carries it. Paste places it 6th of 68 and Billboard 4th.
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Fleetwood Mac — Rumours (1977)
Thirty-one weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 across 1977 and 1978, for a record of eleven songs. Nicks closes it with Gold Dust Woman - 2004 Remaster, which is how Spotify labels every track on its eleven-song carrier, a remaster hiding under a bare album title. The printed year says 1977; the suffix says otherwise. Paste ranks it 5th of 68, Billboard 7th.
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Stevie Wonder — Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
Spotify's carrier folds a double LP plus a bonus EP into twenty-one tracks, and it's the only one of Wonder's three winners that runs to that. It was his third Album of the Year in four ceremonies, after Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale. Isn't She Lovely was written for his newborn daughter Aisha, who can be heard on it, and runs past six minutes. Paste puts it 1st of 68; Billboard 6th.
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The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
The first rock record to take the award, and both mastheads file it in the same slot: 2nd of 68 at Paste, 2nd at Billboard. The Beatles catalogue on Spotify is the 2009 remaster only, so the link carries that tag and the closer prints as A Day In The Life - Remastered 2009, the orchestral climb and the piano chord that takes most of a minute to fade. Thirteen tracks, as the LP had.
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Stevie Wonder — Innervisions (1973)
Wonder played nearly every instrument on it himself, and Higher Ground came together in one three-hour session, clavinet and drums and that gargling synth bass all his; the single reached number four on the Hot 100 that autumn, and the album became the 23-year-old's first of three wins. Billboard files it 1st of 68; Paste 7th.
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Carole King — Tapestry (1971)
King had written most of these songs for other people; (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman was Aretha's hit four years earlier, and here it closes the record with just her own piano and voice up front. Lou Adler produced it for Ode in a few weeks at A&M, and it then held number one for fifteen straight weeks. Paste puts it 3rd of 68, Billboard 8th.
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U2 — The Joshua Tree (1987)
Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois produced, Anton Corbijn shot the Mojave sleeve, and the opener builds for close to two minutes before Bono sings a word. Spotify's eleven-track carrier prints it as Where The Streets Have No Name - Remastered: the 2007 remaster wearing the plain album title. Paste has it 11th of 68 and Billboard 10th.
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Adele — 21 (2011)
Rick Rubin, Paul Epworth and Ryan Tedder share the credits, but the song everyone remembers is the one with nothing on it. Someone Like You closes the eleven tracks with Dan Wilson's piano and Adele's voice, no band, and it went to number one in that form. Six Grammys followed at the 2012 ceremony, with Rolling in the Deep taking Record and Song of the Year on the same night. Billboard ranks it 9th of 68; Paste 22nd.
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Paul Simon — Graceland (1986)
Simon cut the rhythm tracks in Johannesburg in 1985 with the Boyoyo Boys and Tao Ea Matsekha, during the cultural boycott, and spent the next year answering for it. The closer, All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints (with Los Lobos), is the one Los Lobos said they wrote and never got credited for. Eleven tracks on the carrier, eleven on the LP, and Paste files it 16th of 68, Billboard 22nd.
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Taylor Swift — folklore (2020)
Announced the morning before it came out, in July 2020, and made at a distance with Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, sixteen songs of piano, muted drums and invented characters. hoax is the last of them, Dessner's piano figure and a vocal that barely rises above a murmur. Swift's third win. Both mastheads land in the same place: 13th of 68 at Paste, 13th at Billboard.
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George Michael — Faith (1987)
Michael wrote it, produced it and played most of it, his first album after Wham! and the one that made him a solo act in America. Father Figure - Remastered is how Spotify tags the slow one, the carrier being the remaster of the nine-track LP with A Last Request added as a tenth. Paste ranks it 14th of 68 and Billboard 12th.
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Stan Getz & João Gilberto — Getz/Gilberto (1964)
Two days in March 1963, Jobim at the piano, Gilberto singing in Portuguese and Getz answering on tenor. Doralice is the Almeida and Caymmi tune and the one where Gilberto's guitar sets the pace and nobody raises their voice. The carrier runs ten tracks, the LP's eight plus two single edits, and the 1965 ceremony also handed it Record of the Year for the Ipanema single. Paste has it 18th of 68, Billboard 14th.
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Stevie Wonder — Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974)
Nixon had resigned three months before You Haven't Done Nothin' reached number one that November, and its clavinet riff is aimed squarely at him, with the Jackson 5 on the doo-da-wops. It's the loud one of the ten tracks, on the second of Wonder's back-to-back wins, 1974 and 1975. Paste places it 9th of 68; Billboard 19th.
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Bob Dylan — Time Out of Mind (1997)
Dylan's first album of new songs in seven years, made at Criteria in Miami in January 1997 with Daniel Lanois producing, all swamp reverb and tremolo. Highlands closes it, sixteen and a half minutes of talking blues about a waitress in Boston who wants a sketch. Eleven tracks either way, and it sits 20th of 68 at Paste and 17th at Billboard.
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Taylor Swift — 1989 (2014)
Max Martin and Shellback built the pop record Swift had been threatening since Red, and Shake It Off, horns and a cheerleader chant, was the first single. Big Machine's thirteen-song original is the link here, with the deluxe and the re-recording both passed over. The 2016 win made her the first woman to take the award twice as lead artist. Paste files it 17th of 68, Billboard 18th.
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Billie Eilish — When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)
Recorded by Eilish and her brother Finneas in his bedroom in Highland Park, fourteen tracks, and bad guy is the one with the bass drop and the spoken duh. She was 18 at the 2020 ceremony, the youngest winner the category had had, and she took the other three general-field awards the same night. Paste has it 19th of 68, Billboard 21st.
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Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour (2018)
Thirteen songs, and High Horse is the odd one out, a disco bassline and a four-on-the-floor kick on a Nashville record. Musgraves took four Grammys home from the 2019 ceremony, Best Country Album among them. Billboard puts it 23rd of 68, the last slot inside the top third, and Paste 15th, so it clears the cut on both.
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Bad Bunny — Debí Tirar Más Fotos (2025)
Plena, salsa and reggaeton across seventeen tracks, and the first Spanish-language album to take the award. LA MuDANZA closes it, a spoken family story that turns into a plena stomp. Paste published its ranking the day after the February 2026 ceremony and placed it 21st of 68; Billboard, the same day, 11th.
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Simon & Garfunkel — Bridge over Troubled Water (1970)
Their last studio album together, and it won six Grammys on the night in 1971. The Boxer took over a hundred hours to record across New York, Nashville and a church in Manhattan, and the lie-la-lie chorus was a placeholder Simon never replaced. The carrier's eleven tracks match the LP, and Paste puts it 8th of 68, Billboard 27th.
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Various Artists — Saturday Night Fever (1977)
A soundtrack credited to Various Artists, carried by the Bee Gees' songs. The Trammps' ten-minute full-length cut prints on Spotify as Disco Inferno - 2007 Remastered Version Saturday Night Fever, the 2007 remaster's tag on a seventeen-track carrier that matches the double LP. Billboard ranks it 5th of 68; Paste 30th.
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Beyoncé — Cowboy Carter (2024)
Billed as Act II, Beyoncé's eighth studio album arrived after four Album of the Year nominations had come and gone, and with the 2025 win she became the first Black woman to win it since Lauryn Hill in 1999. It beat a field of seven that included Brat, Short n' Sweet and The Tortured Poets Department. AMEN closes the run, two minutes and twenty-five seconds of hymn answering the opener's melody. Billboard files it 16th of 68, Paste 28th.
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Judy Garland — Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961)
One night, 23 April 1961, two LPs, and the first winner by a woman. Spotify's carrier keeps all twenty-six tracks under live tags, so the closer prints as Chicago - Live At Carnegie Hall/1961, Garland shouting the city's name over Mort Lindsey's orchestra while the crowd is still on its feet. Paste has it 10th of 68 and Billboard 35th.
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Bonnie Raitt — Nick of Time (1989)
Raitt's tenth album, her first for Capitol after Warner dropped her, produced by Don Was, and it won after she had been making records for eighteen years. The Road's My Middle Name is one of two she wrote herself, a slide-guitar shuffle about touring. The carrier's eleven tracks match the original, and Billboard puts it 15th of 68; Paste 33rd.
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Alanis Morissette — Jagged Little Pill (1995)
The carrier's thirteenth track is the Jimmy the Saint Blend of You Oughta Know with the hidden Your House inside it, eight minutes in all. Ironic drew a decade of pedantry about whether rain on a wedding day qualifies, and the song outlived every argument. Glen Ballard co-wrote and produced it in his home studio, and Morissette collected the award at the 1996 ceremony, aged 21. Billboard ranks it 20th of 68, Paste 29th.
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Daft Punk — Random Access Memories (2013)
Session players, real strings and Nile Rodgers on guitar, made at Henson and Electric Lady over several years. Contact closes it, six minutes of a Eugene Cernan transmission from Apollo 17 giving way to a synth climb and a drum fill that never resolves. Thirteen songs on the LP and the same thirteen on Spotify. Paste files it 23rd of 68, the last slot inside its top third, and Billboard 26th, which keeps it out.
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OutKast — Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
Big Boi's disc has the hit that replaced Andre's at number one: The Way You Move (feat. Sleepy Brown) took over the top of the Hot 100 from Hey Ya! in February 2004. Horn stabs, a bass line that walks, Sleepy Brown singing the hook. The carrier runs forty tracks across both discs. Paste puts it 12th of 68, Billboard 40th.
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Arcade Fire — The Suburbs (2010)
Sixteen songs about Houston cul-de-sacs, written by brothers who grew up in them. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) hands the lead to Régine Chassagne over a synth pulse the band had never tried before, and Spike Jonze turned the record into a short film the next year. Paste has it 25th of 68 and Billboard 29th.
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Billy Joel — 52nd Street (1978)
Phil Ramone produced it with jazz players sitting in, Freddie Hubbard among them, and in 1982 it became the first album sold commercially on compact disc, in Japan. The title track 52nd Street closes it in under three minutes, a horn vamp and a shrug. Nine tracks on the carrier, nine on the LP, and Paste ranks it 26th of 68; Billboard 32nd.
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Taylor Swift — Fearless (2008)
Swift was 20 at the 2010 ceremony, a record for youth the category kept for a decade. Change closes the thirteen tracks, picked up by NBC for its 2008 Olympic broadcast and the one song here that sounds like a stadium rather than a bedroom. Spotify still carries the Big Machine pressing at thirteen songs, and that is the link; the 2021 re-recording, at twenty-six, is a different record. Billboard files it 25th of 68, Paste 35th.
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Whitney Houston — The Bodyguard (1992)
Houston sings six of the thirteen tracks on the original and the rest belong to other acts, though Spotify bills the album to her alone. The Dolly Parton cover did the selling. The linked carrier runs twelve: it drops Kenny G's Waiting for You, carries Queen of the Night as a radio edit, and ends on Joe Cocker's duet, Trust In Me (feat. Sass Jordan), rather than Alan Silvestri's theme. Billboard has it 24th of 68, Paste 41st.
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Phil Collins — No Jacket Required (1985)
Sussudio opens it on a word Collins made up at the microphone and kept, with Hugh Padgham co-producing and the Phenix Horns playing. The LP had ten tracks; Spotify's carrier runs eleven because We Said Hello Goodbye, the CD-only extra, is folded in at the end. Billboard puts it 33rd of 68; Paste 38th.
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Bruno Mars — 24K Magic (2016)
Late-eighties new jack swing, taken as a straight run: nine tracks, thirty-three minutes. Mars and Shampoo Press & Curl produced it at Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, with The Stereotypes, Emile Haynie and Jeff Bhasker also credited. That's What I Like took Song of the Year at the same 2018 ceremony, so the record swept the three general fields it was up for. Paste ranks it 31st of 68, Billboard 43rd.
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Glen Campbell — By the Time I Get to Phoenix (1967)
Jimmy Webb wrote the title song and Al De Lory produced the album around it, Campbell's Wrecking Crew years paying off on his own name. The linked carrier is the 2001 remaster, so the track prints as By The Time I Get To Phoenix - Remastered 2001, eleven songs against the LP's eleven. Paste has it 27th of 68 and Billboard 48th.
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John Lennon & Yoko Ono — Double Fantasy (1980)
Released 17 November 1980, three weeks before Lennon was killed, and the award went to both names on the sleeve even though Spotify credits the album page to Lennon alone. The songs alternate between the two of them, and Ono gets the last word: Hard Times Are Over closes the fourteen tracks. Billboard files it 36th of 68, Paste 39th.
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Various Artists — O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
T Bone Burnett assembled it for the Coen brothers' film before a frame was shot, Dan Tyminski singing for George Clooney and Ralph Stanley doing O Death unaccompanied. Angel Band closes it, the Stanley Brothers' 1955 recording rather than anything new. Spotify's nineteen tracks match the original nineteen, and Paste puts it 37th of 68; Billboard 41st.
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Toto — Toto IV (1982)
The band's fourth record and the one where session musicians who had played on Thriller got their own night. I Won't Hold You Back is Steve Lukather's ballad, a top ten single in its own right beside the two bigger ones, and the one with the string arrangement. Ten songs, and the carrier keeps all ten, and Billboard ranks it 37th of 68, Paste 44th.
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The Chicks — Taking the Long Way (2006)
Released under the band's earlier name, Dixie Chicks, with Rick Rubin producing and the country radio blacklist still in effect; the record won five Grammys at the 2007 ceremony anyway. I Hope closes it, co-written with Keb' Mo' and first sung at a 2005 hurricane benefit. Fourteen tracks under the current name on Spotify. Billboard puts it 28th of 68; Paste 55th.
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Taylor Swift — Midnights (2022)
Jack Antonoff made almost all of it with her, thirteen songs about lying awake, announced from the VMAs stage in August 2022. Anti-Hero is the single, the one with the chorus about being the problem. The 2024 win was her fourth, the first for any artist. The link is the thirteen-track standard edition rather than the 3am Edition with its seven extra songs. Billboard has it 31st of 68 and Paste 53rd.
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Paul Simon — Still Crazy After All These Years (1975)
Simon's first win on his own name, with My Little Town bringing Garfunkel back for one track. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover is Steve Gadd's drum pattern more than anybody's lyric. The LP had ten songs; Spotify's earliest carrier runs twelve, two demos tacked on the end, a Gone at Last run-through among them. Paste ranks it 24th of 68, Billboard 61st.
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Blood, Sweat & Tears — Blood, Sweat & Tears (1968)
David Clayton-Thomas had just replaced Al Kooper, and the record bookends his horn-band pop with two Erik Satie variations. Spinning Wheel is his, a 1969 top five with a trumpet solo and a calliope ending. The original LP runs ten tracks; the Spotify carrier adds two live cuts from the Cafe Au Go Go, so it runs twelve. Paste puts it 40th of 68, Billboard 46th.
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Adele — 25 (2015)
Hello sold it, but When We Were Young, written with Tobias Jesso Jr., is the song the record is built around, a piano ballad about a party where everyone has aged. Eleven tracks on the standard carrier, no bonus disc. Adele spent her acceptance speech talking about Lemonade. Paste ranks it 32nd of 68; Billboard 56th.
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Lionel Richie — Can't Slow Down (1983)
Richie had left the Commodores for good and produced eight tracks with James Anthony Carmichael, five of them top ten singles. Hello is the ballad, the one with the video about the blind sculpture student. The carrier matches the LP track for track and prints 1983. Billboard files it 38th of 68, Paste 52nd.
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Norah Jones — Come Away with Me (2002)
Blue Note's quietest hit, produced by Arif Mardin with Jesse Harris writing the single. The Nearness Of You closes the fourteen tracks, Hoagy Carmichael's standard with Jones alone at the piano, which is how the record sounded in most living rooms anyway, and Jones took five Grammys of her own at the 2003 ceremony. Billboard puts it 30th of 68, Paste 60th.
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Céline Dion — Falling into You (1996)
David Foster, Jim Steinman and Diane Warren all get a song, and the Steinman one runs seven minutes. Spotify's carrier is the sixteen-track international edition, two past the fourteen on the US pressing, and the closer is Fly, a short lullaby Dion recorded for her late niece. Paste ranks it 34th of 68, Billboard 57th.
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Robert Plant & Alison Krauss — Raising Sand (2007)
Burnett chose the songs and hired the band, and the two singers mostly stay in harmony rather than trading verses. Your Long Journey ends the thirteen-song run, a Doc and Rosa Lee Watson hymn sung almost in a whisper, and the record took five Grammys at the 2009 ceremony. Plant's name alone heads the page. Billboard puts it 42nd of 68; Paste 50th.
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Barbra Streisand — The Barbra Streisand Album (1963)
Her debut, released in February 1963 with Peter Matz arranging, and she was 22 when it won. A Sleepin' Bee is the Harold Arlen and Truman Capote song from House of Flowers, her audition piece, on side two. The linked carrier carries the LP's full subtitle and bare track titles; Columbia's remaster is the same eleven songs with a tag on each. Billboard ranks it 39th of 68, Paste 54th.
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Beck — Morning Phase (2014)
A Sea Change sequel in everything but name: the same players, Joey Waronker and Smokey Hormel among them, and Beck's father David Campbell writing the strings. Blue Moon is the single, acoustic guitar and a charango under a melody that sounds older than it is. Thirteen tracks on the carrier and thirteen on the original, and Paste puts it 43rd of 68, Billboard 51st.
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Christopher Cross — Christopher Cross (1979)
The debut that took all four general-field awards at the 1981 ceremony, the first record to do it. Ride Like the Wind, track six, has Michael McDonald on the answering vocal and a Latin percussion break that Doobie Brothers fans will place at once. Spotify's nine tracks match the LP's nine, and Billboard has it 47th of 68, Paste 48th.
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Harry Styles — Harry's House (2022)
Fifteen weeks at number one went to As It Was, off a record Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson produced. Love Of My Life closes the thirteen tracks, a soft one addressed to England rather than a person, which Styles has said out loud. The win at the 2023 ceremony came in a field that included Beyoncé's Renaissance. Paste files it 46th of 68, Billboard 49th.
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Frank Sinatra — Come Dance with Me! (1959)
Billy May's charts, brassy and fast, and the title song by Cahn and Van Heusen written to order. Come Dance With Me is how Spotify prints it. The LP had twelve songs; the earliest carrier runs sixteen, with four singles from the same period added, two of them Keely Smith duets, Nothing In Common and How Are Ya' Fixed For Love?. Billboard puts it 34th of 68; Paste 64th.
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Eric Clapton — Unplugged (1992)
Taped at Bray Studios in January 1992 for MTV, with Tears in Heaven and a slowed-down Layla as the reasons it sold. Rollin' & Tumblin' closes the fourteen tracks, the Delta blues Clapton had played electric with Cream, here acoustic at half the speed, and the album took three Grammys at the 1993 ceremony, with Clapton's own haul that night at six. Paste ranks it 36th of 68, Billboard 64th.
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Jon Batiste — We Are (2021)
Batiste moves from marching band to gospel to a children's choir inside thirteen tracks, and he took five wins from eleven nominations across genres that year, this award among them. UNTIL closes it in a minute and three seconds, a piano sketch that ends mid-thought. The carrier is the standard thirteen-track edition, and Paste has it 47th of 68 and Billboard 54th.
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Steely Dan — Two Against Nature (2000)
Their first studio album in twenty years, Fagen and Becker back with session players and the same contempt for sentiment. West of Hollywood closes the nine tracks at eight minutes and change, a Chris Potter sax solo running out the clock. The win came at the 2001 ceremony. Paste puts it 45th of 68; Billboard 58th.
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George Harrison & Friends — The Concert for Bangladesh (1971)
Two shows at Madison Square Garden on 1 August 1971, with Dylan, Clapton, Ringo, Leon Russell and Ravi Shankar, cut to a triple LP of nineteen tracks. Spotify's carrier runs twenty: Love Minus Zero, Dylan's afternoon-show performance, was added for the 2005 edition and closes the carrier. Credited on the page to Harrison alone. Paste ranks it 49th of 68, Billboard 55th.
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Natalie Cole — Unforgettable... with Love (1991)
Twenty-two standards her father had recorded, arranged by Johnny Mandel and others, and the title duet spliced to Nat's own 1961 vocal. Spotify credits Unforgettable to Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole together, which is the point of the record. Twenty-two tracks on the carrier against twenty-two on the original, and Paste has it 42nd of 68 and Billboard 65th.
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Santana — Supernatural (1999)
Clive Davis paired Santana with guest singers, Smooth spent twelve weeks at number one, and the band's eight Grammys at the 2000 ceremony tied the single-night record, with the album's ninth, Song of the Year for Smooth, going to its writers. The Calling closes the thirteen tracks with Eric Clapton trading solos for close to eight minutes. Thirteen songs, nothing added, and Billboard puts it 50th of 68; Paste 57th.
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Herbie Hancock — River: The Joni Letters (2007)
Joni Mitchell songs played by Hancock's quartet with Wayne Shorter, and the first jazz winner since Getz/Gilberto. The Jungle Line closes it with Leonard Cohen reciting the lyric over piano, no singing at all. Mitchell herself appears once, on The Tea Leaf Prophecy. Ten songs, the same ten the CD had, and Billboard ranks it 45th of 68, Paste 62nd.
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Frank Sinatra — September of My Years (1965)
Gordon Jenkins arranged it around Sinatra turning fifty, strings and regret for thirteen songs. The hit prints on Spotify as It Was A Very Good Year - The Frank Sinatra Collection (1965 ), a catalogue tag on every track of an otherwise clean thirteen-song carrier, and the song won him Best Vocal Performance, Male, the same night. Billboard has it 52nd of 68, Paste 56th.
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Henry Mancini — The Music from Peter Gunn (1958)
The first winner the category ever named, at the 1959 ceremony, and a television score: Blake Edwards' detective series, scored with a jazz combo instead of an orchestra. Not from Dixie is the track that plays the title straight, a Dixieland pastiche that keeps turning cool. The linked carrier is a reissue printing 2024 with the LP's twelve tracks. Billboard puts it 44th of 68; Paste 66th.
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U2 — How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)
Steve Lillywhite finished what Chris Thomas started, and Vertigo, with its uno dos tres catorce count-in, opened it and the iPod advert. Spotify's carrier is the international edition: twelve tracks, with Fast Cars as the twelfth where the US release stopped at eleven. The album's Grammys came across two ceremonies. Paste ranks it 51st of 68, Billboard 62nd.
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Quincy Jones — Back on the Block (1989)
A producer's album with a guest list that runs from Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan to Ice-T and Big Daddy Kane, and the title track Back On The Block puts the rappers over a Jones groove with Tevin Campbell on the hook. Spotify's fourteen tracks match the original fourteen, and Billboard files it 53rd of 68, Paste 63rd.
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Tony Bennett — MTV Unplugged (1994)
k.d. lang and Elvis Costello drop in on a set taped at Sony Studios in April 1994, and the award came in Bennett's sixty-ninth year. The Wikipedia listing runs twenty tracks; Spotify's carrier runs twenty-two, adding (Just A) Little Street Where Old Friends Meet and When Do the Bells Ring for Me - Live at Sony Studios, New York City, NY - April 1994, as the page tags it. Paste has it 58th of 68 and Billboard 59th.
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Bob Newhart — The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1960)
Recorded live at the Tidelands in Houston, six routines, and a comedy LP sat at number one on the album chart. Nobody Will Ever Play Baseball is Abner Doubleday pitching the game to a sceptical executive. Newhart also won Best New Artist the same night. The LP's six routines are the carrier's six, and Billboard ranks it 60th of 68, Paste 67th.
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Ray Charles — Genius Loves Company (2004)
Duets, released on 31 August 2004, nearly twelve weeks after Charles died, and it took eight Grammys at the 2005 ceremony, with the Norah Jones duet winning Record of the Year. Crazy Love - Live closes the twelve with Van Morrison, cut on stage rather than in the room. Twelve on the carrier, twelve on the original, and Billboard puts it 66th of 68; Paste 61st.
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Mumford & Sons — Babel (2012)
Markus Dravs produced it like the first one, banjo and kick drum and a chorus every forty seconds, and I Will Wait did the rest. Not with Haste closes the twelve tracks, the quiet one that shares its melody with a song they wrote for a Disney film. Twelve tracks either way, and Billboard files it 68th of 68, the last slot on its list, and Paste 59th.
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Frank Sinatra — A Man and His Music (1965)
A retrospective, not a new record: Sinatra re-recorded his hits for his fiftieth year and narrated between them, which is why it reads as a compilation and still won. Softly, As I Leave You is a 1964 single folded into the sequence. Thirty-two tracks on Spotify's carrier, the re-recordings kept. Billboard ranks it 63rd of 68, Paste 65th.
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Vaughn Meader — The First Family (1962)
A Kennedy impression sketch record, cut in October 1962 and pulled from shops after Dallas the next year. No clean original carrier exists: the earliest Spotify has is a 2000 reissue billed to Original Cast with seventeen tracks, against a thirty-six-track Complete set that folds in the sequel. The closer prints as The First Family: Bedtime Story. Billboard puts it 67th of 68; Paste 68th.
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