The Record of the Year is one of the four most prestigious Grammy Awards presented annually. It has been awarded since 1959. The honorees through its history have been:

• 1959-1965: Artist only.
• 1966-1998: Artist and producer.
• 1999-present: Artist, producer, and engineer and/or mixer.

Many wonder what the difference is between Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year:

• Record of the Year is awarded for a single or for one track from an album. This award goes to the performing artist, the producer, recording engineer, and/or mixer for that song. In this sense, "record" means a recording of one song, not the composition or an album of songs.
• Song of the Year is also awarded for a single or individual track, but the recipient of this award is the songwriter who actually created the song in the first place. Thus, "song" in this context means the song as written, not its recording.
• Album of the Year is awarded for a whole album, and the award is presented to the artist, producer, recording engineer, and mastering engineer for that album. So, in this context, "album" means a recorded collection of songs (a multi-track LP, CD, or download package), not the individual songs or their compositions.

Roberta Flack was the first artist to win Record of the Year in two consecutive years for the years 1972 (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face) and 1973 (Killing Me Softly With His Song). This would happen again when the group U2 would win for the years 2000 (Beautiful Day) and 2001 (Walk On).

Other artists to receive 2 Grammys for Record of the Year are Henry Mancini ("Moon River", "Days Of Wine And Roses"), Simon and Garfunkel ("Mrs. Robinson", "Bridge Over Troubled Water"), The 5th Dimension ("Up, Up And Away", "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In"), and Eric Clapton ("Tears In Heaven", "Change The World").

The Beatles were nominated for Record of the Year on 4 different occasions ("I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Yesterday", "Hey Jude", "Let It Be"). Although they did not take this award, they did receive each of the other 3 top honors (Best New Artist; Song of the Year, "Michelle"; Album of the Year, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band").

During the first 50 years of the Grammys, only 5 artists have taken 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") and Amy Winehouse ("Rehab").