Henry Mancini’s More Music From Peter Gunn (1959)
Follow-up to: The Music From Peter Gunn (1958)
Grammy fate: Lost to Frank Sinatra’s Come Dance With Me!, his first of three album of the year winners.
Follow-Ups to Grammy Album of the Year Winners That Were Also Nominated in That Category (Full List)
Written by djfrosty on November 13, 2023
Jon Batiste got some very good news on Friday (Nov. 10). World Music Radio, his follow-up to We Are, which won album of the year at the Grammy Awards two years ago, was nominated in that same category.
The victory for We Are two years ago surprised most observers, as did the nomination this year for World Music Radio. The album has so far peaked at No. 104 on the Billboard 200.
In the Grammys’ 66-year history, 20 follow-ups to album of the year winners have been nominated for that same award. Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Adele each did it multiple times.
The follow-ups to several other recent album of the year winners have been nominated in their own right, including Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever, her follow-up to When We All Asleep, Where Do We Go?, and Taylor Swift’s evermore, her follow-up to Folklore. (The fact that the number of nominees in each of the Big Four categories expanded from five to eight in 2018, and went as high as 10 before dropping back to eight again this year, is one of the reasons for this, along with Grammy voters’ longtime tendency to stick with a familiar favorite.)
Note: Before 1970, artists often released multiple albums in the same Grammy eligibility year. In some cases, the albums we show were not the artists’ direct follow-up albums, but they were released in the following eligibility year. For example, Barbra Streisand‘s follow-up to the Grammy-winning The Barbra Streisand Album was The Second Barbra Streisand Album, which was released in the same eligibility year (1963). In the following eligibility year, she released The Third Album, followed by People. The latter got an album of the year nod. Since it was the very next year after she won, we’re counting it. It doesn’t seem fair to leave artists out of the conversation just because at that time, albums were released at what we would now consider a torrid pace.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the follow-up albums to three album of the year winners – Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic and Harry Styles’ Harry’s House.
Here are all the follow-ups (or following year releases) to album of the year Grammy winners that were nominated in that same category. We show the title of the follow-up that was nominated in this category, mention the Grammy winner for album of the year that it followed, and reveal how this follow-up did in the category.
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Frank Sinatra’s Nice ‘n’ Easy (1960)
Released in the year after: Come Dance With Me! (1959)
Grammy fate: No One Cares was the direct follow-up to Come Dance With Me!. Nice ‘n’ Easy, which topped the Billboard 200 for nine weeks, was released in the following eligibility year. It lost to Bob Newhart’s The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, the first comedy album to win album of the year.
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Barbra Streisand’s People (1964)
Released in the year after: The Barbra Streisand Album (1963)
Grammy fate: Lost to the bossa nova classic Getz/Gilberto, which included “The Girl From Ipanema.”
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Frank Sinatra’s A Man and His Music
Released in the Grammy eligibility year after: September of My Years
Grammy fate: My Kind of Broadway was released simultaneously with A Man and His Music. The latter, two-disk career retrospective, consisting of newly recorded versions of his old songs (sound familiar, Taylor Swift fans?) won, beating such classic albums as The Beatles’ Revolver and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ What Now My Love. The Beatles and Sinatra, two of the greatest names in the history of recorded music, would have a rematch the following year. Read on.
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Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967)
Released in the Grammy eligibility year after: A Man and His Music (1966)
Grammy fate: Sinatra released three albums between A Man and His Music and his collaboration with the chief architect of the bossa nova sound. They were Moonlight Sinatra, Strangers in the Night (a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200) and That’s Life. The Sinatra/Jobim collab lost to The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Fab Four’s only album of the year winner.
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The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour (1968)
Follow-up to: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Grammy fate: Lost to Glen Campbell’s By the Time I Get to Phoenix, the first country album to win album of the year.
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Stevie Wonder’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974)
Follow-up to: Innervisions (1973)
Grammy fate: It also won, beating such classic albums as Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark and Paul McCartney & Wings’ Band on the Run.
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Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
Follow-up to: Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974)
Grammy fate: It also won, beating such classic albums as Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive! and Boz Scaggs’ Silk Degrees.
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Billy Joel’s Glass Houses (1980)
Follow-up to: 52nd Street (1979)
Grammy fate: Lost to Christopher Cross’ Christopher Cross, which made the Texas singer-songwriter the first artist to sweep Grammys in each of the Big Four categories – album, record and song of the year plus best new artist. Billie Eilish matched the feat 39 years later.
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Michael Jackson’s Bad (1987)
Follow-up to: Thriller (1983)
Grammy fate: Lost to U2’s The Joshua Tree, the Irish band’s first album of the year winner.
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Phil Collins’ …But Seriously (1990)
Follow-up to: No Jacket Required (1985)
Grammy fate: Lost to Quincy Jones’ Back on the Block, which was cleverly marketed as tracing his history “from be-bop to hip-hop.”
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Paul Simon’s The Rhythm of the Saints (1991)
Follow-up to: Graceland (1986)
Grammy fate: Lost to Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable…With Love, a collection of songs made famous by her father, Nat King Cole.
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Bonnie Raitt’s Luck of the Draw (1991)
Follow-up to: Nick of Time (1989)
Grammy fate: Lost to Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable…With Love.
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Eric Clapton’s From the Cradle (1994)
Follow-up to: Unplugged (1992)
Grammy fate: Lost to Tony Bennett’s MTV Unplugged, which demonstrated his cross-generational appeal.
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Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft (2001)
Follow-up to: Time Out of Mind (1997)
Grammy fate: Lost to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which gave bluegrass music mainstream exposure.
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Adele’s 25 (2016)
Follow-up to: 21 (2011)
Grammy fate: It also won, beating blockbuster albums such as Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Drake’s Views.
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Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever (2021)
Follow-up to: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)
Grammy fate: Lost to Jon Batiste’s We Are.
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Taylor Swift’s evermore (2021)
Follow-up to: folklore (2020)
Grammy fate: Lost to Jon Batiste’s We Are.
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Adele’s 30 (2022)
Follow-up to: 25 (2016)
Grammy fate: Lost to Harry Styles’ hits-packed Harry’s House.
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Jon Batiste’s World Music Radio (2023)
Follow-up to: We Are (2021)
Grammy fate: To be announced on Feb. 4, 2024.