The Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album has been handed out at the Grammys since 1959. It was known as Best Performance, Documentary or Spoken Word in the year of its inception. It was awarded as Best Performance - Documentary or Spoken Word (other than comedy) from 1960 to 1961. There were several minor changes to the title every other year until 1969 when it was changed to Best Spoken Word Recording. In 1980 the title was changed back to Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama Recording. It was awarded as Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Recording from 1984 to 1991. From 1992 to 1997 it was awarded as Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album. Since 1998 the current title, Best Spoken Word Album has been used. Three U.S. Presidents have won this award; jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.
Winners: Grammys Best Spoken Word Album
|
Year
|
Winner/s
|
Album
|
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2009
|
Beau Bridges, Cynthia Nixon and Blair Underwood
|
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It by Al Gore
|
|
2008
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Barack Obama
|
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
|
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2007
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Jimmy Carter
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Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis; and
|
|
Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee
|
With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together (Tie)
|
|
|
2006
|
Barack Obama
|
Dreams from My Father
|
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2005
|
Bill Clinton
|
My Life
|
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2004
|
Paul Ruben (producer) & Al Franken
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Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
|
|
2003
|
Charles B. Potter (producer) & Maya Angelou
|
A Song Flung Up to Heaven
|
|
2002
|
Jeffrey S. Thomas, Steven Strassman (engineers) & Elisa Shokoff (producer) & Quincy Jones
|
Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones
|
|
2001
|
Rick Harris, John Runnette (producers) & Sidney Poitier
|
The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography
|
|
2000
|
LeVar Burton
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The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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|
1999
|
Christopher Reeve
|
Still Me
|
|
1998
|
Charles Kuralt
|
Charles Kuralt's Spring
|
|
1997
|
Hillary Rodham Clinton
|
It Takes a Village
|
|
1996
|
Maya Angelou
|
Phenomenal Woman
|
|
1995
|
Henry Rollins
|
Get in the Van
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|
1994
|
Maya Angelou
|
On the Pulse of Morning
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|
1993
|
Earvin "Magic" Johnson & Robert O'Keefe
|
What You Can Do to Avoid AIDS
|
|
1992
|
Ken Burns
|
The Civil War
|
|
1991
|
George Burns
|
Gracie - A Love Story
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|
1990
|
Gilda Radner
|
It's Always Something
|
|
1989
|
Jesse Jackson
|
Speech by Rev. Jesse Jackson
|
|
1988
|
Garrison Keillor
|
Lake Wobegon Days
|
|
1987
|
Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chips Moman, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins & Sam Phillips
|
Interviews From the Class of '55 Recording Sessions
|
|
1986
|
Mike Berniker (producer) & the original Broadway cast
|
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
|
|
1985
|
Ben Kingsley
|
The Words of Gandhi
|
|
1984
|
William Warfield
|
Copland: A Lincoln Portrait
|
|
1983
|
Tom Voegeli (producer)
|
Raiders of the Lost Ark - The Movie on Record performed by various artists
|
|
1982
|
Orson Welles
|
Donovan's Brain
|
|
1981
|
Pat Carroll
|
Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein
|
|
1980
|
John Gielgud
|
Ages of Man - Readings From Shakespeare
|
|
1979
|
Orson Welles
|
Citizen Kane
|
|
1978
|
Kenny Leckie
|
Foxbar Marathons
|
|
1977
|
Henry Fonda, Helen Hayes, James Earl Jones & Orson Welles
|
Great American Documents
|
|
1976
|
James Whitmore
|
Give 'Em Hell Harry
|
|
1975
|
Peter Cook & Dudley Moore
|
Good Evening
|
|
1974
|
Richard Harris
|
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
|
|
1973
|
Bruce Botnick (producer)
|
Lenny performed by the original cast
|
|
1972
|
Les Crane
|
Desiderata
|
|
1971
|
Martin Luther King, Jr.
|
Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam
|
|
1970
|
Art Linkletter & Diane Linkletter
|
We Love You Call Collect
|
|
1969
|
Rod McKuen
|
Lonesome Cities
|
|
1968
|
Everett Dirksen
|
Gallant Men
|
|
1967
|
Edward R. Murrow
|
Edward R. Murrow - A Reporter Remembers, Vol. I The War Years
|
|
1966
|
Goddard Lieberson (producer)
|
John F. Kennedy - As We Remember Him
|
|
1965
|
That Was The Week That Was
|
BBC Tribute to John F. Kennedy performed by the That Was the Week That Was cast
|
|
1964
|
Edward Albee (playwright)
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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? performed by Melinda Dillon, George Grizzard, Uta Hagen & Arthur Hill
|
|
1963
|
Charles Laughton
|
The Story-Teller: A Session With Charles Laughton
|
|
1962
|
Leonard Bernstein
|
Humor in Music
|
|
1961
|
Robert Bialek (producer)
|
FDR Speaks
|
|
1960
|
Carl Sandburg
|
A Lincoln Portrait
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|
1959
|
Stan Freberg
|
The Best of the Stan Freberg Shows
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