| Year | Recipient | Ref. |
| 1967 | Georg Solti and John Culshaw | |
| 1968 | Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Krzysztof Penderecki | |
| 1970 | Robert Moog | |
| 1971 | Chris Albertson, John Hammond, Larry Hiller, Paul Weston | |
| 1972 | The Beatles | |
| 1977 | Thomas Edison, Leopold Stokowski | |
| 1979 | Goddard Lieberson, Frank Sinatra | |
| 1981 | Count Basie, Aaron Copland | |
| 1983 | Les Paul | |
| 1984 | Béla Bartók | |
| 1985 | Eldridge Johnson | |
| 1986 | George and Ira Gershwin | |
| 1987 | Harold Arlen, Emile Berliner, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer | |
| 1989 | Walt Disney, Quincy Jones, Cole Porter | |
| 1990 | Dick Clark | |
| 1991 | Milt Gabler, Berry Gordy, Sam Phillips | |
| 1992 | Thomas A. Dorsey, Christine Farnon, Oscar Hammerstein II, Lorenz Hart | |
| 1993 | Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, W. C. Handy, George T. Simon | |
| 1994 | Norman Granz | |
| 1995 | Pierre Cossette | |
| 1996 | George Martin, Jerry Wexler | |
| 1997 | Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | |
| 1998 | Holland-Dozier-Holland, Frances Preston, Richard Rodgers | |
| 1999 | Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff | |
| 2000 | Clive Davis, Phil Spector | |
| 2001 | Arif Mardin, Phil Ramone | |
| 2002 | Tom Dowd, Alan Freed | |
| 2003 | Alan Lomax, New York Philharmonic | |
| 2004 | Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Orrin Keepnews, Marian McPartland | |
| 2005 | Hoagy Carmichael, Don Cornelius, Alfred Lion, Billy Taylor | |
| 2006 | Chris Blackwell, Owen Bradley, Al Schmitt | |
| 2007 | Estelle Axton, Cosimo Matassa, Stephen Sondheim | |
| 2008 | Clarence Avant, Jac Holzman, Willie Mitchell | |
| 2009 | George Avakian, Elliott Carter, Allen Toussaint | |
| 2010 | Harold Bradley, Florence Greenberg, Walter C. Miller | |
| 2011 | Al Bell, Wilma Cozart Fine, Bruce Lundvall | |
| 2012 | Dave Bartholomew, Steve Jobs, Rudy Van Gelder | |
| 2013 | Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Leonard and Phil Chess, Alan Livingston | |
| 2014 | Ennio Morricone, Rick Hall, Jim Marshall | |
| 2015 | Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Richard Perry, George Wein | |
| 2016 | John Cage, Fred Foster, Chris Strachwitz | |
| 2017 | Thom Bell, Mo Ostin, Ralph S. Peer | |
| 2018 | Bill Graham, Seymour Stein, John Williams | |
| 2019 | Lou Adler, Ashford & Simpson, Johnny Mandel | |
| 2020 | Frank Buckley Walker, Ken Ehrlich, Philip Glass | |
