Bruno Mars and Harry Styles recently announced their first new studio albums since they each won the Grammy for album of the year. Mars’ The Romantic, his follow-up to 24K Magic, is due Feb. 27. Styles’ Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, his follow-up to Harry’s House, is due one week later.
Styles will have had a gap of three years, nine months and 15 days between studio albums, not inordinately long by current standards. Mars will have had a gap of nine years, three months and 10 days between solo studio albums. That’s a long gap but it’s not the record for the longest wait for a studio follow-up to a Grammy-winning album of the year.
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We have prepared a list of all artists who had gaps of four years or more between the release of their album that won album of the year and their studio follow-up. Four years is officially “a long time.” It’s an entire presidential administration. To illustrate that point, Barack Obama was president when Mars’ last solo studio album was released.
Before we get to our list, some notes: Two duos, Simon & Garfunkel and Daft Punk, broke up after winning the Grammy for album of the year and never released a studio-follow-up. S&G won for Bridge Over Troubled Water (release date: Jan. 26, 1970). Daft Punk won for Random Access Memories (release date: May 17, 2013).
John Lennon was killed three weeks after the release of Double Fantasy, his Grammy-winning collab with Yoko Ono (release date: Nov. 17, 1980), so it turned out to be his final studio album released in his lifetime. Ray Charles died two months before the release of his final studio album, Genius Loves Company (release date: Aug. 31, 2004).
Incredibly, Lauryn Hill has yet to release her studio follow-up to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (release date: Aug. 25, 1998), which won the 1999 Grammy for album of the year. Should she ever release another studio album, she will take the top spot on this list.
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Artists used to release albums at a much faster pace. Just six months elapsed between the release of Barbra Streisand‘s Grammy-winning The Barbra Streisand Album in February 1963 and the release of her follow-up, The Second Barbra Streisand Album, that August. That was the norm in the 1960s, and into the early ‘70s. Carole King released Music, her follow-up to the Grammy-winning Tapestry, in December 1971, just 10 months after its era-defining predecessor. Artists still sometimes release follow-ups that quickly, but nowadays, it’s very much the exception to the rule. Taylor Swift released Evermore, her follow-up to the Grammy-winning Folklore, less than six months after the first album.
Here are the artists who had a gap of four years or more between the release of the album that won album of the year and their studio follow-up. Paul Simon and Adele are each listed twice, which tells you two things – they both are Grammy favorites, to have won album of the year multiple times. And they both believe in taking their time. The artists are listed in ascending order, with the longest gap at the bottom.
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Paul Simon: 4 years, 1 month, 22 days
Album of the year winner: Graceland (Aug. 25, 1986)
Studio follow-up: The Rhythm of the Saints (Oct. 16, 1990)
U2: 4 years, 3 months, 6 days
Album of the year winner: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Nov. 22, 2004)
Studio follow-up: No Line on the Horizon (Feb. 27, 2009)
Michael Jackson: 4 years, 9 months, 3 days
Album of the year winner: Thriller (Nov. 29, 1982)
Studio follow-up: Bad (Aug. 31, 1987)
Phil Collins: 4 years, 9 months, 3 days
Album of the year winner: No Jacket Required (Feb. 18, 1985)
Studio follow-up: …But Seriously (Nov. 20, 1989)
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Adele: 4 years, 9 months, 28 days
Album of the year winner: 21 (Jan. 24, 2011)
Studio follow-up: 25 (Nov. 20, 2015)
Paul Simon: 4 years, 10 months, 7 days
Album of the year winner: Still Crazy After All These Years (Oct. 6, 1975)
Studio follow-up: One-Trick Pony soundtrack (Aug. 12, 1980)
Quincy Jones: 5 years, 11 months, 18 days
Album of the year winner: Back on the Block (Nov. 21, 1989)
Studio follow-up: Q’s Jook Joint (Nov. 7, 1995)
Adele: 6 years, 0 months, 0 days
Album of the year winner: 25 (Nov. 20, 2015)
Studio follow-up: 30 (Nov. 19, 2021)
Whitney Houston: 6 years, 0 months, 1 day
Album of the year winner: The Bodyguard soundtrack (Nov. 17, 1992)
Studio follow-up: My Love Is Your Love (Nov. 17, 1998)
Bruno Mars: 9 years, 3 months, 10 days
Album of the year winner: 24K Magic (Nov. 18, 2016)
Studio follow-up: The Romantic (Feb. 27, 2026)
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: 14 years, 0 months, 28 days
Album of the year winner: Raising Sand (Oct. 23, 2007)
Studio follow-up: Raise the Roof (Nov. 19, 2021)
The Chicks: 14 years, 1 month, 25 days
Album of the year winner: Taking the Long Way (May 23, 2006)
