Which album won the first Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1959?

The Music from Peter Gunn won the first Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1959.

The album was composed and arranged by Henry Mancini as the soundtrack to the television detective series Peter Gunn. Its stylish jazz score, recorded with an orchestra and prominent jazz musicians, helped establish Mancini as a major screen and television composer.

At the inaugural Grammy ceremony, the album competed in the newly created Album of the Year category. Mancini also won awards connected with the project, while “Volare” dominated several of the ceremony’s other major categories.

The album is sometimes confused with Mancini’s later soundtrack successes, such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Pink Panther. Those projects became important Grammy and popular-music landmarks, but The Music from Peter Gunn has the distinction of being the first Album of the Year winner.