The 20th Grammy Awards were held in 1978, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1977.

Award winners:

• Record of the Year
  • Bill Szymczyk (producer) & The Eagles for "Hotel California"

• Album of the Year
  • Ken Caillat , Richard Dashut (producers) & Fleetwood Mac (producers and artist) for Rumors

• Song of the Year
  • Barbra Streisand & Paul Williams (songwriters) for "Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)" performed by Barbra Streisand
  • Joe Brooks (songwriter) for "You Light Up My Life" performed by Debby Boone

• Best New Artist
  • Debby Boone

Children's

• Best Recording for Children
  • Christopher Cerf & Jim Timmens (producers) for Aren't You Glad You're You performed by various artists

Classical

• Best Classical Orchestral Performance
  • Gunther Breest (producer), Carlo Maria Giulini (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D
• Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance
  • Neville Marriner (conductor), Janet Baker & the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields for Bach: Arias
• Best Opera Recording
  • Thomas Z. Shepard (producer), John De Main (conductor), Donnie Albert , Carol Brice , Clamma Dale & the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra for Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
• Best Choral Performance (other than opera)
  • Georg Solti (conductor), Margaret Hillis (choir director) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus for Verdi: Requiem
• Best Classical Performance Instrumental Soloist or Soloists (with orchestra)
  • Itzhak Perlman & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
• Best Classical Performance Instrumental Soloist or Soloists (without orchestra)
  • Arthur Rubinstein for Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E Flat/Schumann: Fantasiestucke, Op. 12
• Best Chamber Music Performance
  • The Juilliard String Quartet for Schoenberg: Quartets for Strings (Complete)
• Best Classical Album
  • Thomas Frost (producer), Leonard Bernstein (conductor), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Vladimir Horowitz, Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern, Lyndon Woodside & the New York Philharmonic for Concert of the Century

Comedy

• Best Comedy Recording
  • Steve Martin for Let's Get Small

Composing and arranging

• Best Instrumental Composition
  • John Williams (composer) for "Main Title From Star Wars"
• Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special
  • John Williams (composer) for Star Wars
• Best Instrumental Arrangement
  • Harry Betts , Perry Botkin Jr. & Barry De Vorzon (arrangers) for "Nadia's Theme (The Young and the Restless)" performed by Barry De Vorzon
• Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)
  • Ian Freebairn-Smith (arranger) for "Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)" performed by Barbra Streisand
• Best Arrangement For Voices
  • The Eagles (arrangers) for "New Kid in Town"

Country

• Best Country Vocal Performance, Female
  • Crystal Gayle for "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"
• Best Country Vocal Performance, Male
  • Kenny Rogers for "Lucille"
• Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group
  • The Kendalls for "Heaven's Just a Sin Away"
• Best Country Instrumental Performance
  • Hargus Pig Robbins for Country Instrumentalist of the Year
• Best Country Song
  • Richard Leigh (songwriter) for "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" performed by Crystal Gayle

Folk

• Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording
  • Muddy Waters for Hard Again

Gospel

• Best Gospel Performance, Traditional
  • The Oak Ridge Boys for "Just a Little Talk With Jesus"
• Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary or Insprirational
  • The Imperials for Sail On
• Best Soul Gospel Performance, Traditional
  • James Cleveland for James Cleveland Live at Carnegie Hall
• Best Soul Gospel Performance, Contemporary
  • Edwin Hawkins for Wonderful!
• Best Inspirational Performance
  • B.J. Thomas for Home Where I Belong

Jazz

• Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist
  • Oscar Peterson for The Giants
• Best Jazz Performance by a Group
  • Phil Woods for The Phil Woods Six - Live From the Showboat
• Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band
  • Count Basie for Prime Time
• Best Jazz Vocal Performance
  • Al Jarreau for Look to the Rainbow

Latin

• Best Latin Recording
  • Mongo Santamaria for Dawn

Musical Show

• Best Cast Show Album
  • Martin Charnin (composer), Charles Strouse (composer & producer), Larry Morton (producer) & the original cast with Andrea McCardle & Dorothy Loudon for Annie

Packaging and Notes

• Best Album Package
  • John Kosh (art director) for Simple Dreams performed by Linda Ronstadt
• Best Album Notes
  • George T. Simon (notes writer) for Bing Crosby - A Legendary Performer performed by Bing Crosby

Pop

• Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female
  • Barbra Streisand for "Love Theme From A Star Is Born"
• Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male
  • James Taylor for "Handy Man"
• Best Pop Performance by a Group
  • Bee Gees for "How Deep Is Your Love"
• Best Pop Instrumental Performance
  • John Williams for Star Wars

Production and engineering

• Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical
  • Al Schmitt, Bill Schnee , Elliot Scheiner & Roger Nichols (engineers) for Aja performed by Steely Dan
• Best Engineered Recording, Classical
  • Kenneth Wilkinson (engineer), Georg Solti (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Maurice RavelRavel : Bolero
• Producer of the Year
  • Peter Asher

R&B

• Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female
  • Thelma Houston for "Don't Leave Me This Way"
• Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male
  • Lou Rawls for Unmistakably Lou
• Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus
  • The Emotions for "Best of My Love"
• Best R&B Instrumental Performance
  • Brothers Johnson for "Q"
• Best Rhythm & Blues Song
  • Leo Sayer & Vini Poncia (songwriters) for "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" performed by Leo Sayer

Spoken

• Best Spoken Word Recording
  • Julie Harris for The Belle of Amherst