The National Recording Registry is inducting music from Madonna, Mariah Carey, Queen Latifah, and Daddy Yankee. Recordings from Jimmy Buffett, Eurythmics, John Lennon, John Denver, The Police, Led Zeppelin and Super Mario are also among 25 selected for preservation.
Madonna’s cultural ascent with “Like a Virgin,” Mariah Carey’s perennial No. 1 Christmas hit, Queen Latifah’s groundbreaking “All Hail the Queen” and Daddy Yankee’s reggaeton explosion with “Gasolina” are some of the defining sounds of the nation’s history and culture that will now join the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. The 2023 class also includes the first sounds of a video game to join the registry with the Super Mario Bros. theme, powerful voices of women, important inductions of Latin music, and classic sounds of rock and pop from the 1960s to the ‘80s.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today named 25 recordings as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.
“The National Recording Registry preserves our history through recorded sound and reflects our nation’s diverse culture,” Hayden said. “The national library is proud to help ensure these recordings are preserved for generations to come, and we welcome the public’s input on what songs, speeches, podcasts or recorded sounds we should preserve next. We received more than 1,100 public nominations this year for recordings to add to the registry.”
The recordings selected for the National Recording Registry bring the number of titles on the registry to 625, representing a small portion of the national library’s vast recorded sound collection of nearly 4 million items.
The latest selections named to the registry span from 1908 to 2012. They range from the first recordings of Mariachi music and early sounds of the Blues to radio journalism leading up to World War II, and iconic sounds from pop, country, rock, R&B, jazz, rap, and classical music.
Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian of Congress, with advice from the National Recording Preservation Board, selects 25 titles each year that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and are at least 10 years old.
Some registry titles have already been preserved by the copyright holders, artists or other archives. In cases where a selected title has not already been preserved, the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center works to ensure that the recording will be preserved by some entity and available for future generations. This can be through the Library’s recorded-sound preservation program or through collaborative ventures with other archives, studios and independent producers.
The national library maintains a state-of-the-art facility where it acquires, preserves and provides access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings (loc.gov/avconservation/). It is home to more than 9 million collection items.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States - and extensive materials from around the world - both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
National Recording Registry, 2023 Selections (chronological order):
“The Very First Mariachi Recordings” - Cuarteto Coculense (1908-1909)
“St. Louis Blues” - Handy’s Memphis Blues Band (1922)
“Sugar Foot Stomp” - Fletcher Henderson (1926)
Dorothy Thompson: Commentary and Analysis of the European Situation for NBC Radio (Aug. 23-Sept. 6, 1939)
“Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around” - The Fairfield Four (1947)
“Sherry” - The Four Seasons (1962)
“What The World Needs Now Is Love” - Jackie DeShannon (1965)
“Wang Dang Doodle” - Koko Taylor (1966)
“Ode To Billie Joe” - Bobbie Gentry (1967)
“Déjà Vu” - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1970)
“Imagine” - John Lennon (1971)
“Stairway To Heaven” - Led Zeppelin (1971)
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” - John Denver (1971)
“Margaritaville” - Jimmy Buffett (1977)
“Flashdance…What A Feeling” - Irene Cara (1983)
“Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” - Eurythmics (1983)
“Synchronicity” - The Police (1983)
“Like A Virgin” - Madonna (1984)
“Black Codes (From The Underground)” - Wynton Marsalis (1985)
Super Mario Bros. theme - Koji Kondo, composer (1985)
“All Hail The Queen” - Queen Latifah (1989)
“All I Want For Christmas Is You” - Mariah Carey (1994)
“Pale Blue Dot” - Carl Sagan (1994)
“Gasolina” - Daddy Yankee (2004)
“Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra” - Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composer (2012)
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