Cash, Beatles Enter Library
Johnny Cash‘s legendary concert album At Folsom Prison and the Beatles classic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are among the fifty recordings selected for the second annual induction into the Library of Congress‘ National Recording Registry.
The recordings are selected by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant,” and must be at least ten-years old. The general public nominates recordings at the Library’s Web site (loc.gov), with other suggestions made by the National Recording Preservation Board. The process was initiated by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which sought to establish a registry akin to one that already existed for film.
The oldest entries are a pair of 1888 recordings of “The Lord’s Prayer” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Several forms of popular music are represented, including blues (Leadbelly’s “Good Night Irene” and the complete recordings of Robert Johnson), jazz (Thelonius Monk’s Brilliant Corners, Charles Mingus’ Mingus Ah-Um), country (Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys’ “New San Antonio Rose,” Patsy Cline’s “Crazy”), R&B (Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You too Long,” Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin’ On) and rock and roll old and new (Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven,” Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run).
“The number and range of recordings to consider is great,” Billington said, “and a tribute to our extraordinarily rich and varied sonic history.”
The public can make nominations for next year’s Registry selections until July 15th.
New entries into the National Recording Registry:
Emile Berliner, “The Lord’s Prayer,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”
Vess Ossman, “Honolulu Cake Walk”
Bert Williams and George Walker, Victor Releases
Billy Murray, “You’re a Grand Old Rag”
Frances Densmore Chippewa/Ojibwe Cylinder Collection
The first Bubble Book
William Jennings Bryan, “Cross of Gold” speech
Guy B. Johnson Cylinder Recordings of African American Music
Okeh Laughing Record
Associated Glee Clubs of America, “Adeste Fideles”
Amade Ardoin and Dennis McGee, Cajun-Creole Columbia releases
Leadbelly, “Goodnight Irene”
Huey P. Long, “Every Man a King” speech
Marian Anderson, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
Robert Johnson, The Complete Recordings
Jelly Roll Morton, Interviews conducted by Alan Lomax
Benny Goodman, Carnegie Hall Concert
WJSV Complete Day of Radio Broadcasting, 1939
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, “New San Antonio Rose”
1941 World Series Game Four: New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
Robert Shaw Chorale, Bach B-Minor Mass
Budapest Quartet, Beethoven String Quartets
George Gershwin, Porgy and Bess: Original Cast Recording
Rogers and Hammerstein, Oklahoma: Original Cast Recording
Paul Robeson, Uta Hagen, Jose Ferrer, others, Othello
Louis Kaufman and the Concert Hall String Orchestra, Vivaldi: Four Seasons
John Kirkpatrick, Ives Piano Sonata No. 2
O. Winston Link, Steam Locomotive Recordings
Rafael Kubelik and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Modest Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition
Billy Graham, Problems of the American Home
Glenn Gould, Bach Goldberg Variations
Ella Fitzgerald, Sings the Cole Porter Songbook
Chuck Berry, “Roll Over Beethoven
Thelonius Monk, Brilliant Corners
Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic, Richard Wagner Complete Ring Cycle
Eastman Wind Ensemble with Frederick Fennell, Winds in Hi-Fi
Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah-Um
Tony Schwartz, New York Taxi Driver
Patsy Cline, “Crazy”
John F. Kennedy, Robert Frost, others, Kennedy Inaugural Ceremony
Judy Garland, Judy at Carnegie Hall
Otis Redding, “I’ve Been Loving You too Long”
Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Johnny Cash, At Folsom Prison
Ali Akbar College of Music Archive Selections
Marvin Gaye, What’s Goin’ On
Carole King, Tapestry
Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion (First broadcast)
Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
Fania All-Stars, Live at Yankee Stadium