25 Titles Selected For The National Recording Registry

The Library of Congress has announced its list of 25 recordings chosen for the National Recording Registry. 

Rolling Stone reports the genres represented by albums include girl group pop (the Shirelles’ Tonight’s the Night), mature boomer pop (Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time), world music produced or performed by classic rockers (Linda Ronstadt’s Canciones De Mi Padre set of Mexican music and the Ry Cooder-produced Buena Vista Social Club), jazz (Duke Ellington’s Ellington at Newport and Max Roach’s We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite), and 21st century R&B (Alicia Keys’ Songs in A Minor).

Individual songs selected this year include Motown and classic rock anthems like the Four Tops’ “Reach Out (I’ll Be There),” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” “I am humbly surprised and honored to think that one of our works will be in ‘The Library of Congress’ forever,” Duke Fakir, the last surviving original member of the Four Tops, tells Rolling Stone. “When we recorded ‘I’ll Be There,’ I have to admit we thought of the song as an experiment for the album. We never believed it would even make it on the album, let alone be a hit for all time in the Library of Congress.”

Those selections follow, in chronological order:

1. "Harlem Strut" — James P. Johnson (1921)

2. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Complete Presidential Speeches (1933-1945)

3. "Walking the Floor Over You" — Ernest Tubb (1941) (single)

4. "On a Note of Triumph" (May 8, 1945)

5. "Jesus Gave Me Water" — The Soul Stirrers (1950) (single)

6. "Ellington at Newport" — Duke Ellington (1956) (album)

7. "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite" — Max Roach (1960) (album)

8. "The Christmas Song" — Nat King Cole (1961) (single)

9. "Tonight's the Night" — The Shirelles (1961) (album)

10. "Moon River" — Andy Williams (1962) (single)

11. "In C" — Terry Riley (1968) (album)

12. "It's a Small World" — The Disneyland Boys Choir (1964) (single)

13. "Reach Out, I'll Be There" — The Four Tops (1966) (single)

14. Hank Aaron's 715th Career Home Run (April 8, 1974)

15. "Bohemian Rhapsody" — Queen (1975) (single)

16. "Don't Stop Believin'" — Journey (1981) (single)

17. "Canciones de Mi Padre" — Linda Ronstadt (1987) (album)

18. "Nick of Time" — Bonnie Raitt (1989) (album)

19. "The Low End Theory" — A Tribe Called Quest (1991) (album)

20. "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" — Wu-Tang Clan (1993) (album)

21. "Buena Vista Social Club" (1997) (album)

22. "Livin' La Vida Loca" — Ricky Martin (1999) (single)

23. "Songs in A Minor" — Alicia Keys (2001) (album)

24. WNYC broadcasts for the day of 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001)

25. "WTF with Marc Maron" (Guest: Robin Williams) (April 26, 2010)

Launched in 2000, the Registry aims to preserve what it calls “audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.” To qualify, songs or albums — or spoken word recordings — have to be at least 10 years old. Each year, hundreds of candidates are submitted to the Board. According to Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, “Bohemian Rhapsody” had been previously considered but finally made it in this year — thanks, she thinks, to the movie of the same name giving the song an extra boost in the last few years. How did the Martin song end up on there? “The Registry doesn’t mean it can’t be popular too,” she says.