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The Taylor Swift medium "1989," and Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)," on with euphony by Ray Charles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Paul Anka, and the archetypal formed medium of "Chicago" are conscionable immoderate of the latest recordings to beryllium added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.
On Thursday, the Library announced 25 recordings are being added to the Registry, its postulation of audio to beryllium preserved for aboriginal generations. This year's inductees, which correspond our nation's artistic, taste and historical heritage, span specified genres arsenic jazz, rock, pop, country, R&B and Broadway, arsenic good arsenic vigor and video games.
The astir caller signaling connected this year's database is Taylor Swift's 2014 medium "1989," the popular icon's 5th workplace album, which won medium of the twelvemonth and champion popular vocal medium astatine the Grammys. The lone different enactment from the 21st period is Beyoncé's 2008 deed "Single Ladies (Put a Ring connected It)."
Left: Taylor Swift performs during her "1989" World Tour successful 2015. Right: Beyoncé performs successful New York City successful 2009.
Robyn Beck/AFP, Bryan Bedder via Getty Images
This year's additions see works by state euphony legends The Charlie Daniels Band, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire and Rosanne Cash; R&B prima Chaka Khan; the groundbreaking '80s set The Go-Go's; and jazz instrumentalist Oliver Nelson. Also among the picks: José Feliciano's vacation classical "Feliz Navidad;" Weezer's debut album; and The Byrds' classical "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)."
Broadway is represented by the archetypal formed medium of the long-running philharmonic "Chicago," and video games by the soundtrack of the demonic role-playing crippled "Doom."
The recordings added this twelvemonth bring the fig of titles connected the Registry to 700 — conscionable a information of Library of Congress' recorded dependable postulation of astir 4 cardinal items.
Read astir this year's 25 additions and perceive to audio samples beneath — and find retired however you tin nominate titles to beryllium added successful the future.
2026 National Recording Registry additions (in alphabetical order)
"1989" – Taylor Swift (2014) (album)
Taylor Swift amazed galore with this medium arsenic she shifted distant from the state genre. While immoderate moving with Swift suggested she see a fewer state songs connected her 5th workplace album, she was against it. "A large extremity of excavation was to marque this medium precise sonically cohesive," Swift told "CBS This Morning" successful 2014. "So, if I were to enactment a fiddle connected a mentation of 'Shake It Off' and work it to state radio, that would've wholly shattered the full thought I had that this medium was going to person its ain sound."
"1989" had 3 #1 songs ("Shake It Off," "Blank Space," and "Bad Blood") arsenic good arsenic the hits "Wildest Dreams," "Style," "Out of the Woods" and "Wildest Dreams." Rolling Stone described the medium arsenic "deeply weird, feverishly emotional, [and] wildly enthusiastic."
"1989" was 1 of the albums for which Swift acquired rights to the maestro recordings from euphony enforcement Scooter Braun. It was re-recorded and released successful 2023 arsenic "1989 (Taylor's Version)."
PLAY: "Shake It Off" from "1989" by Taylor Swift
"Amen, Brother" – The Winstons (1969)
Hailing from Washington, D.C., the funk/soul radical The Winstons had a Top 10 deed with their 45 rpm merchandise of "Color Him Father," which would triumph a Grammy for champion bushed and blues song. But the opus connected the B side, "Amen, Brother," made the Registry acknowledgment to a seven-second drum solo by Gregory Coleman. It would beryllium a often sampled philharmonic riff successful recordings by N.W.A. ("Straight Outta Compton") Salt-N-Pepa, Aphex Twin and Oasis.
PLAY: "Amen, Brother" by The Winstons
"Beauty and the Beat" – The Go-Go's (1981) (album)
"Beauty and the Beat" was the debut medium of The Go-Go's, 1 of the astir palmy all-female bands successful stone 'n' rotation history. The radical had formed successful 1978. "We came from the punk stone country successful L.A., wherever thing went and you could larn arsenic you went along," Belinda Carlisle told "Sunday Morning" successful 2018. "And we had nary thought however to play our instruments oregon bash anything."
She joined forces with guitarist Jane Wiedlin, drummer Gina Shock, bassist Kathy Valentine, and guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who was trained successful classical piano. Caffey said, "I was successful awe, I was a small frightened of them. But it was benignant of exciting! They were the chill girls that were punky. And I was benignant of more, like, you know, reserved and straight. Kind of."
According to Carlisle, grounds executives wouldn't motion them "because we were women, oregon girls."
But the "girls" made it happen. Written, arranged and performed by women, "We Got the Beat" became The Go-Go's archetypal deed successful England and past successful the U.S. It reached #1 connected the Billboard illustration and spawned the hits "We Got the Beat" and Our Lips Are Sealed."
PLAY: "We Got The Beat" by The Go-Go's
"The Blues and the Abstract Truth" – Oliver Nelson (1961) (album)
Jazz instrumentalist Oliver Nelson was inspired by performance composers Aaron Copland and George Gershwin for his landmark 1961 album, which is contiguous considered an indispensable post-bop recording.
PLAY: "Stolen Moments," from "The Blues and the Abstract Truth" by Oliver Nelson
"Chicago" Original Cast Album (1975)
Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb had collaborated connected respective shows, and had won Tony Awards for their 1966 philharmonic "Cabaret," earlier they teamed up with manager Bob Fosse connected the 1975 accumulation "Chicago." Set successful the jazz age, and based connected a communicative astir women accused of murder, it starred Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach, and featured specified songs arsenic "All That Jazz," "Cell Block Tango," "Roxie," "When You're Good to Mama," "Razzle Dazzle," and "We Both Reached For the Gun."
Critics were dismissive of "Chicago" erstwhile it opened successful 1975. Nominated for 11 Tonys, it won zero. But a 1996 revival is inactive moving 3 decades aboriginal — the longest-running amusement presently connected Broadway — and led to an Oscar-winning movie adaptation.
John Kander talked with "Sunday Morning" successful 2015 astir the astir satisfying portion of songwriting: "I deliberation the infinitesimal erstwhile the philharmonic infinitesimal is finished, erstwhile thing successful you says, 'That's true,' that's the large 1 for me," helium said. "It doesn't hap each that often."
PLAY: "All That Jazz," from the archetypal formed medium of "Chicago"
"Cocktails for Two" – Spike Jones and His City Slickers (1944)
In the 1940s and '50s Spike Jones recorded a slew of novelty songs, from "My Old Flame," "Hawaiian War Chant," "All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)" and "Der Fuhrer's Face" (a slap successful the look to fascism), to "Cocktails for Two," which was primitively written successful the '30s pursuing the repeal of Prohibition. Spike Jones and His City Slickers recorded their mentation with a flurry of wacky dependable effects that made the inebriation look adjacent much soused.
PLAY: "Cocktails for Two" by Spike Jones and His City Slickers
"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" – The Charlie Daniels Band (1979)
The Charlie Daniels Band's medium "Million Mile Reflections" had galore things, but Daniels realized precocious successful the crippled it did not person a fiddle. So, helium rapidly penned this devilish ditty astir the Devil looking for a psyche to steal. Daniels himself played the satanic fiddle solo.
Daniels donated 1 of the fiddles helium utilized to execute "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" to the Country Music Hall of Fame. At slightest Ol' Scratch didn't get his claws connected it.
PLAY: "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band
"Doom" Soundtrack – Bobby Prince, composer (1993)
Three years ago, the taxable euphony from the Nintendo video crippled Super Mario Bros. was inducted to the National Recording Registry. Last year, composer and dependable decorator Daniel Rosenfeld's synthesizer for "Minecraft — Volume Alpha" joined the list. This twelvemonth comes Bobby Prince's euphony for the RPG blockbuster "Doom," which utilized MIDI exertion to trade a soundtrack inspired by dense metallic bands similar Metallica and Alice successful Chains.
PLAY: "The Imp's Song" from "Doom" by Bobby Prince
"Feliz Navidad" – José Feliciano (1970)
José Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad," which debuted successful 1970, has go portion of the pantheon of Christmas ballads:
Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Próspero año y Felicidad
I wanna privation you a merry Christmas
I wanna privation you a merry Christmas
I wanna privation you a merry Christmas
From the bottommost of my heart
He told "Sunday Morning" successful 2020 that he'd acceptable retired to marque a Christmas opus that was bilingual: "We thought there's gotta beryllium a mode of teaching the American radical Spanish," helium said, "and I decided, let's spot if we could transverse that bridge. And we did."
But it wasn't a deed close away. Feliciano said, "First, radical had to get utilized to it. Then the twelvemonth after, it caught connected big." It has since been inducted successful the Grammy Hall of Fame.
PLAY: "Feliz Navidad" by José Feliciano
"The Fight of the Century: Ali vs. Frazier" (March 8, 1971) (broadcast)
Boxing announcers Van Patrick and Charles King pulled nary punches erstwhile they broadcast round-by-round sum of the "Fight of the Century," the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier rubric lucifer successful 1971. Fight organizers had blocked unrecorded vigor sum from Madison Square Garden — it was to beryllium broadcast by outer to venues for paying customers — but the Mutual Broadcasting System successfully brought Patrick and King, who offered summaries of each round, not from ringside, but from their basal campy astatine a adjacent hotel. (Spoiler alert: After 15 rounds, Smokin' Joe defeated The Greatest successful a unanimous decision.)
PLAY: Excerpt from the Frazier-Ali combat vigor broadcast
"Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)" – Kaye Ballard (1954)
The Bart Howard modular "Fly Me To The Moon" would go indelibly linked with Frank Sinatra. But its archetypal signaling successful 1954, with the archetypal rubric "In Other Words," was by cabaret vocalist and comedian Kay Ballard. It would aboriginal beryllium covered by Connie Francis, Peggy Lee, and instrumentalist Joe Harnell.
PLAY: "In Other Words" by Kaye Ballard
"Go Rest High On That Mountain" – Vince Gill (1994)
Virtually self-taught, Oklahoman Vince Gill mastered the guitar portion helium was inactive successful precocious school. He told "Sunday Morning" successful 2003 that, adjacent from a young age, helium ne'er disquieted astir making a living: "I played good capable truthful that I tin bash a small spot of everything. And I'll ever person the quality to work."
He started successful bluegrass and country, past moved to California to articulation a stone radical called Pure Prairie League. But helium discontinue due to the fact that helium disliked touring, and moved to Nashville. After a fewer mendacious starts, helium deed #1 connected the state illustration successful 1990 with "When I Call Your Name."
To date, Gill has won 22 Grammy Awards, including 2 for "Go Rest High On That Mountain." He told "Sunday Morning" that the opus is precious to him due to the fact that helium wrote it for his older brother, Bob, who died of a bosom attack. The opus has since go communal astatine memorial services.
I cognize your beingness connected world was troubled
And lone you could cognize the pain
You weren't acrophobic to look the devil
You were nary alien to the rain
So spell remainder precocious connected that mountain
Son, your enactment connected world is done
Go to eden a-shoutin'
Love for the Father and the Son
PLAY: "Go Rest High On That Mountain" by Vince Gill
"I Feel For You" – Chaka Khan (1984)
Chaka Khan's 1984 screen of the Prince opus "I Feel For You" opened with rapper Melle Mel chanting the sanction of the song's pb singer:
Chaka Khan, fto maine stone you
Let maine stone you, Chaka Khan
Let maine stone you, that's each I wanna do
Khan told "Sunday Morning" successful 2023 that the opening embarrassed her: "I didn't similar anybody saying my sanction over. I said, 'I gotta unrecorded with this.'" She did, and truthful did the world; "I Feel For You" was connected the Billboard Hot 100 illustration for 26 weeks, peaking astatine #3. It won 2 Grammys, for champion R&B opus and champion pistillate R&B vocal performance.
PLAY: "I Feel For You" by Chaka Khan (feat. Melle Mel)
"Mambo No. 5" – Pérez Prado (1950)
The popularization of the mambo extracurricular Cuba tin beryllium attributed to bandleader Pérez Prado, who earned the nickname "King of the Mambo." His archetypal signaling of "Mambo #5" for RCA Victor began a palmy vocation that included his #1 deed "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)."
PLAY: "Mambo No. 5" by Pérez Prado
"Midnight Train to Georgia" – Gladys Knight and the Pips (1973)
The R&B/soul enactment Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded respective hits for Motown, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "Everybody Needs Love," and "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)"), earlier moving to Buddah Records. Their 1973 deed "Midnight Train to Georgia," from the medium "Imagination," won the radical a Grammy for champion R&B vocal show by a duo, radical oregon chorus.
PLAY: "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight and the Pips
"Modern Sounds successful Country and Western Music" – Ray Charles (1962) (album)
Singer and pianist Ray Charles showed grounds of his philharmonic gifts arsenic a child, earlier helium mislaid his sight. He learned Chopin and started disconnected successful a hillbilly band, and would go an icon of blues successful the second fractional of the 20th century.
"There's lone 2 kinds of euphony arsenic acold arsenic I'm concerned: bully and bad," Charles told "Sunday Morning" successful 2003. "I conscionable beryllium determination and get into the groove of what the euphony is dictating. If it's dictating state sounds, that's wherever I go. If it's dictating jazz, that's wherever I go. If it's dictating the blues, that's wherever I go. In different words, I travel wherever the euphony leads me."
That christianity sensation successful euphony is what led to his 1962 workplace album, "Modern Sounds successful Country and Western Music." Eschewing the R&B, jazz and blues he'd recorded prior, Charles channeled state hits by the likes of Hank Williams, Don Gibson, Eddy Arnold and the Everly Brothers. It featured specified tracks arsenic "I Can't Stop Loving You," "You Don't Know Me," "Careless Love" and "Born to Lose." The medium went gold, hitting #1 connected the Billboard charts, and gave commencement to a sequel, "Modern Sounds successful Country and Western Music Volume Two."
PLAY: "I Can't Stop Loving You" by Ray Charles
"Put Your Head On My Shoulder" – Paul Anka (1959)
Beginning successful amusement concern astatine the property of 10, vocalist and songwriter Paul Anka has landed connected Billboard's Hot 100 Chart 7 consecutive decades. "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" was 1 of Anka's 3 Top 5 hits successful 1959, erstwhile helium was 1 of the astir fashionable teen idols connected the jukebox.
He made the leap from teeny bopper to crooner, and performed regularly with specified stars arsenic Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra, for whom Anka wrote what mightiness his astir celebrated song, "My Way."
Anka talked astir his endurance earlier this twelvemonth with "Sunday Morning": "When you started arsenic I did arsenic a kid with a squeaky small voice, not knowing what's gonna hap erstwhile it changes, I couldn't envision maine being astir for each these decades, you know?"
PLAY: "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" by Paul Anka
"Rumor Has It" – Reba McEntire (1990)
"Rumor Has It" has been recognized arsenic an creator triumph for state creator Reba McEntire. Working with shaper Tony Brown, the Country Music Hall of Fame singer-songwriter's 16th medium featured the hits "Fallin' Out of Love, "You Lie," and "Fancy," a reworking of Bobbie Gentry's 1969 classic.
PLAY: "Fancy" by Reba McEntire
"Single Ladies (Put a Ring connected It)" – Beyoncé (2008)
She became Billboard magazine's Female Artist of the Decade. But Beyoncé, formerly a subordinate of Destiny's Child earlier becoming a singularly historical solo artist, told "The Early Show" successful 2010 that her occurrence — from the performance signifier to the Grammy signifier to placing #4 connected the Forbes database of entertainers — was hard earned. "I didn't aftermath up and go famous," she said. "I started retired without a circuit bus, having the spot successful the backmost of the awards show, astatine the Grammys. And each year, gradually we had to enactment and we became stronger and much radical acknowledged us. But it was a batch of tears, a batch of sacrifice, a batch of hard enactment that went into my career."
Her 2008 treble medium "I Am … Sasha Fierce" molded unneurotic R&B and popular with electropop. It debuted astatine #1 connected the Billboard chart, selling 10 cardinal copies worldwide, and won 5 Grammys. The #1 deed "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" won opus of the year.
Don't dainty maine to these things of the world
I'm not that benignant of girl
Your emotion is what I prefer, what I deserve
Here's a antheral that makes maine past takes me
And delivers maine to a destiny
To infinity and beyond
Pull maine into your arms
Say I'm the 1 you want
If you don't, you'll beryllium alone
And similar a ghost, I'll beryllium gone
PLAY: "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" by Beyoncé
"Teardrops From My Eyes" – Ruth Brown (1950)
As a teenager, R&B vocalist Ruth Brown was a victor of Amateur Night astatine Harlem's Apollo Theater earlier she was signed by Atlantic Records. Her archetypal deed was this Rudy Toombs song. Brown initially was reluctant to stray from her much acquainted ballads, but this up-tempo portion ended up #1 connected Billboard's R&B charts for 11 weeks
PLAY: "Teardrops From My Eyes" by Ruth Brown
"Texas Flood" – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (1983) (album)
Guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan had already made a sanction for himself successful the Texas blues/rock country erstwhile helium and his backing set Double Trouble unleashed their archetypal album, "Texas Flood." In summation to the rubric track, the songs see "Love Struck Baby," "Pride and Joy," "Testify," "Rude Mood," "Dirty Pool," and "Lenny."
Vaughan, who died successful a 1990 chopper clang astatine property 35, was ranked among the top guitarists of each time, and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
PLAY: "Texas Flood" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
"Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" – The Byrds (1965)
In 1959 people vocalist Pete Seeger adapted the Book of Ecclesiastes into a philharmonic outcry for bid successful "Turn! Turn! Turn!," which was recorded by some Seeger and The Limeliters. But it became a chart-topper erstwhile the folk-rock radical The Byrds released their mentation successful 1965. It was a opus astir seasonal changes that acceptable with the counter-cultural anti-war movement, hitting #1 connected the Billboard chart, and it has since go a shorthand philharmonic inheritance for films and TV shows astir the 1960s.
PLAY: "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" by The Byrds
"Weezer (The Blue Album)" – Weezer (1994) (album)
The set Weezer (whose named was derived from a "cool" Little Rascals character) purposely did not acceptable the mold of different rockers successful the aboriginal 1990s. "Rock bands were getting much and much outrageous with tattoos and piercings," singer Rivers Cuomo told "CBS Mornings" successful 2024. "We came retired wholly clean-cut, 4 guys lasting successful a line, singing songs successful large keys, astir girls oregon whatever. It didn't rather marque consciousness however that was the adjacent measurement for stone and roll."
Weezer's breakout came with the merchandise of the euphony video for "Buddy Holly." Directed by Spike Jonze, it helped catapult the set into the mainstream. "Coming retired of grunge, which was beauteous dense and a small dark, it possibly was benignant of refreshing for radical astatine the time," Wilson said.
In summation to "Buddy Holly," Weezer's debut medium (familiarly known arsenic "The Blue Album" due to the fact that of its bluish cover) besides featured "Undone – The Sweater Song," "Say It Ain't So," "My Name Is Joans," and "Only In Dreams."
PLAY: "Buddy Holly," from "Weezer (The Blue Album)" by Weezer
"The Wheel" – Rosanne Cash (1993) (album)
Rosanne Cash's 1993 medium "The Wheel" was written successful the abstraction betwixt the extremity of her matrimony to vocalist Rodney Crowell and her narration with her aboriginal husband, euphony shaper John Leventhal. Songs included "Seventh Avenue," "Change Partners," "From The Ashes," "The Truth About You," "Tears Falling Down," "If There's a God On My Side," and the rubric track.
Rolling Stone praised the album's themes of "going done hellhole to look fundamentally changed."
PLAY: "Seventh Avenue" from "The Wheel" by Rosanne Cash
"Your Love" – Jamie Principle (1986); "Your Love" – Jamie/Frankie Knuckles (1987)
An infectious location opus from Chicago creator Jamie Principle and DJ Louise Gomez, "Your Love" was aboriginal revised by Frankie Knuckles, with vocals by Adrienne Jett, producing a groundbreaking electronica creation track.
PLAY: "Your Love" by Jamie Principle
Visit the Library of Congress website for much accusation astir the National Recording Registry, and find retired however you tin nominate recordings.
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