The registry was begun in 2000, to preserve sound recordings were at risk of being lost through deterioration or changing technology. Every year the Librarian of Congress chooses various sounds to add to the collection, based on both expert recommendations and nominations by the public.
This year's inductees include several favourites of mine, from Allen Ginsberg and Franklin Roosevelt, to Charley Patton, Jelly Roll Morton, and Mick and Keith. It also includes something I intensely dislike, but I won't tell you which that is.
2006 National Recording Registry (in chronological order)
"Uncle Josh and the Insurance Agent," Cal Stewart (1904)
"Il mio tesoro," John McCormack, orchestra conducted by Walter Rogers (1916)
National Defense Test, September 12, 1924 (1924)
"Black Bottom Stomp," Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers (1926)
"Wildwood Flower," The Carter Family (1928)
"Pony Blues," Charley Patton (1929)
"You're the Top," Cole Porter (1934)
"The Osage Bank Robbery," episode of "The Lone Ranger" (December 17, 1937)
Address to Congress, December 8, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)
Native Brazilian Music, recorded under the supervision of Leopold Stokowski (1942)
"Peace in the Valley," Red Foley and the Sunshine Boys (1951)
Chopin Polonaise, op. 40, no. 1 ("Polonaise militaire"), Artur Rubinstein (1952)
"Blue Suede Shoes," Carl Perkins (1955)
Interviews with William 'Billy' Bell, recorded by Edward D. Ives (1956), representing the Edward D. Ives Collection held at the Maine Folklife Center, University of Maine, Orono, Maine and the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
"Howl," Allen Ginsberg (1959)
"The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart," Bob Newhart (1960)
"Be My Baby," The Ronettes (1963)
"We Shall Overcome," Pete Seeger (1963) recording of Pete Seeger's June 8, 1963, Carnegie Hall concert
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," Rolling Stones. (1965)
"A Change is Gonna Come," Sam Cooke (1965)
"Velvet Underground and Nico," Velvet Underground (1967)
"The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake," Eubie Blake (1969)
"The Wailers Burnin’," The Wailers (1973)
"Live in Japan," Sarah Vaughan (1973)
"Graceland," Paul Simon (1986)
More about the registry, and a brief explanation of each 2006 choice is found here at the Library of Congress website.
I love the idea of sound preservation, which I discovered through Alan Lomax, and his efforts to preserve (and sometimes unethically profit from) a huge variety of indigenous American sounds.
If this also interests you, you might enjoy seeing the complete list of the National Recording Registry.
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