Run-DMC, Pauline Oliveros, 'Rumours,' Chic And Beethoven Added To Library Of Congress
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY GIRL")
THE TEMPTATIONS: (Singing) I've got sunshine...
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
"My Girl," recorded in 1964 - a pop hit but really a kind of a vessel for holding onto and revealing a moment in American life for future generations. "My Girl" is now officially recognized by the Library of Congress as a recording worthy of preservation.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
It and 24 other recordings are this year's picks by the Library's National Recording Registry, recordings deemed to be, quote, "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."
MARTIN: This year's list includes Beethoven's piano sonatas.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CHANG: "The Sound of Music."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE SOUND OF MUSIC")
JULIE ANDREWS: (Singing) The hills are alive with the sound of music.
MARTIN: Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DREAMS")
FLEETWOOD MAC: (Singing) Thunder only happens when it's raining.
MARTIN: The National Recording Preservation Board - a committee of artists, music business insiders and members of the Library of Congress - do the selecting every year. Matthew Barton is the curator of recorded sound at the Library. One recording that particularly resonates for him...
MATTHEW BARTON: "Lamento Borincano."
MARTIN: "Lamento Borincano" by Puerto Rican songwriter Rafael Hernandez Marin.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LAMENTO BORINCANO")
RAFAEL HERNANDEZ MARIN: (Singing in Spanish).
MARTIN: "Lamento Borincano" was recorded in 1930. That melody has been embedded in Puerto Rican life ever since.
BARTON: A jibaro - a Puerto Rican mountain farmer - he's going into town. He's going to sell what he's grown. But when he gets there, the towns are deserted. They're empty. It's the Depression. So he wonders what his future will be, and he wonders what Puerto Rico's future will be.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LAMENTO BORNICANO")
MARIN: (Singing in Spanish).
BARTON: It's in a style of music that we haven't had on the registry before, and it tells a vital story.
CHANG: But the registry isn't all music. For instance, etched into lacquer discs - meetings of the early United Nations in 1945.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Senior Caceres has just walked in with a newspaper with headlines fully 10 inches high saying Germany has quit the war.
CHANG: Barton says the National Recording Registry is a way to preserve and elevate moments in history.
BARTON: It's a way of saying that this recording that you don't know is as significant as the one that you do know.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY GIRL")
THE TEMPTATIONS: (Singing) I guess you'd say, what can make me feel this way - my girl, my girl, my girl - talking about my girl, my girl.
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