National Recording Registry adds Tracy Chapman, Hamilton and the Minecraft soundtrack
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
This morning, the Library of Congress announced 25 new additions to the National Recording Registry, including this album by Sir Elton John.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD")
ELTON JOHN: (Singing) So goodbye yellow brick road, where the dogs of society howl.
MARTÍNEZ: Songs, soundtracks, sports broadcasts and more will be added to the hundreds of recordings the library is preserving for posterity. NPR's Neda Ulaby has more.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOSE ALFREDO JIMENEZ SONG, "EL REY")
NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: The recordings added to the registry this year range from a 1973 ranchera classic by Vicente Fernandez...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EL REY")
JOSE ALFREDO JIMENEZ: (Singing in Spanish).
ULABY: ...To a 1960 World Series radio broadcast...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTS COMMENTATOR: Here's a swing and a long drive to deep left center...
ULABY: ...To the gentle ambient soundtrack to the video game Minecraft, released in 2011.
(SOUNDBITE OF C418'S "MINECRAFT")
ULABY: In 2000, Congress passed the National Recording Preservation Act. The registry that resulted protects and reflects American history and culture through recordings. Usually, it adds a few recent hits that generate publicity, but one of the oldest recordings added this year is a version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" from 1949.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SWEET GEORGIA BROWN")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Hey, man. Who's that cat coming down the street?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I don't know, but it sounds to me like that whistling man, Mr. Bones (ph).
ULABY: Freeman Brother Bones Davis was born in Alabama in 1902 and moved to Long Beach, California. He was so talented at whistling and clacking animal bones together, customers flocked to the shoeshine stand where he worked. Eventually, Davis made this surprise hit with a small record label. It's still the theme song for the Harlem Globetrotters. The newest addition to the National Recording Registry is the 2015 cast album of the musical "Hamilton."
(SOUNDBITE OF ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST OF HAMILTON'S "ALEXANDER HAMILTON (INSTRUMENTAL)")
ULABY: The musical's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, described the registry in an interview with the Library of Congress.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: It's a artistic version of a nation's conversation with itself.
ULABY: The recordings in the registry are timeless, he said, and all are products of their time.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIRANDA: And so to listen to these recordings, to go back as far as the turn of the century to the beginning of recorded sound - to the present - is to hear points in a timeline, is to time travel.
ULABY: And what an honor, he said, for this recording of "Hamilton" to now be a point on that timeline.
Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST OF HAMILTON'S "ALEXANDER HAMILTON (INSTRUMENTAL)")
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