2025 National Recording Registry adds Elton John, Celine Dion, Amy Winehouse and "Hamilton"
Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black," albums by Miles Davis and Steve Miller Band, and Lin-Manuel Miranda's revolutionary musical "Hamilton" are just some of the latest recordings to be added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, to be preserved for future generations. On Wednesday the Library announced 25 audio recordings that are being inducted to the Registry.This year's additions, representative of America's artistic, cultural and historic heritage, encompass a vast range of genres, from jazz, rock, pop, folk, country, Latin, Broadway and rap, to radio, spoken word, and comedy.Also selected this year: Helen Reddy's anthem "I Am Woman"; the debut albums from the rock band Chicago and singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman; "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Brother Bones & His Shadows; "Happy Trails" by singing cowboy Roy Rogers and Dale Evans; "The Kӧln Concert," a landmark recording by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett; "My Life," a heartbreaking work of musical autobiography by Mary J.
Blige; music from the sandbox game Minecraft; and Don Rickles' standup comedy album, "Hello Dummy!" The oldest of this year's entries is the Hawaiian Quintette's recording of "Aloha 'Oe," dating from 1913.One iconic addition is barely six seconds long: Brian Eno's chime heard when booting up Windows 95. The recordings added this year bring the number of titles on the Registry to 675 – just a portion of Library of Congress' recorded sound collection of nearly four million items.Robbin Ahrold, chair of the National Recording Preservation Board, called this year's additions "an honor roll of superb American popular music from the wide-ranging repertoire of our great nation, from Hawaii to Nashville, from iconic jazz tracks to smash Broadway musicals, from Latin superstars to global pop sensations – a parade of indelible recordings spanning more than a century."More than 2,600 recordings...