Hits added to Library of Congress registry
Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” “The Sound of Music” soundtrack and lacquer disc recordings from the 1945 conference establishing the United Nations are among this year’s selections for the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
Every year, the registry collates for preservation 25 recordings it deems “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” This year’s musical selections are a diverse assortment that includes disco (Chic’s “Le Freak”), early rock (Bill Haley and His Comets’ “[We’re Gonna] Rock Around the Clock”), postwar gospel (Clara Ward and the Ward Singers’ “How I Got Over”), and pop balladry (Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”).
Bennett remembers the first time Ralph Sharon, his pianist and musical director, showed him the sheet music for “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” which he released in 1962.
“We both thought it would just be a local hit for the upcoming engagement we had at the Fairmont Hotel,” Bennett said in an email. “And even after I recorded it as the B-side to my record of ‘Once Upon A Time,’ which I thought was going to be the hit, it wasn’t until the promotions person from Columbia told me to ‘turn the record over’ as ‘San Francisco’ was the song catching on. I could not have asked for a better signature song.”
“We look for things that have had a real impact on the public,” says Steve Leggett, program coordinator for the National Recording Preservation Board. “Some that are very popular, some that might have had social significance, some which might have had technical significance in terms of preservation or recording history.”
Recordings, which are expected to reflect the American experience, must be at least 10 years old, though almost everything in the registry’s collection of 500 recordings is older. The youngest song on the 2018 list is a 1996 recording featuring Yo-Yo Ma; the oldest is a 1911 single by Victor Herbert and his Orchestra.
The selection process is open to the public in its early stages, though Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden makes the final decisions after recommendations from the board. This year, songs with the greatest public support included “If I Didn’t Care,” the 1939 standard by vocal group the Ink Spots, Kenny Rogers’s “The Gambler” and Kenny Loggins’s “Footloose.”
Run-DMC, the only hip-hop artists on this year’s list, was already a platinum-selling act when “Raising Hell” broke in 1986. A cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” became the album’s biggest hit and helped foment the coming rap-rock revolution. Initially, the group had rapped only over the opening bars of the song, remembers founding member Joseph “Run” Simmons. “The only reason we listened was for the beginning of the beat, the DJ was in trouble if he let the singing come in,” he says. “We didn’t know the name of the record.”
The complete list of additions to the Library of Congress registry: “Dream Melody Intermezzo: Naughty Marietta” (single), Victor Herbert and his Orchestra (1911); Standing Rock Preservation Recordings, George Herzog and Members of the Yanktoni Tribe (1928); “Lamento Borincano” (single), Canario y Su Grupo (1930); “Sitting on Top of the World” (single), Mississippi Sheiks (1930); The Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas (album), Artur Schnabel (19321935); “If I Didn’t Care” (single), The Ink Spots (1939);
Proceedings of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (4/25/45 to 6/26/45); “Folk Songs of the Hills” (album), Merle Travis (1946); “How I Got Over” (single), Clara Ward and the Ward Singers (1950); “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” (single), Bill Haley and His Comets (1954); “Calypso” (album), Harry Belafonte (1956); “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” (single), Tony Bennett (1962); “King Biscuit Time” (radio), Sonny Boy Williamson II and others (1965);
“My Girl” (single), The Temptations (1964); “The Sound of Music” (soundtrack), Various (1965); “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” (single), Arlo Guthrie (1967); “New Sounds in Electronic Music” (album), Steve Reich, Richard Maxfield, Pauline Oliveros (1967); “An Evening With Groucho” (album), Groucho Marx (1972); “Rumours,” (album), Fleetwood Mac (1977); “The Gambler” (single), Kenny Rogers (1978); “Le Freak” (single), Chic (1978);
“Footloose” (single), Kenny Loggins (1984); “Raising Hell” (album), Run-DMC (1986); “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” (single), Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine (1987); “Yo-Yo Ma Premieres Concertos for Violoncello and Orchestra” (album), Various (1996)