Simon & Garfunkel, Pink Floyd Chosen For Preservation At Library of Congress.


Simon & Garfunkel’s album The Sounds Of Silence has been chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress. The album, along with music from Chubby Checker, Will Rodgers and Pink Floyd, will be among 25 recordings preserved by the library this year.

The Library of Congress chooses 25 recordings that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” every year to be preserved for future generations.

Among this year’s selections are Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sounds of Silence, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, and Chubby Checker’s rendition of “The Twist.”

The Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, said: “Congress created the National Recording Registry to celebrate the richness and variety of our audio heritage and to underscore our responsibility for long-term preservation, to assure that legacy can be appreciated and studied for generations. Our challenge, however, continues to be finding collaborative and innovative ways to protect and make available this unmatched legacy to the public.”

This year’s selections span from 1918 to 1980 and cover jazz, rock, blues and folk music, as well as spoken word recordings. The oldest recording comes from Marion Harris and the most recent comes Betty Carter.

The nominations were decided by an online public vote. The Library of Congress then selected which songs to include in its registry. The library will preserve “the best existing versions of each recording on the registry.” They will be held at the Library’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia, which currently houses close to 3.5 million recordings.

Here are the 25 recordings chosen for preservation this year by the Library of Congress.

  1. “After You’ve Gone,” Marion Harris (1918)
  2. “Bacon, Beans and Limousines,” Will Rogers (Oct. 18, 1931)
  3. “Begin the Beguine,” Artie Shaw (1938)
  4. “You Are My Sunshine,” Jimmie Davis (1940)
  5. D-Day Radio Broadcast, George Hicks (June 5-6, 1944)
  6. “Just Because,” Frank Yankovic & His Yanks (1947)
  7. “South Pacific,” Original Cast Album (1949)
  8. “Descargas: Cuban Jam Session in Miniature,” Cachao Y Su Ritmo Caliente (1957)
  9. Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Van Cliburn (April 11, 1958)
  10. President’s Message Relayed from Atlas Satellite, Dwight D. Eisenhower (Dec. 19, 1958)
  11. “A Program of Song,” Leontyne Price (1959)
  12. “The Shape of Jazz to Come,” Ornette Coleman (1959)
  13. “Crossing Chilly Jordan,” The Blackwood Brothers (1960)
  14. “The Twist,” Chubby Checker (1960)
  15. “Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley’s,” Clarence Ashley, Doc Watson, et al. (1960-1962)
  16. “Hoodoo Man Blues,” Junior Wells (1965)
  17. “Sounds of Silence,” Simon and Garfunkel (1966)
  18. “Cheap Thrills,” Big Brother and the Holding Company (1968)
  19. “The Dark Side of the Moon,” Pink Floyd (1973)
  20. “Music Time in Africa,” Leo Sarkisian, host (July 29, 1973)
  21. “Wild Tchoupitoulas,” The Wild Tchoupitoulas (1976)
  22. “Ramones,” The Ramones (1976)
  23. “Saturday Night Fever,” The Bee Gees, et al (1977)
  24. “Einstein on the Beach,” Philip Glass and Robert Wilson (1979)
  25. “The Audience with Betty Carter,” Betty Carter (1980)

What do you think of the Library of Congress’ picks? Do you think Pink Floyd, The Ramons, Janis Joplin and Simon & Garfunkel deserve to be in the Library of Congress?

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