Thriller, Joni Mitchell album make the cut for U.S. recording registry

CBC News
May 14, 2008

Michael Jackson's iconic pop album Thriller, the original 1956 My Fair Lady cast album and Joni Mitchell's For the Roses are among the latest additions to the U.S. National Recording Registry, the Library of Congress announced Wednesday.

Each year, organizers select 25 recorded works to preserve in the Library of Congress archives based on historical, cultural or aesthetic significance. A recording is only eligible 10 years after its creation.

In addition to musical selections (from Roy Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman to the London orchestral performance that became the first trans-Atlantic broadcast in 1925), the latest batch includes a 1948 speech by Harry Truman, radio broadcasts featuring a pre-White House Ronald Regan and the recording of Earth sounds carried on the spacecraft Voyager in 1977.

This year's full list is:

* The first trans-Atlantic broadcast (March 14, 1925)
* Allons à Lafayette, Joseph Falcon (1928)
* Casta Diva, from Bellini's Norma; Rosa Ponselle, accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Giulio Setti. (recorded December 31, 1928, and January 30, 1929)
* If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again, Thomas A. Dorsey (1934)
* Sweet Lorraine, Art Tatum (February 22, 1940)
* Fibber's Closet Opens for the First Time, Fibber McGee and Molly radio program (March 4, 1940)
* Wings Over Jordan, Wings Over Jordan (1941)
* Fiorello LaGuardia reading the comics (1945)
* Call It Stormy Monday but Tuesday Is Just As Bad, T-Bone Walker (1947)
* Harry S. Truman speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention (July 15, 1948)
* The Jazz Scene, various artists (1949)
* It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, Kitty Wells (May 30, 1952)
* My Fair Lady, original cast recording (1956)
* Navajo Shootingway Ceremony Field Recordings, recorded by David McAllester (1957-1958)
* Freight Train, and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes, Elizabeth Cotten (1959)
* Marine Band Concert Album to Help Benefit the National Cultural Center (1963)
* Oh, Pretty Woman, Roy Orbison (1964)
* Tracks of My Tears, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (1965)
* You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song, Ella Jenkins (1966)
* Music from the Morning of the World, various artists; recorded by David Lewiston (1966)
* For the Roses, Joni Mitchell (1972)
* Headhunters, Herbie Hancock (1973)
* Ronald Reagan Radio Broadcasts (1976-1979)
* The Sounds of Earth, disc prepared for the Voyager spacecraft (1977)
* Thriller, Michael Jackson (1982)

The public and a Library of Congress preservation board submit suggestions and nominations for which recordings should be archived in the registry  held in collections across the U.S.

With the newest additions, the registry now comprises 250 recordings. Past inductees include Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind, a 1909 performance of the black spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and the 1961 inauguration ceremony of John F. Kennedy.