Swedish pop giant ABBA, pictured here posing in Stockholm in 1974, has been included in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.
Olle Lindeborg/AFP via Getty Images
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Olle Lindeborg/AFP via Getty Images
Swedish pop giant ABBA, pictured here posing in Stockholm in 1974, has been included in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.
Olle Lindeborg/AFP via Getty Images
Each year since 2000, the Library of Congress has selected 25 recordings as “audio treasures worth preserving forever.” The 2024 selections for the National Recording Registry, announced Tuesday morning, celebrate the sheer breadth of music culture — from pop culture favorites like ABBA, Green Day and The Notorious BIG to more niche recordings that offer snapshots of the American experience.
The oldest recording on the 2024 roster is a 1919 recording by James Reese Europe, an early jazz pioneer who led the 369th US Infantry Band – a black regiment commonly known as the 'Harlem Hellfighters' – while the most recent country act The Chicks'. Album from 1998 Large open spaces.
The 2024 list includes folk, jazz, classical, hip-hop, Latin, pop, country, rock and punk. Some choices are rarer, including one of the “ethnic music” recordings made by major labels like Victor and Columbia in the 1920s, featuring artists from new and recently arrived immigrant communities in the US (this year's selection: 1928's “Kauhavan Polkka”, recorded by Victor, with Finnish-American musicians Viola Turpeinen and John Rosendahl.)
At the same time, many of the selections are among pop culture's best-known artifacts, including Gene Autry's perennial postwar Christmas classic, 1949's Rudolph, the Red-Nose Reindeer—not to mention ABBA's 1976 album. Arrivalwith catalog pieces such as 'Dancing Queen' and 'Money, Money, Money'.
Hip hop's legacy is marked by a 1985 classic by Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick, “La-Di-Da-Di” – a song that later became one of the most sampled and referenced sound recordings of all time – and the debut studio album of The Notorious B.I.G. Ready to die, from 1994.
Other nominees include Bill Withers' 1971 single “Ain't No Sunshine”; pop punk princes Green Day and their 1994 album Dookie; The reference album by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan from 1964 The sidewinder; and a trio of recordings from 1978: Blondie's era-defining album Parallel linesThe Cars' self-titled debut album, and a classic of New York salsa, the Rubén Blades-written and Willie Colón-produced song “El Cantante”, performed by Héctor Lavoe.
While the Library of Congress's annual selections in recent years have included speeches, news broadcasts and other spoken audio recordings of documentary value, this year's selection consists almost exclusively of music, with one notable exception: comedian Lily Tomlin's 1971 album . This is a recordingwhich won her a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording and reached number 15 on the Billboard 200 album chart – a record for a female comedian.
Here are all 25 recordings selected for the 2024 National Recording Registry, arranged in chronological order:
• “Clarinet Marmalade” – Lt. James Reese Europe's 369th American Infantry Band (1919)
• “Kauhavan Polkka” – Viola Turpeinen and John Rosendahl (1928)
• Wisconsin National Anthem Collection (1937-1946)
• “Rose Room” – Benny Goodman sextet with Charlie Christian (1939)
• “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” – Gene Autry (1949)
• “Tennessee Waltz” – Patti Page (1950)
• “Rocket '88'” – Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (1951)
• “Catch a Shooting Star”https://npr.org/”Magical Moments” – Perry Como (1957)
• “The Chances Are” – Johnny Mathis (1957)
• The sidewinder –Lee Morgan (1964)
• Surreal pillow – Jefferson Airplane (1967)
• “Ain’t No Sunshine” – Bill Withers (1971)
• This is a recording –Lily Tomlin (1971)
• JD Crowe and the New South – JD Crowe and the New South (1975)
• Arrival –ABBA (1976)
• “El Cantante” – Héctor Lavoe (1978)
• The cars – The Cars (1978)
• Parallel lines – Blondie (1978)
• “La-Di-Da-Di” – Doug E. Fresh and Smooth Rick (MC Ricky D) (1985)
• “Don't Worry, Be Happy” – Bobby McFerrin (1988)
• “Amor Eterno” – Juan Gabriel (1990)
• Pieces of Africa – Kronos Quartet (1992)
• Dookie – Green Day (1994)
• Ready to die – The Notorious BIG (1994)
• Large open spaces – The Chicks (1998)
