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The annual list of 25 recordings named as treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage was announced by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.
Source: Library of Congress
Posted by: Brett Zongker
Originally Titled: “Take a “Fast Car” to the 2025 National Recording Registry”
Images: Courtesy
Elton John’s monumental album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” Chicago’s debut “Chicago Transit Authority,” the original cast recording of Broadway’s “Hamilton,” Mary J. Blige’s “My Life,” Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” Microsoft’s reboot chime and the soundtrack to the Minecraft video game phenomenon headline the 2025 class of the National Recording Registry.
The annual list of 25 recordings named as treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage was announced by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.
The 2025 class of inductees also includes Tracy Chapman’s self-titled debut album, which featured her timeless hit, “Fast Car.” There’s also Celine Dion’s 1997 single “My Heart Will Go On” from the blockbuster film “Titanic,” Roy Rogers and Dale Evans’ classic “Happy Trails,” Miles Davis’ jazz fusion album “Bitches Brew,” Charley Pride’s groundbreaking “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin,’” Vicente Fernandez’s enduring ranchera song “El Rey,” Freddy Fender’s breakthrough song “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and the Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle.”
“These are the sounds of America – our wide-ranging history and culture,” Hayden said. “The National Recording Registry is our evolving nation’s playlist,” Hayden said.
More than 2,600 nominations were made by the public this year for recordings to consider for the registry. “Chicago Transit Authority” finished No. 1 in the public nominations this year. Other selected recordings in the top 10 of public nominations include “Happy Trails,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “My Life.”
The recordings selected for the registry this year bring the number of titles on the registry to 675, a fraction of the national library’s vast recorded sound collection of nearly 4 million items.
Elton John, the 2024 winner of the Library’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song with his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, reflected on their 1973 album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”
“Nobody really knows what a hit record is,” John told the Library.” I’m not a formula writer. I didn’t think ‘Bennie and the Jets’ was a hit. I didn’t think ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ was a hit. And that’s what makes writing so special. You do not know what you’re coming up with and how special it might become.”
Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle” sounded like a natural hit when it blew up pop charts in 1976, but it was three years in the making.
“When it came time to actually record it, I did something very unusual,” he said in an interview. “I used three different bands, three different sessions to record it.”
Mary J. Blige recalled her 1994 soulful hip-hop album “My Life.”
“My favorite lyric from the ‘My Life’ album is ‘Life can be only what you make of it,’” she said.
The latest selections named to the registry span from 1913 to 2015. Ten of this year’s selections are from the 1970s. The earliest recording on the list is the long-beloved Hawaiian song “Aloha ‘Oe,” recorded in 1913 by the Hawaiian Quintette. The original Broadway recording of “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast from 2015 becomes the newest recording to join the registry.
The 2025 selections span the sounds of folk, jazz, country, pop, comedy, sports, Latin, dance, R&B, tech, choral and musical theater. The recording from Minecraft is only the second video game soundtrack to join the registry, following the theme from Super Mario Brothers, selected in 2023.
“This year’s National Recording Registry list is 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,” said Robbin Ahrold, chair of the National Recording Preservation Board.
The NRPB was created by Congress the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000; the registry list began in 2002.
NPR’s “1A” will feature selections in the series “The Sounds of America” about this year’s list, including interviews with Hayden and several featured artists in the weeks ahead.
The complete 2025 list:
- “Aloha ‘Oe” – Hawaiian Quintette (1913) (single)
- “Sweet Georgia Brown” – Brother Bones & His Shadows (1949) (single)
- “Happy Trails” – Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (1952) (single)
- Radio Broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series – Chuck Thompson (1960)
- Harry Urata Field Recordings (1960-1980)
- “Hello Dummy!”– Don Rickles (1968) (album)
- “Chicago Transit Authority” – Chicago (1969) (album)
- “Bitches Brew” – Miles Davis (1970) (album)
- “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” – Charley Pride (1971) (single)
- “I Am Woman” – Helen Reddy (1972) (single)
- “El Rey” – Vicente Fernandez (1973) (single)
- “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” – Elton John (1973) (album)
- “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” – Freddy Fender (1975) (single)
- “I’ve Got the Music in Me” – Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker (1975) (album)
- “The Kӧln Concert” – Keith Jarrett (1975) (album)
- “Fly Like an Eagle” – Steve Miller Band (1976) (album)
- Nimrod Workman Collection (1973-1994)
- “Tracy Chapman” – Tracy Chapman (1988) (album)
- “My Life” – Mary J. Blige (1994) (album)
- Microsoft Windows Reboot Chime – Brian Eno (1995)
- “My Heart Will Go On” – Celine Dion (1997) (single)
- “Our American Journey” – Chanticleer (2002) (album)
- “Back to Black” – Amy Winehouse (2006) (album)
- “Minecraft: Volume Alpha” – Daniel Rosenfeld (2011) (album)
- “Hamilton” – Original Broadway Cast Album (2015) (album)
