Queen Latifah Becomes First Female Rapper Along With Madonna, Mariah, & More Seleted To National Recording Registry 2023 Inductions.
“Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin,’ Mariah Carey’s Christmas Classic and Super Mario Bros. Theme Join National Recording Registry
Others recordings selected by the Library of Congress include John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and Irene Cara’s “Flashdance… What a Feeling.”
Mariah Carey’s holiday staple “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Madonna’s best-selling seminal sophomore album Like a Virgin, Daddy Yankee’s thumping reggaeton anthem “Gasolina” and the Super Mario Bros. theme will join the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Wednesday announced that 25 recordings made the cut this year, including John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” Irene Cara’s “Flashdance… What a Feeling” and John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
The latest selections span from 1908 to 2012 and bring the number of titles on the registry to 625. The national library’s recorded sound collection includes nearly four million items.
Songs and albums that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” — that are also at least 10 years old — qualify to enter the National Recording Registry.
Other new selections include The Police’s Synchronicity, The Four Seasons’ “Sherry,” Queen Latifah’s All Hail the Queen, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s Déjà Vu and Cuarteto Coculense’s The Very First Mariachi Recordings. This year’s registry also includes radio journalism leading up to World War II as well as the audiobook Pale Blue Dot by astronomer Carl Sagan, which was inspired by the famous 1990 Pale Blue Dot photograph.
“The National Recording Registry preserves our history through recorded sound and reflects our nation’s diverse culture,” Hayden said in a statement. “The national library is proud to help ensure these recordings are preserved for generations to come, and we welcome the public’s input on what songs, speeches, podcasts or recorded sounds we should preserve next. We received more than 1,100 public nominations this year for recordings to add to the registry.”
Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Latifah makes history as the first female rapper to join the National Recording Registry. This year also marks the first time a Carey song has been selected.
Every holiday season “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” released in 1994, begins to climb the Billboard charts as its popularity resurfaces through streaming, radio play and digital sales. Carey’s song eventually topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart 25 years after its release in 2019, and has since hit the No. 1 spot in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
This year also marks the first time sounds of a video game enters the registry with the Super Mario Bros. theme — coincidentally in the same week the newest film about the Nintendo video game franchise, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, shattered numerous records in its opening across North America and 70 international markets. The theme was composed by Koji Kondo.” – Hollywoodreporter.com
