The Library of Congress is preserving these major historical recordings for posterity

Singer Alicia Keys acting at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York Metropolis, a couple of months after the 9/11 assaults in 2001.

George De Sota/Getty Photographs

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George De Sota/Getty Photographs

Singer Alicia Keys acting at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York Metropolis, a couple of months after the 9/11 assaults in 2001.

George De Sota/Getty Photographs

When the World Commerce Heart was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, staffers on the metropolis’s largest public radio station struggled to report the information — not as a result of their transmitter was atop one of many Twin Towers. However our colleagues at WNYC persevered and managed to maintain New Yorkers knowledgeable all through the horror and chaos of that horrible day and supply the primary eyewitness accounts of the assault.

Now, WNYC’s 9/11 broadcasts shall be archived within the Nationwide Recording Registry. Yearly since 2000, when the Registry was first established by an act of Congress, the Library of Congress picks 25 titles to be preserved for posterity.

The listing normally consists of what the LOC calls “sounds of historical past,” and this yr, these alternatives embody the entire presidential speeches of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and WSB-Atlanta’s protection of Hank Aaron’s 715th house run, vividly known as by legendary sportscaster Milo Hamilton.

“When Aaron hit that homer, Hamilton’s on-air exuberance matched that of these within the stands,” stated the Library of Congress in an announcement. “Nearly as nicely remembered because the 715th house run itself, Hamilton’s asserting of the breaking of ‘the file that might by no means be damaged’ is certainly one of baseball’s — and radio’s — biggest ever calls.”

The registry is meant, partially, to advertise the LOC’s preservation efforts. So how higher to publicize itself than together with the nation’s most beloved musicians? This yr’s inductees, as ordinary, embody quite a few celebrities and staples of basic rock. Whole albums newly added to the registry vary from Duke Ellington’s 1956 Ellington at Newport to 1997’s Buena Vista Social Membership to Linda Ronstadt’s 1987 profession milestone, Canciones de Mi Padre.

“Canciones de Mi Padre is an album I’ve all the time wished to make due to my Mexican heritage,” Ronstadt stated in an announcement. “I like the musical traditions that got here with it. I all the time thought they have been world-class songs. And I assumed they have been songs that the music may transcend the language barrier.”

Different notable albums added to the 2022 registry embody Alicia Keys’ Songs in A Minor, Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time and Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), from 1993. Based on the Library of Congress, that album “would form the sound of hardcore rap and reasserted the artistic capability of the East Coast rap scene. The group’s particular person artists would go on to supply affiliated tasks that deepened the group’s affect for many years in hip-hop.”

However the listing additionally dusts off extra obscure, esoteric and offbeat contributions. The earliest recording — 1921’s “Harlem Strut” — is the primary recognized recording by jazz pianist James P. Johnson, who additionally composed “The Charleston.” And the latest addition, from almost a century later, is a podcast episode: WTF with Marc Maron, from 2010, featured Robin Williams in a heat, rambling, and startlingly intimate dialog. 4 years later, the comic could be lifeless from suicide at age 63.

“The Nationwide Recording Registry displays the varied music and voices which have formed our nation’s historical past and tradition via recorded sound,” stated Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden as a part of the announcement. Together with a number of of the featured artists, she shall be interviewed as a part of the sequence, “The Sounds of America,” from NPR’s 1A, which focuses on this yr’s alternatives for the Nationwide Recording Registry.

These alternatives observe, in chronological order:

1. “Harlem Strut” — James P. Johnson (1921)

2. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Full Presidential Speeches (1933-1945)

3. “Strolling the Ground Over You” — Ernest Tubb (1941) (single)

4. “On a Be aware of Triumph” (Could 8, 1945)

5. “Jesus Gave Me Water” — The Soul Stirrers (1950) (single)

6. “Ellington at Newport” — Duke Ellington (1956) (album)

7. “We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite” — Max Roach (1960) (album)

8. “The Christmas Tune” — Nat King Cole (1961) (single)

9. “Tonight’s the Evening” — The Shirelles (1961) (album)

10. “Moon River” — Andy Williams (1962) (single)

11. “In C” — Terry Riley (1968) (album)

12. “It is a Small World” — The Disneyland Boys Choir (1964) (single)

13. “Attain Out, I will Be There” — The 4 Tops (1966) (single)

14. Hank Aaron’s 715th Profession House Run (April 8, 1974)

15. “Bohemian Rhapsody” — Queen (1975) (single)

16. “Do not Cease Believin’” — Journey (1981) (single)

17. “Canciones de Mi Padre” — Linda Ronstadt (1987) (album)

18. “Nick of Time” — Bonnie Raitt (1989) (album)

19. “The Low Finish Principle” — A Tribe Known as Quest (1991) (album)

20. “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” — Wu-Tang Clan (1993) (album)

21. “Buena Vista Social Membership” (1997) (album)

22. “Livin’ La Vida Loca” — Ricky Martin (1999) (single)

23. “Songs in A Minor” — Alicia Keys (2001) (album)

24. WNYC broadcasts for the day of 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001)

25. “WTF with Marc Maron” (Visitor: Robin Williams) (April 26, 2010)