The Library of Congress announced last Thursday that it is adding 25 new recordings to its audio registry. The National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress selected these recordings for preservation based on “their cultural, artistic and historic importance to the nation’s aural legacy.” It is a mixture of classical, pop, rock, and everything in between. Simon and Garfunkel’s 1966 album “Sounds of Silence,” the punk rock debut album from the Ramones, and Chubby Checker’s hit “The Twist” represent music that had an enormous impact on the younger generations of their time. In the category of classical music, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s opera “Einstein on the Beach” and a 1958 recording of Van Cliburn playing Tchaikovsky”s Piano Concerto No. 1 will also be honored. The original cast album of “South Pacific” and Ornette Coleman’s “The Shape of Jazz to Come” are also on the list.
