RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Library of Congress has announced the National Recording Registry class of 2018. It is an annual list of 25 recordings that the library deems worthy of preservation. Think of it as a kind of hall of fame for recorded sound, both voice and music.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And the inductees include Jay-Z's 2001 album, "The Blueprint."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IZZO (H.O.V.A)")
JAY-Z: (Rapping) H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A. For shizzle, my nizzle, used to dribble down in VA.
MARTIN: Neil Diamond's hit from 1969 that became a sports arena favorite.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SWEET CAROLINE")
NEIL DIAMOND: (Singing) Sweet Caroline...
INSKEEP: The Earth, Wind & Fire earworm "September."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEPTEMBER")
EARTH, WIND & FIRE: (Singing) Say, do you remember dancing in September?
MARTIN: And Cyndi Lauper's 1983 debut, "She's So Unusual."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN")
CYNDI LAUPER: (Singing) Oh, girls just want to have fun.
MARTIN: Matt Barton is the curator of recorded sound at the Library of Congress.
MATT BARTON: I think these are recordings that have endured and that still have something to tell us about their times, but also about ourselves. In many cases, you could say they have a lot to do with who we are.
MARTIN: The spoken word inductees include the Western radio drama "Gunsmoke," a collection of recordings documenting tribal languages of the Pacific Northwest, and Robert F. Kennedy's extemporaneous speech following the assassination of Martin Luther King.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERT F KENNEDY: In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.
INSKEEP: This class of 2018 spans a century. The oldest is from 1901, the most recent from 2001. They range from 20 cylinders - very, very old style of recording containing the earliest known recordings of Yiddish songs - to Curtis Mayfield. The Library of Congress plans to preserve all these pieces of America's recorded past.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
