The National Recording Registry has released its annual group of additions to the list — and there is definitely something for everyone. The 2018 class ranges from groundbreaking music by Ritchie Valens and Nina Simone to a musical theater number and a hip-hop album.
Recordings added to the collection are chosen for being “aural treasures worthy of preservation because of their cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation’s recorded sound heritage,” the U.S. Library of Congress said in a press release on Wednesday.
Such treasures include the 1968 original Broadway recording of “Hair,” the song from the musical of the same name, Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1978 single, “September,” and Neil Diamond’s classic 1969 single “Sweet Caroline.”
“The National Recording Registry honors the music that enriches our souls, the voices that tell our stories and the sounds that mirror our lives,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in the press release.
All but one of the 25 additions are from the 20th century. The recordings must be at least a decade old; the most recent addition is Jay-Z’s 2001 album The Blueprint. Cyndi Lauper’s Grammy-nominated debut solo album from 1983, She’s So Unusual, also made the list.
Musical recordings aren’t the only kind added to the registry. The speech former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy gave following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is also included, bringing the registry to a total of 525 recordings.
Here are all the songs in the 2018 class of additions to the National Recording Registry:
Yiddish Cylinders from the Standard Phonograph Company of New York and the Thomas Lambert Company (c. 1901-1905)
“Memphis Blues” (single), Victor Military Band (1914)
Melville Jacobs Collection of Native Americans of the American Northwest (1929-1939)
“Minnie the Moocher” (single), Cab Calloway (1931)
Bach Six Cello Suites (album), Pablo Casals (c. 1939)
“They Look Like Men of War” (single), Deep River Boys (1941)
“Gunsmoke” — Episode: “The Cabin” (Dec. 27, 1952)
Ruth Draper: Complete recorded monologues, Ruth Draper (1954-1956)
“La Bamba” (single), Ritchie Valens (1958)
“Long Black Veil” (single), Lefty Frizzell (1959)
Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Vol. 1: The Early Years (album), Stan Freberg (1961)
GO (album), Dexter Gordon (1962)
War Requiem (album), Benjamin Britten (1963)
“Mississippi Goddam” (single), Nina Simone (1964)
“Soul Man” (single), Sam & Dave (1967)
“Hair” (original Broadway cast recording) (1968)
Speech on the Death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy (April 4, 1968)
“Sweet Caroline” (single), Neil Diamond (1969)
Superfly (album), Curtis Mayfield (1972)
Ola Belle Reed (album), Ola Belle Reed (1973)
“September” (single), Earth, Wind & Fire (1978)
“You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” (single), Sylvester (1978)
She’s So Unusual (album), Cyndi Lauper (1983)
“Schoolhouse Rock!: The Box Set” (1996)
The Blueprint (album), Jay-Z (2001)
