'All I Want for Christmas is You' among 25 additions to National Recording Registry

Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: It’s called the National Recording Registry. Every year, the Library of Congress picks 25 recordings of cultural, historical, or aesthetic importance, tunes for the history books, for the memory banks, or just to hum or dance along to.

This year is no different.

And Jeffrey Brown is our guide for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Jeffrey Brown: Mariah Carey put love on her Christmas list. Madonna had love of a different kind on her mind.

This year’s National Recording Registry features a number of powerhouse women, including Queen Latifah, the first female rapper to join the registry. And the sounds go much further back in time to the first recording of mariachi music in 1908, and 1922’s “St. Louis Blues” by W.C. Handy.

If you’re into shaking your “Wang Dang Doodle,” there’s Koko Taylor from 1966. And if you’re into musical mysteries, what did Billie Joe McAllister throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge in Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 hit?

For classical music aficionados, there’s a concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. And for jazz lovers, there’s “Black Codes” by Wynton Marsalis. And for margarita drinkers, well, you know.

Carl Sagan, Astronomer: Consider again that dot. That’s here. That is home.

Jeffrey Brown: You can reach for the stars with an audio recording by Carl Sagan, or take the direct “Stairway to Heaven” with Led Zeppelin.

Feeling a bit of deja vu yet? Enjoy “Sweet Dreams” with Eurythmics. Travel “Country Roads” with John Denver. Shake whatever you have got left to Daddy Yankee’s smash hit “Gasolina,” the first reggaeton recording added to the registry.

And if you’re thinking of all-time great songs, you can only “Imagine” what has to be on the list.

For the “PBS NewsHour,” I’m Jeffrey Brown.

Geoff Bennett: And, apparently for the first time, a video game tune was inducted, the theme to “Mario Bros.”

Amna Nawaz: That’s right, which we all know by heart.

Would you like to sing it?

(LAUGHTER)

Geoff Bennett: I will leave it to you.

Amna Nawaz: Thank you.