Beatles make it into library of sound
The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, an 1888 recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and the original cast recording of Oklahoma! Are to be enshrined the US’s registry of historic sound.
They are among the second group of 50 recordings chosen to be digitally preserved by the Library of Congress.
This year’s list begins with inventor Emile Berliner, a pioneer of recorded sound, reciting the Lord’s Prayer and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
The list’s two most recent recordings date from 1975: Bruce Springsteen’s rock album Born to Run and the Fania All-Stars’ salsa performance at Yankee Stadium.
Nominations from the public are accepted for the recording registry, and a special board advises Librarian of Congress James Billington on the final choices, which he announced today. Entries must be at least 10 years old.
This year’s additions include the inaugural ceremony of President John Kennedy, including a reading by poet Robert Frost
Alongside the Beatles’ 1967 Sergeant Pepper album, considered a groundbreaking rock classic , are albums from Chuck Barry, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Marvin Gaye and Carole King.
From Broadway are George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
Classical music is represented by Sir Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s recordings of Wagner’s Complete Ring cycle.
