If you make it into the Library of Congress, you know you done good. Twenty-five recordings are now being added to the National Recording Registry. This year’s recordings chosen for preservation will include Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, hits by Simon and Garfunkel and Chubby Checker and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.
Dark Side of the Moon, which was released in 1973, nabbed the highest number of public nominations for the registry. But that’s not really a surprise, seeing as the album spent more than 700 weeks on the Billboard albums chart. The library also approves; it called the album a “brilliant, innovative production in service of the music.”
It’s also no surprise that Simon and Garfunkel are heading to the registry; the duo’s “The Sound of Silence” was an initial flop in 1964, but it later became a classic hit song. “When you look at the little mesh, wire microphone . . . and you address people on the other side of the mic, you hope that your performance will be special, and you hope that it will have lasting power,” Garfunkel said regarding the song’s inclusion.
Chubby Checker is best known for his Number One hit, “The Twist,” which had plenty of young teenagers swiveling their hips in the ‘60s.
Then there’s Saturday Night Fever, the movie that became synonymous with the disco-partiers and sidewalk-strutters of the ‘70s. The soundtrack, which featured songs by the Bee Gees, was a hit when it came out in 1977 and stuck it out on the albums chart for 24 straight weeks.
Other registry additions will include the 1949 cast album of South Pacific and recordings by Will Rogers, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmie Dais and the recently deceased classical pianist Van Cliburn.
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