Hits by Celine Dion and Mary J. Blige. The song “Happy Trails” by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Tracy Chapman’s debut album. The original cast album of the Broadway musical “Hamilton.” The chimes Brian Eno wrote for Microsoft Windows in 1995.
These were among the 25 audio works chosen this year to join the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, which preserves works deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” that are at least 10 years old.
More than 2,600 nominations were made by the public this year, with “Chicago Transit Authority,” the 1969 album from the rock band Chicago, topping the list, according to a news release from the Library of Congress.
The Elton John album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” — which features songs like “Bennie and the Jets” and “Candle in the Wind” — and the R&B album “My Life” by Mary J. Blige were among the top 10 of public nominations.
The new class of inductees for the National Recoding Registry brings its total number of titles to 675.
Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, said in a statement that the selected works were the sounds of America and that the registry was “our evolving nation’s playlist.”
“The Library of Congress is proud and honored to select these audio treasures worthy of preservation, including iconic music across a variety of genres, field recordings, sports history and even the sounds of our daily lives with technology,” she said.
The oldest work selected for the registry this year dates back to 1913 and is a recording of “Aloha ‘Oe” by Hawaiian Quintette. The newest is the original cast album of “Hamilton” (2015), the hugely popular musical about the birth of American democracy.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton,” described the registry as “an artistic version of a nation’s conversation with itself,” in a statement.
The cast album’s inclusion on the registry comes at a complicated time. Miranda and the producers of “Hamilton” canceled a tour next year at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, protesting President Trump’s takeover of the formerly bipartisan institution. That prompted criticism from the president, who said, “I never liked ‘Hamilton’ very much.”
A creative, and perhaps unexpected, selection for the registry was the Microsoft Windows reboot chime from 1995 made by Brian Eno, an ambient sound creator and musician who has worked with Coldplay, U2 and David Bowie. According the Library, the release of the Windows 95 operating system marked a significant turn in technology, making the home computer more accessible. To mark the achievement, Microsoft wanted a sound to play as the system booted up and turned to Eno to create it. The final chime was one of 84 he delivered to the company.
