Lamont Dozier, one third of Motown’s key hit-writing team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, has died at 81. It’s difficult to imagine the soundtrack of the 1960s without him. I chatted with him earlier this year, when the trio’s “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” was inducted into the 2022 class of the National Recording Registry. Here’s the story …
The Library now has the papers and collected works of Neil Simon, the most commercially successful playwright in American history and one of the most honored. "Barefoot in the Park," "The Odd Couple," "The Sunshine Boys," "Biloxi Blues," "Plaza Suite," "Lost in Yonkers." By the time he died at age 91 in 2018, he his career included 28 Broadway plays, five musicals, 11 original screenplays and 14 film adaptations of his own work. The Library's collection includes more than 180 titled works that Simon began, many of them completed but never published or produced.
Mark Horowitz, a senior specialist in the Music Division's acquisitions and processing section, tells us about his job in acquiring and preserving some of the most famous works in American musical theater. Among other high-profile projects, he's worked with Stephen Sondheim, Lin-Manuel Miranda and has an upcoming book on his research into the papers of Oscar Hammerstein.
Songwriting brothers Robert and Richard Sherman penned dozens of Disney hits, including the songs and lyrics for "Mary Poppins," "The Jungle Book" and "Winnie the Pooh," but their simple song for a theme park ride, "It's a Small World," became the most played song of all time.
Lamont Dozier, part of Motown's fabled Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team, talks about writing "Reach Out I'll Be There," a hit for the Four Tops and part of the 2022 class of the National Recording Registry class.
Journey's "Don'r Stop Believin' " became a pop-culture staple and a stadium anthem for several sports teams. This year it was inducted into the National Recording Registry. We caught up with lead singer Steve Perry about the record.
The 2022 Class of the National Recording Registry includes albums such as Alicia Keys' "Songs in A Minor" and singles such as Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " and Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca," along with with important inductions of hip-hop and Latin music, including recordings by Linda Ronstadt, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan and the Buena Vista Social Club.
Jelly Roll Morton's 1938 concerts at the Library's Coolidge auditorium became a landmark jazz recording and the basis for his biography, "Mister Jelly Roll."
Lionel Richie smiled, the cameras flashed, the bass thumped, the music soared and the concert celebrating the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song popped back into life two years after COVID-19 shut down much of public life in the nation’s capital.
