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Category: Performing Arts

Take a “Fast Car” to the 2025 National Recording Registry

Posted by: Brett Zongker

The 2025 class of the National Recording Registry is out today! Headliners include Elton John’s monumental album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” Chicago’s debut “Chicago Transit Authority,” the original cast recording of Broadway’s “Hamilton,” Mary J. Blige’s “My Life,” Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” Microsoft’s reboot chime and the soundtrack to the Minecraft video game.

Black and white photo, taken from back of stage looking back at audience, shows Elton John seated at a piano in the foreground, with a packed audience filling church pews.

Ryan White and Elton John: One Stunning Photo

Posted by: Neely Tucker

—This is a guest post by Adam M. Silvia, a curator in the Prints and Photographs Division. As a photojournalist, Taro Yamasaki photographed at-risk children in the United States and around the world — Nicaragua, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Middle East. The Prints and Photographs Division recently acquired three collections that document such work by the …

Color photo of two moody young men, one wearing sunglasses and just behind the other

Holy “Texas Chainsaw,” it’s the 2024 National Film Registry!

Posted by: Brett Zongker

The 2024 National Film Registry includes 25 films selected for their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance to the nation's history. This year's entries include major hits such as "The Social Network," "No Country for Old Men," and "Beverly Hills Cop"; indie classics such as "My Own Private Idaho" and "Powwow Highway"; the family film "Spy Kids" and the horror movie classic, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

Bright red and white sheet music, showing Rudolph leading Sant's sleigh

How Johnny Marks, King of Christmas Hits, Made “Rudolph” a Classic

Posted by: Neely Tucker

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” went without a song for years, from the tail end of the Depression through World War II and nearly until the midcentury before a musician named Johnny Marks began to consider it. Marks studied music in college in the 1920s, penned a good song or two for Guy Lombardo’s orchestra in …

A sepia-toned photograph from around 1900 of a black man wearing a three piece suit with a tie and a starched white collar.

Scott Joplin & the Magical “Maple Leaf Rag”

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Legendary ragtime composer Scott Joplin died in poverty at age 48 in 1917 and left few personal artifacts behind; only three photographs of him are known to exist. The song that made him famous was the spirited "Maple Leaf Rag" in 1899. So 125 years later, when the Library's music staff pulls the two copies of "Maple Leaf Rag" sheet music that Joplin and his music publisher mailed in for copyright registration, it can produce an audible gasp.

Black and white phot of a smiling Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach danding in a recording studio in the 1960s.

Burt Bacharach: This Guy’s in the Library of Congress

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Burt Bacharach, one of the most popular songwriters and composers in American history, was awarded the Gershwin Prize in 2012. He wrote or cowrote dozens of pop standards -- "Walk on By," "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," "The Look of Love," "I Say a Little Prayer," "(They Long to Be) Close to You" -- mostly with lyricist Hal David. He also composed, arranged, conducted the band or orchestras for the recording sessions and recorded his own albums. His songs have been recorded by hundreds of artists around the world. His papers are now at the Library.

[Arch Oboler, half-length portrait, seated, facing right, wearing hat and glasses, holding paper and pencil.

Halloween Heartthrob: The “Chicken Heart” that Gobbled Up the Globe

Posted by: Neely Tucker

“Chicken Heart,” a 7-minute episode of the “Lights Out” radio series that aired just before midnight in March 1937 was a cheesily effective landmark of the Golden Age of Radio. Living on for decades through rebroadcasts, remakes, in syndication and on records, it snaked its way into the childhood memories of everyone from horror master Stephen King to comedian Bill Cosby, becoming a campy horror cult favorite. It was the brainchild of playwright Arch Oboler, a major star of radio whose name has since faded from popular recognition.

Movie poster for "El Norte," with an illustration of young man and woman at bottom, framed by a silhouette of a bird opening its wings into a blue sky overhead

Finding Latinos in Film

Posted by: Maria Peña

In his epic “El Norte,” award-winning filmmaker Gregory Nava charted the tragic journey of siblings Enrique and Rosa from Guatemala to Los Angeles in pursuit of the American dream. The 1983 film was inducted into the Library's National Film Registry in 1995 and still resonate in this Hispanic Heritage Month, two decades into a new century. It's one of the highlights of the Library's work in preserving Latino films.