Tennessee Ernie Ford’s legendary crossover hit, “16 Tons,” added to the Library’s National Recording Registry in 2014, is remembered here by author Ted Olson. In 1955, Tennessee Ernie Ford (born Ernest Jennings Ford on February 13, 1919, in Bristol, Tennessee) was an established recording star who could claim several major country hits as well as …
The great American songwriter, Jimmy Webb, who has written everything from “Up, Up and Away” to “MacArthur Park,” is, not surprisingly, represented on the Library’s National Recording Registry via his great composition “Wichita Lineman,” first recorded by Glen Campbell in 1968. With the help of Kent Hartman, the Library today takes a look back at …
This post was written by David Sager, Reference Specialist in the Recorded Sound Section. The Library of Congress National Jukebox has been updated and expanded! With a new URL, //www.loc.gov/collections/national-jukebox/about-this-collection/, and a new user-friendly player, the Jukebox is not only more flexible, but far more massive in scope, with the addition over 4,000 recordings from …
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! And what a better way to celebrate than a look at one of America’s most patriotic hits? Sousa’s enduring classic was named to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2002. In the essay below, author Ace Collins looks at the long-enduring and beloved classic. On October 1, 1880, a …
Today, on the final day of Pride, the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, with the help of author Josiah Howard, looks back at one of its most recent and best-known additions–the Village People’s “YMCA.” Though, today, you’ll hear the track at everything from a school dance to a 50th anniversary party, it has also …
“The OKeh Laughing Record” original label Imported into the United States in 1922, “The OKeh Laughing Record” is one of the most unusual, (in its way) influential, and surprisingly enduring novelty records ever recorded. Actually, there is nothing overly complicated about the recording itself. On it, a solo cornetist begins a rather slow, sad, even …
In 2003, only the second year of the National Recording Registry, the 1961 album “Judy at Carnegie Hall” was added to the Library of Congress’ esteemed list of landmark recordings. Last year, the Library asked actress, singer, author and daughter of Judy Garland, Lorna Luft, to share her memories of that remarkable and deeply enduring …
The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Packard Campus. Thursday, July 11 (7:30 p.m.) River’s Edge (Island Pictures, 1986 – rated R*) Inspired by a true event, River’s Edge follows how a group of apathetic high school students in a dismal, dead-end California town deal with their friend’s murder of his …
The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Packard Campus. Thursday, April 4 (7:30 p.m.) Pre-Code Double Feature Finishing School (RKO, 1934) The scandalous goings-on in an upper-crust private school for young women is the setting for this pre-Code school girl dramedy, co-directed (with George Nichols Jr.) by screenwriter Wanda Tuchock (Hallelujah!, …
