New US Recordings Registry items include Grateful Dead, Prince, Dolly Parton, & more

The Library of Congress today announced 25 new tracks of audio are being added to the selective National Recording Registry, according to The Associated Press.

The wide-ranging choices are meant to reflect the diversity of the American cultural heritage, including everything from interviews with former slaves to the New York Philharmonic to “A Charlie Brown’s Christmas,” reported AP.

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Nominations for next year’s additions to the world's biggest library are now open to the public by way of the National Recording Preservation Board website loc.gov/nrpb.

USA Today has published a list of this year’s newbies by date, starting with the earliest known commercial audio — a 1888 recording of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” used in Thomas Edison’s talking doll and believed lost until digitally restored last year – all the way up to the 1984 Prince hit “Purple Rain.” 

Librarian of Congress James Billington said the finalists were chosen in light of the country's "sound heritage," with selections meant to illustrate the "creativity of the American experience,” according to AP. 

The National Recording Registry was established in 2000 and now has some 300 audio tracks that curator Matt Barton told USA Today might have been lost forever had they not been captured and stored correctly. 

Was Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" chosen in tribute to the recently-deceased singer? Barton said the selections were made well in advance of her death, but the song nonetheless "signaled a turning point, and its effects are still being felt today," according to USA Today.