Inside The National Recording Registry

The Sons of the Pioneers’ 1934 song “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” was written by a Canadian by birth who fell in love with the American West when his family moved to Tucson.  

As Latin music was fading from popular culture, a blend of Caribbean rhythms going by the name salsa got a new generation dancing.

Linda Ronstadt’s “Heart Like a Wheel” made her a household name. Now it’s in the National Recording Registry.

“Sorry, Wrong Number” broke all the rules of radio drama by killing off its main character — a harmless, if unpleasant, bedridden woman.

In the 1950s, the Swan Silvertones turned the old spiritual “Mary, Don’t You Weep” into a recording that has inspired everyone from Paul Simon to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.