New National Recording Registry entries announced

WASHINGTON — Twenty-five culturally significant recordings — including a 70-year-old radio broadcast of Marian Anderson’s recital at the Lincoln Memorial, Dylan Thomas reading of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and Winston Churchill’s post-World War II speech that coined the term Iron Curtain — will be preserved in a special sound archive.

Every year the Librarian of Congress selects sound recordings to include in the National Recording Registry. This year’s batch, being announced Wednesday, also includes signature performances from several artists such as Etta James’ “At Last!,” The Who’s “My Generation” and Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner doing their 2000-year-old man routine.

The recordings are nominated by members of the public and a panel of music, sound and preservation experts, the library’s National Recording Preservation Board. The panel also aids the librarian in selecting what recordings to add to the archive.

With the new recordings, the archives will include 275 fragments of sound.

The 2008 additions to the registry are:

—”No News, or What Killed the Dog,” Nat M. Wills (1908)

— Acoustic Recordings for Victor Records, Jascha Heifetz (1917-1924)

— “Night Life,” Mary Lou Williams (1930)

— Sounds of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (1935)

— “Gang Busters” (1935-1957)

— “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,” Andrews Sisters (1938)

— “Que e Que a Bahiana Tem?” Carmen Miranda (1939)

— NBC Radio coverage of Marian Anderson’s recital at the Lincoln Memorial (April 9, 1939)

— “Tom Dooley,” Frank Proffitt (1940)

— “Uncle Sam Blues,” Oran “Hot Lips” Page, accompanied by Eddie Condon’s Jazz Band. V-Disc (1944)

— The Mary Margaret McBride Program, Zora Neale Hurston and Mary Margaret McBride, (Jan. 25, 1943)

— “Sinews of Peace” (Iron Curtain) Speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., Winston Churchill (March 5, 1946)

— “The Churkendoose,” Ray Bolger (1947)

— “Boogie Chillen,” John Lee Hooker (1948)

— “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” Dylan Thomas (1952)

— “A Festival of Lessons and Carols as Sung on Christmas Eve in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge,” King’s College Choir; Boris Ord, director (1954)

— “West Side Story,” original cast recording (1957)

— “Tom Dooley,” the Kingston Trio (1958)

— “Rumble,” Link Wray (1958)

— “The Play of Daniel: A Twelfth-Century Drama,” New York Pro Musica under the direction of Noah Greenberg (1958)

— “At Last!,” Etta James (1961)

— “Rank Stranger,” Stanley Brothers (1960)

— “2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks,” Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (1961)

— “The Who Sings My Generation,” The Who (1966)

— “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” George Jones (1980)