BMI songwriters dominate the selections, representing 58% of the individuals and groups. The variety and superiority of the material attests not only to the wide-ranging talents of BMI songwriters but also the consistency of BMI’s involvement with all eralms of music throughout the course of its history. The diversity of styles and genres included is remarkable, ranging from folk (Woody Guthrie) to rap (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five), jazz (Miles Davis) to punk (Sex Pistols), blues (Howlin’ Wolf) to country (Hank Williams), rhythm & blues (Sam Cooke) to soul (Aretha Franklin), disco (Chic) to folk-rock (Fairport Convention), the over-the-top (Velvet Underground & Nico) to the indefinable (Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band).

As with any list, arguments are invited and disagreements encouraged. The following are BMI’s representatives in Mojo’s decisions, including their number in the final grouping.

For the complete list, consult mojo4music.com or rocklistmusic.co.uk/mojo.html.

BMI Songwriters on the MOJO List:

Animals: “The House of the Rising Sun” [#86]
Anthology of American Folk Music [#8]
Beach Boys: Pet Sounds [#21]
The Beatles: “I Want To Hold Your Hand” [#2]
                       Revolver [#40]
                      Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band [#16]
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica [#51]
Chuck Berry: “Johnny B. Goode” [#12]
Big Youth: Screaming Target [#76]
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And the Spiders From Mars [#31]
                       Low [#64]
James Brown: “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” [#15]
Jeff Buckley: Grace [#37]
The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo [#57]
Ray Charles: “What’d I Say” [#9]
Chic: “Good Times” [#54]
John Coltrane: My Favorite Things [#60]
Sam Cooke: “You Send Me” [#47]
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue [#43]
Lonnie Donegan: “Rock Island Line” [#38]
Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left [#78]
Brian Eno: Discreet Music [#68]
Fairport Convention: Liege & Lief [#58]
Aretha Franklin: “I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You” [#18]
Gang Of Four: Entertainment [#77]
Gnarls Barkley: “Crazy” [#100]
Davy Graham with Alexis Korner: 3/4AD [#35]
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: “The Message” [#29]
Woody Guthrie: Dust Bowl Ballads [#13]
Billie Holiday : “Strange Fruit” [#67]
Buddy Holly: “That’ll Be The Day” [#52]
Howlin’ Wolf: The Rocking Chair Album [#23]
Michael Jackson: Thriller [#33]
Carole King: Tapestry [#74]
John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band [#55]
The Libertines: Up The Bracket [#94]
Little Richard: “Tutti Frutti” [# 1]
Love [#66]
MC5: Kick Out The Jams [#69]
New York Dolls [#39]
Nirvana: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” [#27]
Nuggets [#42]
N.W.A.: Straight Outta Compton [#61]
Oasis: Definitely Maybe [#89]
Charlie Parker: “Koko” [#26]
Pixies: Surfer Rosa [#79]
Elvis Presley: “Heartbreak Hotel” {#3]
R.E.M.: Murmur [#75]
Rolling Stones: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” [#19]
                          “Sympathy For The Devil:” [#48]
Ronettes: “Be My Baby” [#45]
Sex Pistols: “God Save the Queen” [#10]
The Shadows: “Apache” [#84]
The Smiths: This Charming Man [#80]
Sonic Youth: EVOL [#85]
The Stone Roses [#99]
The Stooges: Funhouse [#36]
Television: Marquee Moon [#97]
Upsetters: Blackboard Jungle Dub [#59]
The Velvet Underground & Nico [#7]
The Who: “My Generation” [#44]
Hank Williams: “Move It On Over” [#30]
Link Wray: “Rumble” [#41]

This year's selections include such renowned BMI songwriters and composers as Dave Brubeck (Time Out), B.B. King (Live at the Regal), Martha and the Vandellas ("Dancing in the Street"), Edwin Hawkins ("Oh Happy Day"), Sonic Youth (Daydream Nation) and Elliot Carter ("Variations for Orchestra").

The National Recording Preservation Board, comprising experts from the music industry and preservation field including BMI's David Sanjek, culled its list from nominations made by the public for recordings considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." Recordings must be 10 years old to be considered for preservation and final selections are made by the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington.

The National Recording Registry was created by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, legislation that promotes and supports audio preservation. The registry celebrates the richness and variety of the nation's audio legacy and underscores the responsibility to assure the long-term preservation of that legacy for future generations.

2005 National Recording Registry (in chronological order):

1. "Canzone del Porter" from "Martha (von Flotow)," Edouard de Reszke (1903)
2. "Listen to the Lambs," Hampton Quartette; transcribed by Natalie Curtis Burlin (1917)
3. "Over There," Nora Bayes (1917)
4. "Crazy Blues," Mamie Smith (1920)
5. "My Man" and "Second Hand Rose," Fanny Brice (1921)
6. "Ory's Creole Trombone," Kid Ory (June 1922)
7. Inauguration of Calvin Coolidge (March 4, 1925)
8. "Tanec pid werbamy/Dance Under the Willows," Pawlo Huemiuk (1926)
9. "Singin' the Blues," Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra with Bix Beiderbecke (1927)
10. First official transatlantic telephone conversation (Jan. 7, 1927)
11. "El Manisero" ("The Peanut Vendor"), Rita Montaner, vocal with orchestra (1927); "El Manisero," Don Azpiazu and his Havana Casino orchestra (1930)
12. Light's Golden Jubilee Celebration (Oct. 21, 1929)
13. Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Op. 84, Modesto High School Band (1930)
14. "Show Boat," Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, James Melton and others; Victor Young, conductor; Louis Alter, piano (1932)
15. "Wabash Cannonball," Roy Acuff (1936)
16. "One O'Clock Jump," Count Basie and his Orchestra (1937)
17. Archibald MacLeish's "Fall of the City," Orson Welles, narrator, Burgess Meredith, Paul Stewart (April 11, 1937)
18. "The Adventures of Robin Hood" radio broadcast of May 11, 1938
19. Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fight, Clem McCarthy, announcer (June
22,1938)
20. "John the Revelator," Golden Gate Quartet (1938)
21. "Adagio for Strings," Arturo Toscanini, conductor; NBC Symphony (1938)
22. "Command Performance" show No.21, Bob Hope, master of ceremonies (July 7, 1942)
23. "Straighten Up and Fly Right," Nat "King" Cole (1943)
24. "The Fred Allen Show"(Radio broadcast of Oct. 7, 1945)
25. "Jole Blon," Harry Choates (1946)
26. "Tubby the Tuba," Paul Tripp (words) and George Kleinsinger (music) (1946)
27. "Move on up a Little Higher," Mahalia Jackson (1948)
28. "Anthology of American Folk Music," edited by Harry Smith (1952)
29. "Schooner Bradley," performed by Pat Bonner (1952-60)
30. "Damnation of Faust," Boston Symphony Orchestra with the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society (1954)
31. "Blueberry Hill," Fats Domino (1956)
32. "Variations for Orchestra," Louisville Orchestra (1956)
33. "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," Jerry Lee Lewis (1957)
34. "That'll Be the Day," The Crickets (1957)
35. "Poeme Electronique," Edgard Varese (1958)
36. "Time Out," The Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959)
37. Studs Terkel interview with James Baldwin (Sept. 29, 1962)
38. William Faulkner address at West Point Military Academy (1962)
39. "Dancing in the Street," Martha and the Vandellas (1964)
40. "Live at the Regal," B.B. King (1965)
41. "Are You Experienced?" Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)
42. "We're Only in It for the Money," Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (1968)
43. "Switched-On Bach," Wendy Carlos (1968)
44. "Oh Happy Day," Edwin Hawkins Singers (1969)
45. "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers," Firesign Theatre (1970)
46. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," Gil Scott-Heron (1970)
47. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1972)
48. The old foghorn, Kewaunee, Wis., recorded by James A. Lipsky (1972)
49. "Songs in the Key of Life," Stevie Wonder (1976)
50. "Daydream Nation," Sonic Youth (1988)

And the reality of David Bowie is that he is one of the major pop music artists — with a capital “A” — of our time. Voted “the most influential artist of all time” by England’s New Musical Express , he has sold millions of records, appeared as an actor on the screen and Stage, and produced such other notable artists as Lou Reed, Mott The Hoople and Iggy Pop, to name some but hardly all of his varied accomplishments. As a measure of his impact on contemporary music, he was joined at Madison Square Garden in 1997 for a 50th birthday celebration by such other artists as Reed, Sonic Youth, Robert Smith of the Cure, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters and Frank Black of the Pixies. And then, of course, there are his songs: landmark numbers such as “Changes,” “Fame,” “Young Americans,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Let’s Dance,” “Heroes,” “Golden Years,” and more.

Born David Jones in the Brixton section of London, he picked up the saxophone as a teen due to his interest in jazz and then played with a succession of rock and pop bands before emerging in his own right as David Bowie in 1969 with the U.K hit. “Space Oddity.” On albums like The Man Who Sold The World , Hunky Dory , TheRise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars , Aladdin Sane , Pin-Ups and Diamond Dogs , Bowie took the nascent glam and metal movements to their wildest extremes, matched by some of rock’s most theatrical and incendiary stage shows. With 1975’s Young Americans , he took a left turn into American soul music, and scored his first #1 U.S. single with the title song. Bowie again changed tack with the modernist sound of Low and Heroes , and then conquered dance music on Let’s Dance in 1983.

Since then, Bowie has continued to stay at the cutting edge with a variety of albums, bands and tours, reigning as an elder statesman of modern rock and becoming one of the first major musical artists to pioneer an internet presence. For 2003’s Reality , his 26 th album, “I said to myself that I would just do a collection of songs that I was writing at the time,” says Bowie “A collection of songs with no through line, no undercurrent of any kind of narrative, no concept of tying it all together.” Nonetheless, it was an album that still reflected his continuing diversity and innovation.

Married to supermodel Iman, Bowie was in the midst of a 2004 world tour when, first, a pinched nerve and then, later, emergency heart surgery, caused him to cancel remaining dates. Now recovering, David Bowie will no doubt return to the public eye soon to continue to create more of the visionary artistry that has made him a man who has changed the musical world.

Pictured at the signing at BMI Nashville are Laurel Parton and BMI's Brian Tipton. photo by Caroline Davis

]]> 2004-01-14T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233827 Artists, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Musical Styles, Rock, Type, Important Sonic Youth headlined the recent Don't Knock The Rock Film and Music Festival in Los Angeles with a show at the El Rey Theater on August 17. The seminal New York art-punk band is featured in Dave Markey's dreamy experimental homage to underground music entitled 1991: The Year Punk Broke, which was shown during the last day of the festival. The film, which is filled with brilliant live performances from Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Dinosaur, Jr., also features amusing backstage antics peppered with cultural commentary.

Shown before the show at the El Rey Theater are Kim Gordon, Steve Shelley and Jim O'Rourke of Sonic Youth; BMI's Myles Lewis, Tracie Verlinde, Barbara Cane and Ivanne Deneroff; and Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo of Sonic Youth.

Don't Knock the Rock is an annual event celebrating the historical rock-n-roll and cinematic roots of Hollywood. The three-day festival is a journey of classic and new rock-n-roll films, which embody the rock spirit and contain quintessential music performances and/or vintage footage of important artists in their prime.]]> 2003-08-28T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233327 Artists, Sonic Youth, Musical Styles, Rock, Musicworld, Hitmaker On their 16th album, Murray Street, seminal New York art-punks Sonic Youth deliver some of their most distinctive music to date, striking an artful balance between the band's trademark excursions and conventional verse/chorus song structure. The album is also the band's first as a quintet, with influential indie composer/musician/producer Jim O'Rourke joining the longstanding band lineup of guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, bassist Kim Gordon and drummer Steve Shelley.

Murray Street shares its name with the downtown Manhattan location of the band's studio and rehearsal space, a stone's throw from the former site of the World Trade Center. The band was a few weeks into recording when the sessions were interrupted by the events of September 11, 2001; O'Rourke was asleep in the studio when the first plane hit.

Although all of Murray Street's material was written prior to 9/11, Moore notes that the tragedy inevitably became a force in the music's direction once the band was able to resume recording — which could only happen after the police allowed access to the area and a 16-member decontamination crew restored the band's gear to working order.

"We really didn't get to look at the studio until a few weeks later," Moore recently told Billboard, adding, "Eventually, there was a certain desire to reclaim our workspace in the face of this neighborhood being destroyed. Our mood in approaching this record and actually executing it was certainly different than what it would have been prior."

"It was strange to go down there to work and be huddled in the studio and there was nothing, just these empty buildings all around," Gordon stated to Interview. "But it's comforting that when something like that happens, you can still feel good about your work."]]> 2002-11-13T17:00:00-05:00