BMI Congratulates its Affiliates Chosen for the National Recording Registry’s Class of 2022

Posted in News on April 13, 2022

Each year, the Librarian of Congress selects 25 titles that are deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to be inducted into the National Recording Registry. This year, BMI is very proud to announce that 9 of our licensed works have been chosen for this prestigious honor, which reflects the diverse music and voices that have shaped our nation’s history and culture through recorded sound.

The recordings selected for the class of 2022 bring the number of titles on the registry to 600, representing a small portion of the national library’s vast recorded sound collection of nearly 4 million works. The latest musical selections named to the registry span from 1921 to 2010 and range from rock, pop, and country to Latin, Motown, and jazz. In addition, several of the recordings joining the registry were influential in helping to deepen and grow the genres of rap, hip-hop and R&B in American culture, including BMI affiliate Wu-Tang Clan’s classic 1993 album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), which has shaped the sound of hardcore rap and reasserted the creative capacity of the East Coast rap scene.

The other 8 BMI-affiliated titles which have made history and are included in this year’s induction are the singles “Walking the Floor Over You” by Ernest Tubb (1941); “Jesus Gave Me Water” by The Soul Stirrers (1950); Richard B. and Robert M. Sherman’s song “It’s a Small World” by The Disneyland Boys Choir (1964); and Holland-Dozier-Holland’s “Reach Out, I’ll Be There” by The Four Tops (1966). This year’s selected albums, which include works by several BMI affiliates are We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960); Tonight’s the Night by The Shirelles (1961); In C by Terry Riley (1968); and Buena Vista Social Club by guitarist Ry Cooder with an all-star ensemble of 20 Cuban musicians.

Congratulations to all who have received this highly coveted honor! To read more about these extraordinary musical works, please visit National Recording Registry. To hear this year’s selected works, visit https://dima.org/national-recording-registry-class-of-2022/.

SOURCENews TAGS Wu-Tang Clan Ry Cooder The Four Tops Holland-Dozier-Holland Terry Riley Max Roach Richard Sherman Richard M. Sherman The Shirelles The Soul Stirrers Ernest Tubb