2024 NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY

On April 16th, The National Recording Registry selected the latest twenty-five sound recordings to be inducted to highlight what it calls "the range and diversity of the American recorded sound heritage". The Registry is an extension of the passage by Congress in 2000 of the National Recording Preservation Act. Since 2002, the Library of Congress oversees the selection of 25 recordings, which must be at least 10 years old at the time of induction, and deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". This latest group brings the total number of recordings in the registry to 650.

Some of the recordings selected include the debut album by the new-wave rock band, The Cars; "Chances Are", the second single by easy listening crooner, Johnny Mathis to sell over a million copies; the punk-rock group, Blondie's breakthrough album, "Parallel Lines" that features the disco tune, "Heart of Glass"; "Ain't No Sunshine", Bill Withers' soul-folk song that became his first major hit; "Arrival", the fourth album by the Swedish pop quartet, ABBA that contains their international smash, "Dancing Queen"; Patti Page's popular pop version of the country song, "Tennessee Waltz"; "Ready To Die", the semi-autobiographical debut studio album from the late hip-hop artist, The Notorious B.I.G.; the crossover pop hit, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by jazz performer, Bobby McFerrin; "This Is a Recording", Lily Tomlin's first comedy album that won her a Grammy Award and the holiday classic about that reindeer with the shiny red nose originally recorded by Gene Autry, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Here is the complete list of the twenty-five selections entered into the 2024 Recording Registry:

"Clarinet Marmalade" – Lt. James Reese Europe’s 369th U.S. Infantry Band (1919)
"Kauhavan Polkka" – Viola Turpeinen and John Rosendahl (1928)
Wisconsin Folksong Collection (1937-1946)
"Rose Room" – Benny Goodman Sextet with Charlie Christian (1939)
"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" – Gene Autry (1949)
"Tennessee Waltz" – Patti Page (1950)



"Rocket ‘88’" – Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (1951)
"Catch a Falling Star" / "Magic Moments" – Perry Como (1957)
"Chances Are" – Johnny Mathis (1957)



"The Sidewinder" – Lee Morgan (1964)
"Surrealistic Pillow" – Jefferson Airplane (1967)



"Ain’t No Sunshine" – Bill Withers (1971)
"This is a Recording" – Lily Tomlin (1971)
"J.D. Crowe & the New South" – J.D. Crowe & the New South (1975)
"Arrival" – ABBA (1976)



"El Cantante" – Héctor Lavoe (1978)
"The Cars" – The Cars (1978)
"Parallel Lines" – Blondie (1978)



"La-Di-Da-Di" – Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick (MC Ricky D) (1985)



"Don’t Worry, Be Happy"– Bobby McFerrin (1988)



"Amor Eterno" – Juan Gabriel (1990)



"Pieces of Africa" – Kronos Quartet (1992)
"Dookie"– Green Day (1994)



"Ready to Die" – The Notorious B.I.G. (1994)
“Wide Open Spaces” – The Dixie Chicks (1998)

MARTY BALIN (1942 - 2018)

Marty Balin, the co-founder and vocalist of the classic rock band, Jefferson Airplane and later a part of the revamped Jefferson Starship, has passed away on September 27th at the age of seventy-six.

He was born Martyn Buchwald in Cincinnati, Ohio but his family moved to San Francisco when he was a teen. He changed his name to "Marty Balin" after he began his professional music career when he was twenty and was later a part of a folk music group, The Town Criers. Balin met fellow folk musician Paul Kantner in 1965 and they eventually found other musicians, blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, drummer, Jerry Peloquin, acoustic bassist, Bob Harvey and vocalist Signe Toly Anderson to form their own group.

They called themselves, "Jefferson Airplane" (based on the name of a friend of Kaukonen's dog) and admiring the success of the Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel and the Beatles, this band moved away from folk and towards a pop-rock sound. As they began to play around the bay area, several band members left and were replaced until Jefferson Airplane's second album in 1967, "Surrealistic Pillow". The line-up (now considered the classic) featured Kantner, Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady, drummer Spencer Dryden and Grace Slick who shared vocal duties with Balin. The album featured two top-ten hits, "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit" and sold over a million copies.

The band enjoyed great success and popularity until excessive drug-use and ego-clashing caused Balin to leave the band in 1971. Jefferson Airplane officially came to an end in 1973. Kantner and Slick went on to form a new band called "Jefferson Starship" in 1974. They eventually got Balin to join the following year and the band had hits with "Miracles", "With Your Love" and "Count on Me". Balin eventually decided to leave the band again by 1978 and embark on a solo career.  He recorded several solo albums and had a top-ten hit with "Hearts" in 1981. Balin, as a member of Jefferson Airplane, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. In honor of this gifted artist, here are two my favorites songs performed by Marty Balin: