Alicia Keys’ 'Songs in A Minor' is entering the National Recording Registry
’ 1966 classic “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” one of the finest singles ever to come off the Motown “assembly line.” Other Motown classics to have gotten the nod over the years are the Supremes’ “Baby Love,” Martha & The Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street,” The Temptations’ “My Girl,” The Miracles’ “The Tracks of My Tears” and two landmark albums – Marvin Gaye’s’s 1975 classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” was honored three years after a Freddie Mercury biopic with the same title won four Oscars.
“The National Recording Registry reflects the diverse music and voices that have shaped our nation’s history and culture through recorded sound,” Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, said in a statement. “The national library is proud to help preserve these recordings.” Public radio station WNYC’s broadcasts from Sept. 11, 2001, also join the Registry this year. The NPR station from New York City broadcast the chaotic first details of the attack on the World Trade Center from its studios just blocks away. The station would struggle to keep its signal live because its transmitters were atop one of the towers. Remarkably, the WNYC staff remained on the air throughout that terrible day.