Recordings by Amy Winehouse, Celine Dion, Elton John, Mary J. Blige and Tracy Chapman are among this year’s 25 additions to the National Recording Registry, which is administered by the Library of Congress. This year’s selections span 102 years, from 1913 (a recording of “Aloha ‘Oe” by Hawaiian Quintette) to 2015 (the cast album to the Broadway sensation Hamilton: An American Musical).

The list includes three songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” (1972), which gave the women’s liberation movement a theme song; Freddy Fender’s country/pop smash “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” (1975) and Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” the Oscar- and Grammy-winning smash from Titanic (1997).

It also includes two albums that reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – John’s hit-laden double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and Chapman’s eponymous debut album (1988). John and his longtime songwriting partner Bernie Taupin were the 2024 recipients of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which is also administered by the Library of Congress.

Tracy Chapman, which spawned the hit “Fast Car” (which was revived by Luke Combs in 2024), was one of three debut albums to be saluted this year. The others are Don Rickles’ comedy album Hello Dummy! (1968) and Chicago’s hit-filled double album Chicago Transit Authority (1969).

Winehouse’s Back to Black, the singer’s second (and, sadly, last) album, was inducted. The 2006 album spawned the smash “Rehab,” which won Grammys for both record and song of the year.

Two double-disk jazz albums – Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew (1970) and Keith Jarrett’s The Kӧln Concert (1975) – were honored. On the jazz fusion classic Bitches Brew, Davis and such musicians as Wayne Shorter and Chick Corea blended jazz with rock elements. It’s Davis’ second album in the Registry, following his 1959 classic Kind of Blue. Davis is the only artist this year to receive a second career induction.

Charley Pride, the first Black superstar in country music, was inducted for his 1971 classic “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” which topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for five weeks. Fender’s aforementioned “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” topped that chart for two weeks.

Blige’s 1994 sophomore album My Life, which topped Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart for eight weeks, was inducted. The album was highly personal, with songs addressing clinical depression, struggles with drugs and alcohol and being in an abusive relationship.

The Steve Miller Band were honored for their 1976 album Fly Like an Eagle, which spawned three top 20 hits on the Hot 100, including the No. 1 smash “Rock’n Me.”

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were honored for their 1952 single “Happy Trails,” which Evans wrote. Rogers is the only artist to have been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame twice – first in 1980 as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers and again in 1988 as a solo artist.

Hamilton (2015) is the first Broadway cast album that was released since Sweeney Todd in 1979 to be selected.

Vicente Fernández’s enduring ranchera classic “El Rey” (1973) joined the roster of Latin recordings in the Registry. See the full list here.

With the aforementioned Rickles album being inducted this year, this is the second year in a row that a comedy album has made the grade. Lily Tomlin’s This Is a Recording was honored last year. Here’s a complete list of the 14 comedy albums in the Registry.

Two left-field selections are Microsoft’s Windows reboot chime (1995), composed by Brian Eno, and David Rosenfeld’s Minecraft: Volume Alpha (2011). Microsoft wanted a brief start-up sound that would play when Windows 95 booted up. They approached Eno, who came up with a sound that Microsoft designers felt conveyed the sense of “welcome, hopefulness and progress” that they desired. Minecraft is the second video game soundtrack to join the Registry, following Koji Kondo’s theme from Super Mario Bros., selected in 2023.

Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker’s 1975 album I’ve Got the Music in Me is one of this year’s most surprising choices. The album was likely honored because of the unique way it was recorded: live to master disc. Pressure Cooker consisted of top session players of the era, including Michael Omartian, Larry Carlton, Tom Scott and Larry Knechtel. The title track had been a big hit in the fall of 1974 for The Kiki Dee Band. Houston went on to top the Hot 100 in 1977 with “Don’t Leave Me This Way.”

The radio broadcast of the deciding Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, in which the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees, was inducted. Another sports-related entry is Brother Bones & His Shadows’ 1948 recording of the 1925 standard “Sweet Georgia Brown.” The Brother Bones recording was surprise hit in 1949. Three years later, the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team made it their theme song.

Chanticleer’s Our American Journey (2002) saw the acclaimed a cappella choral group taking its listeners on an eclectic musical trip across America, through its history and a variety of musical genres.

This year’s other entries, not already mentioned, are Harry Urata Field Recordings (1960-1980) and Nimrod Workman Collection (1973-1994). Musician and educator Harry Urata, confined to an internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, encountered Japanese-American workers who had processed sugar cane leaves on Hawaiian plantations since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like many immigrant workers, they adapted and sang old folk songs to reflect their daily circumstances. Recognizing the cultural and historical significance of the songs, Urata traveled throughout Hawaii’s islands recording elderly singers who had toiled on sugar plantations. His collection features 20 open-reel tapes recorded from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Born in Inez, Kentucky, in 1895, Nimrod Workman was a folk singer, coal miner and union activist. He began his work in the West Virginian mines at age 14, and he would continue for the next 42 years. After retiring from the mines, he began recording unaccompanied traditional ballads, songs of his own composition and oral history. In 1986, Workman was a recipient of a 1986 National Heritage Fellowship, the U.S. government’s highest honor in the folk arts. Workman died in 1994.

More than 2,600 nominations were made by the public this year. Chicago Transit Authority finished first in the public nominations. Other selected recordings that ranked in the top 10 of public nominations include “Happy Trails,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and My Life.

Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian of
Congress, with advice from the National Recording Preservation Board, selects 25 titles
each year that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Recordings become eligible for the Registry 10 years after release, compared to 25 years for the Grammy Hall of Fame. (Which means the Hamilton cast album won’t be eligible there for another 15 years.)

“These are the sounds of America – our wide-ranging history and culture,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement. “The Library of Congress is proud and honored to select these audio treasures worthy of preservation.”

Industry veteran Robbin Ahrold serves as chair of the National Recording Preservation Board. “This year’s National Recording Registry list is an honor roll of superb American popular music from the wide-ranging repertoire of our great nation,” he said in a statement.

These 25 recordings bring the number of titles on the Registry to 675. This represents just a tiny fraction of the Library’s vast recorded sound collection of nearly four million items.

NPR’s “1A” will feature selections from this year’s induction class in its series “The Sounds of America,” including interviews with Hayden and several featured artists.

Here’s the complete list of 2025 additions to the National Recording Registry. They are listed in chronological order by release date.

As Ed Sheeran readies the release of his forthcoming eighth album, he’s revealed that fans won’t be left waiting too long between singles for fresh material given the record’s “broad” range of sounds.

Sheeran’s comments were made during his appearance on the latest episode of Call Her Daddy, where he spoke with host Alex Cooper about his lyrics, his favorite memory of Taylor Swift, and the embarrassing story of being caught naked in a hotel lobby. 

The conversation also switched to the discussion of Sheeran’s new music, which includes the recently-released single “Azizam,” which will feature on his forthcoming album Play. While a release date for the record is yet to arrive, Sheeran used his appearance on Call Her Daddy to talk about the music that is still to come in the near future.

“My idea was because the album is so broad, I didn’t want to just be like, ‘Here’s the single. Here’s the album,’ so there’s music coming every sort of two, three weeks,” he explains. “So there’s ‘Azizam’ now, there’s a song called ‘Old Phone’ that comes out in a couple of weeks, and then after that there’s another song coming. 

“We shot all these videos and I’m less about single moments and more about, I want people to sort of feel the breadth of the record and I’m very confident that one of the songs will work, but it’s more about just putting ’em out and letting people hear some of the record before it’s out rather than what I’ve done before, which is just like, ‘Here’s my first single. Here’s the album,’ and yeah.”

While Sheeran has already given fans a preview of “Old Phone” by playing it live on The Tonight Show, Cooper also queried the English musician as to how his new music differs compared to what he had released on previous albums.

“It’s definitely different. I think I’ve been more explorative with this album,” Sheeran explained. “I kind of had an attitude of ‘Why the f–k not?’ and not really felt like I have to be in a box of being a singer-songwriter, of like, ‘I have to do this or I have to do that,’ and I lived in India for a little bit and worked with a load of Indian musicians and producers and blah, blah, blah. 

“I made a song like ‘Azizam’ with Ilya who’s Persian and that’s in that world and ‘Old Phone’ I think is more in a Nashville country world and there’s just lots of different moments on the record, and the record is called Play and therefore it has to be playful. It has to be celebratory.”

Sheeran’s forthcoming eighth LP follows on from the release of his two 2023 albums, − and Autumn Variations, which peaked at No. 2 and No. 4 on the Billboard 200, respectively. They were his first records not to peak atop the chart since the release of his 2011 debut, +, and were followed in November 2024 with the standalone single “Under the Tree,” as featured in the Netflix film That Christmas.

As Sheeran explained during his chat with Cooper, the general vibe of Play is set to be far different to what what had arrived on his most recent albums.

“I released two albums that kind of, well, one was the sort of main album and one sort of came off the back of it, but they were both very depressing about quite hard hitting subjects, very muted,” he added. 

“I still think they’re beautiful records, but I feel like coming out of that, of you know, going through grief and all that sort of stuff coming out, I needed to have something that felt bright and colorful and playful and that’s where doing St. Patrick’s Day, playing at Tootsie’s in Nashville, doing the New Orleans thing, the whole record just has to feel like fun and exciting.”

On April 2, NAQT VANE released their new concept EP, NV. This is NAQT VANE’s first concept EP with its new lineup after welcoming Yunoa. The EP has a total of seven songs, including solo songs “C” and “O” by Yunoa and Harukaze and an “NV Series” of reinterpreted NAQT VANE songs. What kind of spirit and message have they poured into the “NV” concept EP? Billboard Japan talked at length with the two, hot off their nationwide tour, about this and about their thoughts on the tour.

You just finished your first nationwide tour as a team of two vocalists, performing eight shows in four cities. What did you think of it?

Harukaze: At first, I thought that it would feel like long, but once we actually started performing, it was over in the blink of an eye. We had a blast performing, and I still feel a little wistful that we’ve already finished all eight shows.

Yunoa: It went by so fast. It was my first time performing in a solo show from the very start, and my first time touring. So I was really nervous going in, but once we started, I had so much fun. I still can’t believe it’s over, and I’m looking forward to going out on tour again.

On the tour, you represented yourselves as the “sun and moon,” and you had different set lists for your daytime and nighttime shows. How do you feel about that contrast of your individual characters as sun and moon?

Harukaze: During this one meeting we had about the tour, the conversation turned to how to showcase the “pair” aspect of NAQT VANE, now that we have twin vocalists. We wrote down keywords that represented our own individuality and unique characters. One of the things that came up was this concept of “sun and moon,” and we thought that conveyed the concept the clearest. They stand in contrast with each other, but both are essential, and when you have the two of them together, something magical happens. They’re like us in all kinds of ways.

It’s been 10 months since you formed this new lineup, which features your contrasting characters, and now you’ve finished a tour. Have there been any changes during this time?

Harukaze: When we changed to a twin vocal lineup, I knew from the start that it would open up a new path before us. Now, after finishing the tour, we’ve become absolutely essential to each other. We each produced our sun and moon shows, and in both shows, there were parts where we were able to shine because of each other’s presence.

Yunoa: For me, the tour impressed on me again just how fun it is to sing with Harukaze. Also, I didn’t know that I could spend so much time with someone else while always being comfortable staying true to myself. It was such a fun experience. I discovered something new about myself, that I didn’t have any problem being with others. Now I want to always stay close to these people I love so much.

Now you’ve released the “NV” concept EP, which includes “C” and “O,” solo songs that Hiroyuki wrote for the tour. I’d like to start out by asking about these solo songs. Yunoa, how did you feel when you first heard the music Hiroyuki wrote for “C?”

Yunoa: Usually, when I’m working solo as Yunoa, I write my own lyrics, but with “C,” I thought about my own traits and features, wrote them down, and had the lyrics written based on them. There were several parts where the lyrics I received perfectly conveyed what I was thinking. I didn’t feel over-pressured by “C.”

What did you think of the title?

Yunoa: It’s the shape of a crescent moon. I really liked the simplicity of that.

Right. So the same is true for “O?”

Harukaze: It’s the shape of the sun. It forms a set with “C.” When I got the lyrics, I also felt like it had really captured the message that I was trying to convey. My life motto is “I want people to smile,” and that was reflected in the line “Give me a smile.” I didn’t get any instructions to sing in a certain key or in a certain way, but the song has a lot of technical parts which Hiroyuki has complimented me on in past recordings. There are two NAQT VANE anthems, “Beautiful Mess” and “VANE,” and it’s really easy to picture singing them along with audiences.

You use a lot of different vocal tones in your singing, don’t you?

Harukaze: I’d talked to Hiroyuki in the past about how whenever I go in to record vocals, I want to take on new challenges. On NAQT songs, I added twists at the end, or I envisioned different peoples’ vocal tones when I recorded the chorus. I’d think about trying to be a specific type of singer, or I’d try singing in a super low, older man’s voice. I tried out all kinds of different voices, like 15 different people. They’re all in there, and that whole process of including those playful elements in the recording process was a new challenge for me.

You also recorded newly reimagined NV versions of songs from your first album, this time with twin vocals. What song made a particular impact on you?

Yunoa: “Ditty – NV.” There’s a rap part in it that just slaps. It just busts out right from the start. It’s so fast, I can’t even mentally keep up with what I’m saying. You’ve got to hear it.

Harukaze: But you sound like you’re having so much fun in that part. You’re really vibing!  It comes across so clearly. Part of it might be because the song itself is so fun.

Yunoa: It’s probably the most danceable song.

Harukaze: And it has a sense of playfulness. It’s so fast, and your rap part gets me fired up, too. I was surprised to see how much a song could change. The original was already playful, but having two people sing it instead of one makes it so much more exciting.

How did you feel after getting all seven songs ready for the release?

Yunoa: Really happy. I’ve been a member of NAQT VANE for less than a year, so it’s tremendously exciting to see my own name on a CD for the first time. Our new twin vocal lineup is used to its fullest, and we each have our own solo songs, so the EP highlights the qualities of both approaches. When I saw the samples of the finished EP, I was really impressed. The jackets are all unique variants, each with its own pattern, and each comes with a puzzle piece. The contents of the EP are so cute. There are so many special things about the CD, and more than anything I feel happy and a bit awed that so much is being done on my first ever CD.

Harukaze: I think the new EP packs in the true essence of NAQT VANE. This may be how some people discover us. We want to show our new lineup, and I hope that the EP is a breath of fresh air for everyone preparing for a new beginning [this spring]. The “NV” means both “NAQT VANE” and “New Version,” but it has another meaning, too: “Newborn Vibes.” Vibes are a really important part of the project, so we want to share these new vibes with all our VANEs.

What kind of “New Versions” do you see for the future?

Yunoa: We want to get bigger and bigger. We want more people to discover NAQT VANE. Everyone says we’re at our best in our live shows, so I want everyone to come see us perform live. We want to play in even bigger venues, filling domes.

Harukaze: We want to play at huge venues, and we also want to perform around the world. Our overseas fans send us messages asking when we’ll perform in their countries, so I hope we can really extend our overseas reach and perform in different countries, bringing out each of our own best qualities.

Do you have any closing message for your overseas listeners?

Yunoa: I think there are a lot of people in countries like the U.S. who share the same vibes as us. I’m sure they’d love us if they heard us, so please give us a listen. Then come to our show and go crazy on the dance floor.

Harukaze: When I was in high school, I spent three and a half years living in Vancouver, Canada, and then I went to university for four years in L.A. My dream is to return to Canada and America to put on shows. When I go back, I want to give back to all my old friends and all the people who’ve supported me. We’re going to be communicating more with our overseas listeners, so I hope everyone checks out what we have to say!

—This interview by Atsuo Nagahori first appeared on Billboard Japan