Some landmark albums — and some songs you’ll hear at every wedding reception — have been added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

Each year, the National Recording Registry chooses 25 recordings for preservation that are judged to showcase “the range and diversity of American sound heritage.”  The choices are made from hundreds of nominations.  This year’s list of 25 includes Janet Jackson‘s record-setting 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814, Jackson Browne‘s acclaimed 1974 release Late for the Sky, the 1974 smash single “Lady Marmalade,” by Labelle, and Kool & the Gang‘s 1980 track, “Celebration.”

Also on the list: Kermit the Frog‘s “The Rainbow Connection,” from 1979’s The Muppet Movie, and the popular 1993 single “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” by the late Hawaiian artist Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, known as “Bruddah Iz.”

Jimmy Cliff‘s groundbreaking 1972 soundtrack to The Harder they Come, which took reggae into the mainstream, is also on the list, as is 1972’s Free to Be…You & Me by Marlo Thomas & Friends, a star-studded children’s album about gender equality.

Other well-known recordings on this year’s list includes Louis Amstrong‘s 1938 version of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” Albert King‘s 1967 blues album Born Under a Bad Sign, and sportscaster Phil Rizzuto‘s iconic play-by-play of Roger Maris hitting his 61st home run in 1961.

By Andrea Dresdale
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