Madonna, Daddy Yankee, John Lennon, & More Added to National Recording Registry 2023

Kathryn Milewski -

The 2023 inductees are in! The Library of Congress has announced today (April 12) recordings by Madonna, Daddy Yankee, John Lennon, Mariah Carey, Led Zeppelin, The Police, and Queen Latifah are among the 25 being added to the National Recording Registry.

There are a few history makers with this year's list of additions. Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” is the first reggaeton recording to be inducted, while the Super Mario Bros. theme (composed by Koji Kondo) is the first theme from a video game to join the registry. The latter induction is notable considering the recent theatrical release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie as well as the The Recording Academy adding a new category for video games, (Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media), at the 65th annual Grammy Awards. It shows an increased respect for video game songs within the music industry.

Latifah’s All Hail the Queen is the second album by a female rapper to join the Registry, following Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Lennon’s “Imagine” is the first recording by a former Beatle to be honored. The Beatles’ beloved 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was inducted back in 2003.

Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas Is You” joins a short list of holiday classics in the Registry. Others include Bing Crosby’s 1942 staple “White Christmas,” Nat King Cole’s 1961 re-recording of The King Cole Trio’s 1946 classic “The Christmas Song,” and The Vince Guaraldi Trio’s 1965 TV soundtrack, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

The induction of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is the third major accolade for Eurythmics in the past year. In 2022, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Last year saw the inductions of two classic rock staples: Queen’s 1975 magnum opus “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Journey's 1981 song "Don't Stop Believin'." This year, Led Zeppelin’s 1971 mega-hit “Stairway to Heaven” is the latest rock track to be added. During the 70s, the song became as famous as most #1 hits even though it was never released as a single. It was one of the first tracks to show the power of the album-oriented rock (AOR) format.

Additionally, several of the inductions are linked to creative figures who have recently died, including: Irene Cara (whose song “Flashdance...What a Feeling” was added to the registry); David Crosby of CSNY (whose album Déjà vu was added); Burt Bacharach, the composer of “What the World Needs Now Is Love”; and Seymour Stein, who signed Madonna to his Sire Records imprint.

The 25 recordings were deemed worthy of preservation “based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage,” according to the Library of Congress. This brings the number of titles on the registry to 625. The latest selections were released between 1908 and 2012.

Watch the Library of Congress' 2023 National Recording Registry video and see the full list of inductees below.


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Article Image: Madonna smiling at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards, Daddy Yankee performing at a 2015 concert in Mexico, portrait of John Lennon in 1969. (s_bukley via DepositPhotos, Daddy Yankee [CC BY 3.0], and Joost Evers / Anefo [Available through Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons.)