Janet Jackson and Kermit the Frog Added to National Recording Registry (Published 2021)
- ️Wed Mar 24 2021
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The Library of Congress has designated 25 recordings, from modern pop hits to one of the earliest recordings of an American voice, as “audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time.”
Published March 24, 2021Updated March 25, 2021
Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation 1814,” Kermit the Frog’s “The Rainbow Connection,” Marlo Thomas & Friends’ “Free to Be… You and Me,” Louis Armstrong’s 1938 rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In” and an 1878 Thomas Edison recording that may be the oldest playable recording of an American voice are among the 25 recordings just added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.
The registry, created in 2000, designates recordings that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and are at least 10 years old. Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress, named this year’s inductees from around 900 nominations by the public.
Jackson’s 1989 album, which scored a record-breaking seven Top 5 singles, may have won the most votes in the public nominating process. But it was Kermit who sat for an interview with Hayden, featured in a video released by the library.
“It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in a swamp, playing the banjo and singing ‘Rainbow Connection,’” the celebrity amphibian said, recalling the opening scene of “The Muppet Movie” (whose aerial shot, he claimed, was captured by Sam the Eagle). “Time sure is fun if you’re having flies … or something like that.”
(The composer Paul Williams, who co-wrote the song with Kenneth Ascher, also popped up for a brief cameo, elaborating on his favorite line of the song: “It’s a line about the immense power of faith — faith in someone or something, or a big idea,” he said. “Sometimes the questions are more beautiful than the answers.”)
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