Early rockers, albums included in National Recording Registry

May 6—A column I wrote recently about this year's inductees into the National Recording Registry got me to wondering about who else is in there.

I've been keeping up with the annual inductees since 2016, when Marty Robbins' great album "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs" made the list.

If you missed it, a few of this year's inductees included the album "Déjà Vu" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, along with the recordings "Imagine" by John Lennon and "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin.

On the country-tinged front, "Ode to Billy Joe" by Bobbie Gentry and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver, were included.

Even the theme song from the "Super Mario Brothers" video game made this year's list of inductees.

Inclusion in the National Recording Registry means these recordings are deemed so significant to American culture and musical history, they should be preserved in the Library of Congress.

Fifty sound recordings were inducted during the first year, with the 2002 inductions announced early in 2003. Following the first four years, the number of annual inductions were changed from 50 to 25.

This year's inductees made me curious about who exactly is in the National Recording Registry. Since the total list numbers in the hundreds and includes everything from political speeches to historic radio broadcasts, I stuck with highlights in the rock, folk, country, gospel, soul, blues, and rhythm and blues categories.

I'm also sticking to the first four years of inductions, which covers 200 sound recordings.

That initial list of the first 50 inductees for 2002 included Oklahoma's own Woody Guthrie and his 1944 recording of "This Land is Your Land."

It also included "The Sun Sessions," Elvis Presley's first recordings for Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee before he launched into superstardom after moving to RCA.

Other highlights of that first group of inductees include Frank Sinatra's 1954 album "Hello Young Lovers," Bing Crosby's 1942 recording of "White Christmas" and Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys with their 1947 recording of "Blue Moon of Kentucky."

Since Presley's rocked-up version of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" is included in "The Sun Sessions," Monroe is the first artist to have two versions of his song included in the first round of inductions into the National Recording Registry.

Also included in that first batch of inductions were the 1963 album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," which included songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind," "Girl of the North Country," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right."

Those initial inductions also included Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" Parts 1and 2 from 1959 and Aretha Franklin's "Respect" from 1967, written and first recorded by Otis Redding, whose recording of "I've Been Loving You Too Long" would be inducted.

Billie Holiday's 1939 recording of "Strange Fruit," a song she wrote, also joined the first round of inductees.

Also included — a 1909 recording of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a song believed to have been written in Oklahoma.

Les Paul and Mary Ford's 1951 recording of "How High the Moon," largely credited with introducing multi-tracking to the recording industry in a big way, also made the first group of inductees.

That first group also included the first blues recording to be inducted — "Downhearted Blues" by Bessie Smith.

Some of the first country music ever recorded came from the 1927 Victor Talking Machine Session in Bristol, Tennessee, sometimes called the Big Bang of Country Music.

They include recordings by the Blue Yodeler Jimmie Rogers, sometimes called the Father of Country Music, and the original Carter Family.

Also, the first radio broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry from Oct. 14, 1939, with Roy Acuff, Uncle Dave Macon and others is included.

For the 2003 inductions, the National recording Registry included more of what's now called roots music by some.

It included another artist with Oklahoma roots, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, for their 1940 recording of "San Antonio Rose."

Folk-blues singer Lead Belly's "Good Night Irene" from 1933 and the "Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson" from 1936-37" were also part of the 2003 inductees.

"The Original Broadway Cast of Oklahoma" marked yet another tie to the Sooner State.

Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" made Berry the second of the early rock 'n' roll artists to be inducted.

Four rock albums were among the 2003 inductions: The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," Carole King's "Tapestry" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run."

Country music saw two major inductions, with Patsy Cline's 1961 recording of Willie Nelson's song, "Crazy" and Johnny Cash's 1968 live album "At Folsum Prison."

Casting a wide loop, the National Recording Registry rounded up more major musical artists for 2004, including a recording of the King James version of the Bible recorded by Andrew Scourby from 1949-1944. (Yes, I know I said this column would concentrate on musical inductions, but it does include the Psalms and Song of Solomon).

Also inducted were bluegrass greats Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs for "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," Sister Rosetta Tharpe for "Down By the Riverside" and blues titan Muddy Waters for "Hoochie Coochie Man."

Hank Williams Sr. won induction for his magnificent 1949 version of "Lovesick Blues" — one of his few major hits he didn't write himself. Legend has it he performed the song so well during his initial appearance on the Grand Ole Opry that the wildly-enthusiastic audience called him back for six encores.

Doo-wop music marked an entry with "Earth Angel" by the Penguins from 1954 and Bossa Nova came on board with 1963's "The Girl from Ipanema" by Stan Getz and Joáo Gilberto, with Astrud Gilberto singing the song by Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Some groundbreaking albums were among inductees for 2004. They include the resplendent "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys, "Live at the Apollo" by James Brown and "At the Fillmore East" by the Allman Brothers.

Also inducted were "Fear of a Black Planet" by Public Enemy and "Never Mind" by Nirvana.

More early rock 'n' rollers were among the 2005 inductees.

They included "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly and the Crickets and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" by Jerry Lee Lewis, both from 1957, along with "Blueberry Hill" by Fats Domino from 1956

As rock 'n' roll evolved into rock, more albums were inducted including "Are You Experienced" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience for 1967, B.B. King, "Live at the Regal" from 1965 and from 1968, "the satirical We're Only in It for the Money" by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

Also inducted that year were Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life"and Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

Martha and the Vandellas scored with their 1964 single "Dancing in the Street."

Roy Acuff won induction for his 1936 induction of "Wabash Cannonball" and again as part of the ensemble included in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 album "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" which also included performances by Maybelle Carter Earl Scruggs.

The 2005 inductions also proved to be a happy day for gospel music, with the inclusion of "John the Revelator" by the Golden Gate Quartet, "Move on Up a Little Higher" by Mahalia Jackson, and of course "Oh Happy Day" by the Edwin Hawkins Singers.