James Beaty: OPINION: Rock, country, blues named to National Recording Registry

Apr. 16—It's that time of year again. Spring is springing; early flowers are blooming and the National Recording Registry has inducted a new round of sound recordings.

I say sound recordings because the inductees are not limited to songs. They sometimes include speeches, radio broadcasts of sports, historic moments and other events.

Still, most of each year's inductions are for songs. While popular music, rock, country, soul, rhythm and blues, gospel, blues, blues, rap, jazz and classical have been included in previous inductions, genres outside the mainstream have been included as well, such as zydeco and calypso.

Once again this year's list of inductees leaves me cheering for some, feeling somewhat skeptical about others, figuratively scratching my head regarding some puzzlers and thinking "What took you so long?" about a few others.

Fans of classic rock and pop don't despair —there are plenty of those included in this year's inductions.

Included on the list of this year's inductees is a new genre, theme music from a video game, with the "Super Mario Brothers Theme," from 1985, by Koji Kondo."

Inducted from 1994 is the ubiquitous "All I Want for Christmas is You," recorded and cowritten by Mariah Carey, which has become a modern Christmas standard.

On the musical front, some artists are inducted for an entire album, while others are honored for singles.

Inducted from the 1960s are songs recorded by The Four Seasons, Jackie DeShannon, Koko Taylor and Bobbie Gentry.

Fans can look to the inclusion of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young from the 1970s, along with works by John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, John Denver, and Jimmy Buffett.

Inducted from the 1980s are recordings by a slew of artists, including The Police, Madonna, Eurythmics, Irene Cara, Wynton Marsalis, Queen Latifa and the aforementioned "Super Mario Brothers Theme."

Leading on the album front for me this year is "Déjà Vu" — the iconic 1970 album by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Not only does the album include classic individual contributions from David Crosby, Steven Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young, the four achieve a dynamic group sound on several songs.

Hit singles from the album include "Teach Your Children," "Our House" and the band's rocked-up version of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock."

Deep cuts on the album include a spectacular electric guitar duel between Young and Stills —the former Buffalo Springfield bandmates — on Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair."

Crosby, Stills and Nash add their resplendent vocal harmonies to Young's song "Helpless" about that home in south Ontario.

Other song's such as Stills' "4 + 20" and Young's "Country Girl (I Think You're Pretty)" sound more like solo tracks than a group effort.

On "4 + 20," Stills sings and plays alone, accompanied only by his fingerpicked acoustic guitar.

With "Country Girl," there's little aural evidence that Crosby, Stills or Nash were even in the studio when Young recorded the track.

"Déjà Vu" is an album that perfectly captures the spirit of the time when the group recorded the album. As a band, they would never reach those heights again, although they went on to record a couple of fine albums.

As solo artists, all four released memorable albums — which may explain why the group, as a quartet, never again reached the musical heights of "Déjà Vu."

Maybe CSY&N were saving their best songs for their own solo album releases.

Another personal favorite for me is "Sherry," the 1962 song that proved to be the first big hit from The Four Seasons, featuring the high, piercing falsetto. voice of Frankie Vali. Though they would go on to score many more hits, "Sherry" still holds a special place in the hearts of many of those Jersey boys' fans.

John Lennon's "Imagine" from 1971 is inducted this year, with the song's writers now cited as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, instead of Lennon alone.

I remember reading an interview with Lennon when he confirmed that Ono should have been listed as a cowriter from the first, but he said he'd been to chauvinistic to include her at the time.

Another induction from 1971 for this year is Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." Though classic rock fans may have heard it a jillion times, it's highly representative of Zeppelin's sound, starting as a slow acoustic number before it morphs into a full-blown rocker, giving the entire band a chance to shine.

Also from 1971 is John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads." From the time of its release, the song has never really gone away, with music fans of many ages familiar with its chorus.

Speaking of songs with a catchy chorus, Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville" is also on this year's list of inductees.

Recordings from the 1980s inducted this year include "Synchronicity" by The Police; "Like a Virgin,"by Madonna; "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurhythmics and "Flashdance... What a Feeling" by Irene Cara.

Going back a few decades, another song from the 1960s is "What the World Needs Now is Love," recorded by Jackie DeShannon.

Koko Taylor's 1966 earthy blues recording of "Wang Dang Doodle Doodle" joins this year's list of inductees.

So did Bobbie Gentry's gothic southern song, "Ode to Billy Joe,"which had music fans wondering exactly what got thrown from that Tallahassee Bridge.

I guess even the more obscure choices for this year's group of inductees no doubt have their own fans thrilled at their inclusion.

Purpose of the National Recording Registry is to ensure these recordings are preserved because of their musical, cultural or historic significance.

Inductees are not limited to Americans, so it's not unusual to include musical artists or others from outside the United States.

This year's batch of inductees covers a wide time span, dating back to 1908-1909 for what is called the very first Mariachi Recordings by Cuarteto Coculense, from the Mexican state of Jalisco, recorded in Mexico City.

The time period for 2023's batch of inductees extends up to 2012 to include a classical performance titled "Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra" by composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilch.

While the first of this year's inductions occurred with the aforementioned 1908-1909 Mariachi. recordings, every decade that follows is represented up to 2012 — with the exception of the 1950s.

It's not the 1950s are being ignored by the National Recording Registry. That decade has been well-represented in previous years, with most of the early rock 'n' rollers already inducted during previous years.

Inductions and decades represented for this year include:

—Two from the 1920s.

—One from the 1930s.

—One from the 1940s.

—Four from the 1960s.

—Five from the 1970s.

—Seven from the 1980s.

—Two from the 1990s.

—One from the 2000s and

—One from the 2010s.

With 25 sound recordings inducted into the National Recording Registry for 2023, some music fans are likely already thinking about which ones they would like to see included the next time around.