New Audio Treasures Added to National Recording Registry

Taylor Swift’s album 1989, Beyoncé’s hit Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) and other “audio treasures” have been added to the US national playlist.

Credit: Sony (left), Big Machine (right)

The 25 newest additions to the National Recording Registry have been deemed “worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage,” according to the Library of Congress'.

“Music and recorded sound are essential, wonderful parts of our daily lives and our national heritage,” says Robert R. Newlen, acting Librarian of Congress. Established in 2000, the National Recording Registry now includes 700 titles.

The 2026 class of newcomers - sounds must be at least ten years old to be considered - were chosen from thousands of nominations from members of the public. Weezer, whose 1994 debut album Weezer (The Blue Album) was among the most nominated selections this year and the 2026 list spans seven decades of recorded sound, dating back to Spike Jones and His City Slickers’ 1944 single Cocktails for Two.

This year's inclusion of Swift and Beyoncé is the first time both artists have been included in the National Recording Registry. The selection of Rosanne Cash’s 1993 album The Wheel marks the first time a father and daughter have both been listed in the registry, with Johnny Cash’s 1968 album At Folsom Prison selected in 2003. Another newly added work is Beauty and the Beat, the 1981 debut album from The Go-Go’s, which the Library of Congress describes as “one of the most successful all-female rock groups of all time.”

Most of the inclusions are albums or songs, but the list also features the March 1971 radio broadcast of a fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City between professional boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, that became known as "Fight of the Century".

Here's the full list of 2026 inductees:

Cocktails for Two - Spike Jones and His City Slickers (1944)

Mambo No. 5 - Pérez Prado and His Orchestra (1950)

Teardrops from My Eyes - Ruth Brown (1950)

Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words) - Kaye Ballard (1954)

Put Your Head On My Shoulder - Paul Anka (1959)

The Blues and the Abstract Truth - Oliver Nelson (1961)

Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music - Ray Charles (1962)

Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season) - The Byrds (1965)

Amen, Brother - The Winstons (1969)

Feliz Navidad - José Feliciano (1970)

The Fight of the Century: Ali vs. Frazier (8 March 1971)

Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight and the Pips (1973)

Chicago Original Cast Album (1975)

The Devil Went Down to Georgia - The Charlie Daniels Band (1979)

Beauty and the Beat - The Go-Go’s (1981)

Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (1983)

I Feel For You - Chaka Khan (1984)

Your Love - Jamie Principle (1986) / Jamie Principle/Frankie Knuckles (1987)

Rumor Has It - Reba McEntire (1990)

The Wheel - Rosanne Cash (1993)

Doom Soundtrack - Bobby Prince, composer (1993)

Go Rest High On That Mountain - Vince Gill (1994)

Weezer (The Blue Album) - Weezer (1994)

Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - Beyoncé (2008)

1989 - Taylor Swift (2014)

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