Texans in the National Recording Registry

The National Recording Preservation Board is an advisory group concerned with the preservation of recorded sound.

Recordings selected for the National Recording Registry are those that are culturally, historically or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.

For the purposes of recording selection, "sound recordings" are defined as works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds, but not including the sound component of a moving image work, unless it is available as an autonomous sound recording or is the only extant component of the work.

Recordings may be a single item or group of related items; published or unpublished; and may contain music, non-music, spoken word, or broadcast sound.

Recordings will not be considered for inclusion into the National Recording Registry if no copy of the recording exists.

No recording should be denied inclusion into the National Recording Registry because that recording has already been preserved.

No recording is eligible for inclusion into the National Recording Registry until ten years after the recording's creation.

Click here to view the master list of registry recordings. Texas musicians featured in the National Recording Registry are listed below:

Scott Joplin ragtime compositions on piano rolls - Scott Joplin, piano (1900s)

Scott Joplin is regarded as the pre-eminent composer of ragtime compositions. Joplin himself performed some of these rags for piano roll sales. These rolls represent the way rags were originally listened to and enjoyed on home player pianos. They are outstanding examples of a less-familiar, nearly-obsolete, sound recording format. Selected for the 2002 registry.

"Arkansas Traveler" and "Sallie Gooden" - Eck Robertson, fiddle (1922)

Eck Robertson, master old-time fiddler, is recognized as the first performer to make country music recordings. This Victor disc features Robertson as a soloist on "Sallie Gooden," and in a duet with fiddler Henry Gilliland performing "Arkansas Traveler" on the flip side. Selected for the 2002 registry.

"Blue Yodel (T for Texas)" - Jimmie Rodgers (1927)

The "blue yodels" of Jimmie Rodgers, the "Father of Country Music," helped to define country music. Rodgers' compositions and recorded performances combined African American and Anglo musical forms and popularized rural American music traditions. Selected for the 2004 registry.

Victor Talking Machine Company sessions in Bristol, Tennessee - Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Stoneman, and others (1927)

Victor Records, searching for performers of "hillbilly" music, recorded performances by 19 local musicians in Bristol, Tennessee, in 1927. The amazing display of talent yielded such future country music recording stars as the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and Ernest Stoneman. The sessions are considered a watershed moment in the history of country music. Selected for the 2002 registry.

"Goodnight Irene" - Leadbelly (1933)

Huddie Ledbetter (1889-1949), better known as Leadbelly, or Lead Belly, sang spirituals, popular songs, field and prison hollers, cowboy and children's songs, dance tunes and folk ballads, as well as his own compositions. Leadbelly was first recorded in 1933, by John and Alan Lomax when the singer was serving time in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The Lomaxes were recording ballads and folksongs for the Library of Congress. "Goodnight Irene," Leadbelly's best-known song, became a best seller for the Weavers in 1950, just months after his death. This is the first recording of "Irene," which includes some lyrics that were later changed. Selected for the 2003 registry.

The John and Ruby Lomax Southern States Recording Trip (1939)

John Lomax, honorary consultant and curator for the fledgling Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress, recorded hundreds of performances of ballads, blues, cowboy songs, field hollers, spirituals, and work songs in nine southern states. Many ethnomusicologists consider the recordings made on this field trip to be among the most important in this genre. Selected for the 2002 registry.

"New San Antonio Rose" - Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys (1940)

Bob Wills is considered one of the pioneers of the musical amalgam of old-time fiddle music, blues, pop, and jazz, which came to be known as western swing. This recording of Wills' signature song became an American standard. Earlier recorded by Wills as an instrumental, this horn-laden version added the "Deep within my heart…" lyrics that are still popular. Selected for the 2003 registry.

"Uncle Sam Blues" - Oran "Hot Lips" Page, accompanied by Eddie Condon’s Jazz Band. V-Disc (1944)

During the 1940s, the United States was in the record business. The V-Disc label was created to boost morale by providing recordings of familiar American artists to service camps overseas as well as on the home front. The V-Disc program took on added significance when, owing to a dispute between the record labels and the musicians’ union over royalties, union musicians were forbidden to make commercial recordings. With the understanding that V-Discs would not be sold in the domestic market, the union permitted musicians to contribute their services for free so that some V-Disc releases could include fresh, new performances. Trumpeter Oran “Hot Lips” Page had played with the Bennie Moten Orchestra in Kansas City and was a featured performer with Artie Shaw during 1941-42. Page’s V-Disc recording of the “Uncle Sam Blues,” an ode to military conscription, must have resonated on both the war and home fronts. Selected for the 2008 registry.

"Jole Blon" - Harry Choates (1946)

"Jole Blon," by fiddler Harry Choates, is credited with introducing Cajun music to a national audience and making that genre a significant component of country music. Choates is known to many as the "Godfather of Cajun Music" and "Fiddle King of Cajun Swing." "Jole Blon," recorded for the Gold Star label, quickly became a country charts hit, the first Cajun song to make the top 10. Selected for the 2005 registry.

"Call it Stormy Monday but Tuesday is Just As Bad" - T-Bone Walker (1947)

The first recording of this blues standard was made by the Black and White label in Los Angeles on Sept. 14, 1947. Backing up Walker on the session are Lloyd C. Glenn on piano, Bumps Myers on tenor sax and Teddy Buckner playing a muted trumpet. This lineup adds a strong jazz inflection to the recording. The song was reinterpreted with great success by a wide range of blues, rock and jazz recording artists, including Bobby Blue Bland, Lou Rawls, The Allman Brothers and Kenny Burrell. Selected for the 2007 registry.

"That'll Be the Day" - The Crickets (1957)

Buddy Holly had actually recorded an earlier version of this song with a more country-and-western feel than the hit version that Brunswick Records released. In an era when performers were not necessarily songwriters, Buddy Holly and the Crickets wrote most of their own material, including this number. Holly's fellow songwriters were drummer Jerry Allison and bassist Joe B. Mauldin who also provided an excellent rhythm section for the group. Selected for the 2005 registry.

"Crazy" - Patsy Cline (1961)

Patsy Cline is considered one of the greatest country music singers and an inspiration to many contemporary female vocalists. "Crazy," a perfect vehicle to showcase Cline's poignant, heartbreaking voice and superb musicianship, also demonstrates the song-writing prowess of Willie Nelson. It is an excellent example of the urbane Nashville Sound, which became popular in country music after the rise of rock and roll. Selected for the 2003 registry.

"Oh, Pretty Woman" - Roy Orbison (1964)

The last of Roy Orbison's string of hits for Monument records, "Oh, Pretty Woman" was his most enduring recording. Orbison and co-writer Bill Dees tapped out the initial rhythm of the song while sitting at Orbison's kitchen table. In the recorded version, this became the infectious and well-known opening guitar riff and propulsive drum beat. Artists as varied as Al Green, John Mayall and Van Halen have performed the song, and 2 Live Crew sampled the opening on their 1989 album, "As Clean as They Wanna Be." That appropriation, made without authorization, led to a U. S. Supreme Court case (Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.), which ruled in 1994 that the commercial song parody qualified as fair use under Section 107 of the U. S. copyright law. Selected for the 2007 registry.

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" - George Jones (1980)

George Jones has said that he initially thought “He Stopped Loving Her Today” was too sad to be very popular, but, at one of the lowest points of his career and personal life, he made it one of country music’s defining and most enduring songs. Billy Sherrill’s restrained production highlighted the plaintive yet highly nuanced vocals that were the hallmark of Jones’ mature style, but which stretched back to his days singing for tips in the streets of his hometown, Beaumont, Texas, in the 1940s. Selected for the 2008 registry.

"Red Headed Stranger" - Willie Nelson (1975)

At the time composer and performer Willie Nelson recorded “Red Headed Stranger,” he had just moved to Columbia Records with a contract that gave him complete artistic control. The new freedom allowed him to compose an album of uncommon elegance and power, one built primarily of his own compositions, but including older country songs like Fred Rose’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” Set in the Old West, it told the tale of a tormented preacher on the run from killing his wife and her lover. In the studio, Nelson relied on extremely spare arrangements which emphasized guitar, harmonica and piano. At times the only accompaniment was Nelson’s nylon-string guitar. The resulting album was met with considerable skepticism from Columbia’s executives, but Nelson’s instincts proved prescient and “Red Headed Stranger” resonated with an audience weary of the elaborate production techniques associated with Nashville studios, setting a new course for country and popular music. Selected for the 2010 registry.