The National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress has announced its 2025 class of inductees.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden named 25 recordings as worthy of preservation, citing their “cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.”
Legendary World Series broadcast
The lone radio broadcast on the list is Chuck Thompson’s call of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series.
The iconic matchup between the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees began memorably, with Thompson noting that players around the batting cage were singing “There’s No Tomorrow,” a song that charted for Tony Martin in 1949. A recording of the game broadcast can be found on YouTube:
The game was tied at nine going into the bottom of the ninth when Pittsburgh’s Bill Mazeroski hit a home run over Yankees left fielder Yogi Berra for the walk-off win.
Thompson had more than 20 years of experience as a baseball broadcaster, including with the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Senators, when he was assigned NBC’s radio coverage of the Series. He covered the second half of the game, with Chicago Cubs’ broadcaster Jack Quinlan anchoring the first half.
But during the call of Game 7 homer, Thompson misidentified the pitcher — Yankees right-hander Ralph Terry — and initially gave the final score as 10-0 before correcting himself.
He was later offered the chance to re-record the call for a commemorative Pirates record. According to the registry, he declined, saying, “I figured it had gone on the air that way, so it would not be honest to change it.”
Credit: Getty Images/Bettmann.
30-year anniversary of the Windows 95 sound
Other additions this year include producer Brian Emo’s Microsoft Windows reboot chime, which debuted with the launch of Windows 95 in August 1995. The sound played at startup and came at a time when personal computing was gaining traction in many households.
The soundtrack to the Minecraft video game and albums by Miles Davis, Elton John, Tracy Chapman, Chicago and Amy Winehouse are also among the inductees. The recordings span from as early as 1913 to as recent as 2015.
The National Recording Registry has made available a playlist featuring selections from this year, available on multiple platforms. With this class, the registry now includes 675 titles. The national library’s recorded sound collection has nearly four million items.
