Some Enchanted Recording

It was some enchanted evening on April 7, 1949 when South Pacific opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre.  So culturally significant was this event that last week the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.  While this blogger, and millions others, have always recognized the Rodgers & Hammerstein show for its cultural significance, the Library of Congress has now also taken note.  Now future generations of American’s will know what it is like when ‘you see a stranger across a crowded room.’

To be selected for the National Recording Registry is an immense honor.  It not only signifies a recording’s popular appeal, but more importantly it’s cultural significance to the heritage of the United States.  The recordings aren’t based on trivial matters such as: “weeks spent at #1” or “total # of albums sold.”  Rather, selections are because the albums “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.”

Each year the National Recording Registry Board accepts nominations in 23 different categories for an album’s inclusion into the Registry.  Those categories include: Documentary/Broadcast/Spoken Word, Heavy Metal, Rap/Hip-Hop and Broadway/Musical Theatre/Soundtrack.  From the nominations, the Board then chooses roughly 25-50 recordings to be preserved by the Library of Congress.  In addition to original cast album of South Pacific this year’s list also includes: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, Van Cliburn’s 1958 rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 and a D-Day radio broadcast by journalist George Hicks.

The Registry is a who’s who of American political, entertainment and religious culture.  While Congress usually gets jeered, I feel that this is one occasion where they should be cheered.  For none of this would be possible had it not been mandated by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000.

Going back to South Pacific, I don’t think it was picked solely because of its success on both stage and screen.  Yes, the show won 10 Tony awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and has been produced around the world, but it also represents something more.  On the eve of the American Civil Rights movement, South Pacific unapologetically proclaimed, “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.”  This statement is still as bold now as was when it was first sung in 1949.  That declaration alone is reason enough why South Pacific should be preserved, and listened too for generations to come.