These Madonna & Mariah Carey Songs Are Being Preserved For Historical Value

By Rebekah Gonzalez

April 12, 2023

Photo: Getty Images

Two of pop music's most iconic divas are getting their songs added to the esteemed National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. Both Mariah Carey and Madonna are on the list of 25 recordings that will be inducted into the National Recording Registry this year thanks to their respective hits "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (1994) and "Like A Virgin" (1984). The songs were "chosen for their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s recorded sound heritage."

Carey appeared in a video from the Library of Congress announcing the 2023 entries. "It was the first Christmas song I ever wrote," she said of her beloved megahit. "And I kind of wanted it to sort of embody all the things I didn't have when I was a kid. I wanted it to be like, you know, make people happy and make myself happy."

Other familiar tracks that made the 2023 National Recording Registry are the Eurthymics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", Queen Latifah's "All Hail the Queen," Daddy Yankee's 2004 hit "Gasolina," Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. video game theme, John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Imagine," Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville," and many more.

Check out the full list below:

  1. “The Very First Mariachi Recordings” — Cuarteto Coculense (1908-1909)
  2. “St. Louis Blues” — Handy’s Memphis Blues Band (1922)
  3. “Sugar Foot Stomp” — Fletcher Henderson (1926)
  4. Dorothy Thompson: Commentary and Analysis of the European Situation for NBC Radio (Aug. 23-Sept. 6, 1939)
  5. “Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around” — The Fairfield Four (1947)
  6. “Sherry” — The Four Seasons (1962)
  7. “What the World Needs Now is Love” — Jackie DeShannon (1965)
  8. “Wang Dang Doodle” — Koko Taylor (1966)
  9. “Ode to Billie Joe” — Bobbie Gentry (1967)
  10.  “Déjà Vu” — Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1970) 
  11.  “Imagine” — John Lennon (1971)
  12.  “Stairway to Heaven” — Led Zeppelin (1971)
  13.  “Take Me Home, Country Roads” — John Denver (1971)
  14.  “Margaritaville” — Jimmy Buffett (1977)
  15.  “Flashdance…What a Feeling” — Irene Cara (1983)
  16.  “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” — Eurythmics (1983)
  17.  “Synchronicity” — The Police (1983)
  18.  “Like a Virgin” — Madonna (1984)
  19.  “Black Codes (From the Underground)” — Wynton Marsalis (1985)
  20.  Super Mario Bros. theme — Koji Kondo, composer (1985)
  21.  “All Hail the Queen” — Queen Latifah (1989)
  22.  “All I Want for Christmas is You” — Mariah Carey (1994)
  23.  “Pale Blue Dot” — Carl Sagan (1994)
  24.  “Gasolina” — Daddy Yankee (2004)
  25.  “Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra” — Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composer (2012)
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