Hits by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Vicente Fernández and Freddy Fender added to National Recording Registry
The original Broadway recording of “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Vicente Fernández’s enduring ranchera song “El Rey” and Freddy Fender’s breakthrough song “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” have been inducted into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
The original Broadway recording of “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Vicente Fernández’s enduring ranchera song “El Rey” and Freddy Fender’s breakthrough song “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” have been inducted into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
The trio of hits are among the 25 recordings and albums selected Wednesday for preservation at the nation’s audio history library.
"Hamilton's" inclusion in the registry comes a decade after the record-breaking musical premiered on Broadway. Miranda's reimagined story of Alexander Hamilton through the lens of rap and hip-hop and starring performers of color became a cultural phenomenon.
It won the Tony Award for best musical in 2015 and a Pulitzer Prize for drama. The show's album is the best-selling original cast recording in history and won a Grammy for best musical theater album.
“I think the National Recording Registry is an artistic version of a nation’s conversation with itself,” Miranda said in a statement. From the beginning of recorded sound to the present, "I feel incredibly honored that ‘Hamilton’ is a point in that timeline."
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