Tag Archives: The Very First Mariachi Recordings (1908-1909)

Library of Congress Adds Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” to U.S. National Recording Registry

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Daddy Yankee is gassed about his latest honor…

The 46-year-old retired Puerto Rican rapper, singer, songwriter and actor, considered to be one of the pioneers of the reggaeton genre, has earned a place in the U.S. National Recording Registry.

Daddy YankeeThe Library of Congress announced the 25 albums, singles and other recording that have been added to the registry, including Daddy Yankee’s smash single “Gasolina.”

Appearing on Daddy Yankee’s 2004 album Barrio Fino, the track was the first reggaeton song to be nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

But Daddy Yankee isn’t the only Hispanic artist making this year’s list…

Mariah Carey’s modern holiday classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has made the grade.

“I’m honored beyond belief,” wrote Carey on Twitter about the single, which was released in 1994. “I definitely did not even imagine this would happen when writing and recording this song!”

The track became her 19th No. 1 the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2019, 25 years after its initial release, extending her record for the solo artist with the most number ones in the charts history.

Cuarteto Coculense’s album The Very First Mariachi Recordings (1908-1909) has also been added to the registry.

While mariachi music and its imagery are now emblematic of Mexican national identity, it was once a rural style of music played mainly in the state of Jalisco. In 1907, four musicians from the town of Cocula, Jalisco, led by the vihuela player Justo Villa, made the first recordings of it in Mexico City, where two years earlier they had introduced the style to the capitol when they performed for Mexican president Porfirio Diaz. These performances lack the trumpet now inextricably associated with mariachi, but even the early recording technology of the time could not fail to capture the group’s drive and spirit, and the recordings remained in print for many years. Due to the efforts of scholars and record collectors, the group’s work was collected and reissued in 1998 by Arhoolie Records, revisiting and reviving an otherwise lost chapter in mariachi’s history and paying overdue homage to these recording pioneers.

The late Irene Cara’s 1983 single “Flashdance…What a Feeling,” which she co-wrote for the film Flashdance, has also been named to the registry.

The hit single earned Cara the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female and a nomination for Record of the Year. As part of the Flashdance soundtrack, it gave her and all of the songwriters who contributed to the album the Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special, and she was also nominated alongside all of the other performers on the soundtrack for Album of the Year.

“Flashdance…What a Feeling” won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song and was also nominated in that category at the BAFTA Film Awards.

The 25 recordings were deemed worthy of preservation “based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage,” according to the Library of Congress.