Chicago Transit Authority Inducted Into National Recording Registry

 “Chicago Transit Authority” finished No. 1 in the public nominations for 2025.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today named 25 recordings as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage. More than 2,600 nominations were made by the public this year for recordings to consider for the registry. “Chicago Transit Authority” finished No. 1 in the public nominations this year. Other selected recordings in the top 10 of public nominations include “Happy Trails,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “My Life” by Blige.

“These are the sounds of America – our wide-ranging history and culture. The National Recording Registry is our evolving nation’s playlist,” Hayden said. “The Library of Congress is proud and honored to select these audio treasures worthy of preservation, including iconic music across a variety of genres, field recordings, sports history and even the sounds of our daily lives with technology.”

The recordings selected for the National Recording Registry this year bring the number of titles on the registry to 675, representing a small portion of the national library’s vast recorded sound collection of nearly 4 million items.

The sound of Chicago was “the result of us growing up in Chicago and listening, all of us, to different styles of music as we were growing up – jazz, rock and roll, classical – and when we started playing our instruments, that listening experience permeated our playing. So that when we played any song, we were able to just play naturally, organically, and what came out was what we sound like on that first album,” trumpeter, vocalist and songwriter Lee Loughnane told the Library of Congress.

Loughnane and trombone player James Pankow are two of the original members who remain with the band. They recalled how “Chicago Transit Authority” involved both improv and written material the band had carefully prepared to record for the first time.

“We would do solos and the solos were improvised, they were spontaneous,” Pankow said. “As we recorded and we fine-tuned these tracks, little ideas would pop in. The song would kind of blossom into a complete result. It was a very nurturing experience. It cast the mold for every album to come.”

“This career has been remarkable, a phenomenon that we never expected. This is our 58^th year touring, and it’s quite apparent that this music will far outlive us as people,” Pankow told the Library. “This music has been validated by the fans, by the listeners who continue to come to experience this music with great anticipation. This music seems to be timeless. This music seems to be multi-generational. And that is an amazing validation of the timelessness of the music. But to be acknowledged by the Recording Registry is the ultimate validation because it’s now in the record, and it is truly historical.”

“It’s an incredible honor to be included in the registry,” Loughnane said. “It’s something that we never thought would happen. We were hoping when we initially wrote the songs that anyone else besides us would like them. So to have it go this long is phenomenal for us and to be included in the registry is over the top.”

Few bands have the bold innovation and material to make their debut album a double-disc masterpiece. Even fewer could accomplish this in less than two weeks working in the studio. Self-described as “a rock band with horns,” “Chicago Transit Authority” delivers almost 90 minutes of a tight mix of big band jazz-infused rock, rhythm and blues, classical and pop. The album includes the songs “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?,” “Beginnings,” “Questions 67 and 68,” “I’m a Man,” “Poem 58” and “Someday.” While highly praised for its musical talent and diversity, an often-overlooked strength is the band’s three strong lead vocalists each with their own individual styles to bring to their collective work.

Recordings Selected for the National Recording Registry in 2025

(chronological order)

• “Aloha ‘Oe” – Hawaiian Quintette (1913) (single)
• “Sweet Georgia Brown” – Brother Bones & His Shadows (1949) (single)
• “Happy Trails” – Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (1952) (single)
• Radio Broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series – Chuck Thompson (1960)
• Harry Urata Field Recordings (1960-1980)
• “Hello Dummy!”– Don Rickles (1968) (album)
• “Chicago Transit Authority” – Chicago (1969) (album)
• “Bitches Brew” – Miles Davis (1970) (album)
• “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” – Charley Pride (1971) (single)
• “I Am Woman” – Helen Reddy (1972) (single)
• “El Rey” – Vicente Fernandez (1973) (single)
• “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” – Elton John (1973) (album)
• “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” – Freddy Fender (1975) (single)
• “I’ve Got the Music in Me” – Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker (1975) (album)
• “The Kӧln Concert” – Keith Jarrett (1975) (album)
• “Fly Like an Eagle” – Steve Miller Band (1976) (album)
• Nimrod Workman Collection (1973-1994)
• “Tracy Chapman” – Tracy Chapman (1988) (album)
• “My Life” – Mary J. Blige (1994) (album)
• Microsoft Windows Reboot Chime – Brian Eno (1995)
• “My Heart Will Go On” – Celine Dion (1997) (single)
• “Our American Journey” – Chanticleer (2002) (album)
• “Back to Black” – Amy Winehouse (2006) (album)
• “Minecraft: Volume Alpha” – Daniel Rosenfeld (2011) (album)
• “Hamilton” – Original Broadway Cast Album (2015) (album)

Condensed from Theh Library of Congress Newsroom. View this article in it’s entirety HERE.