New list of recorded ‘treasures’ preserved by Library of Congress has a Jersey spin

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Three recordings with musical roots planted in the Garden State are on this year’s list of audio treasures and deemed worthy of preservation by the Library of Congress.

The album “Tonight’s the Night” by Passaic’s all-female group, The Shirelles (1960), the early jazz single “Harlem Strut” by New Brunswick pianist James P. Johnson (1921), and the 1981 Journey tune “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which was immortalized in the fade-to-black final scene of the Jersey-centric TV series “The Sopranos,” are among the 25 recordings to be enshrined in the National Recording Registry.

“I’m so honored. They gave us our flowers,” said Beverly Lee, who is one of two surviving members of The Shirelles and still lives in Passaic.

There are some big international hits on the list — Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loco” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” for instance. “Tonight’s the Night” contained the title track and two other smash hits — ”Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “Dedicated to the One I Love” that vaulted The Shirelles to the top of the charts in 1961.

But enshrinement isn’t just about sales and chart positions. According to the Library of Congress, it’s about whether a recording has stood the test of time and is deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Every year since 2002, the Library of Congress has selected 25 recordings out of its collection of 4 million items for special recognition. The complete list of recordings on the national registry can be found on this website.

“Tonight’s the Night” was selected for what the Library of Congress called its “mature” themes. “The Harlem Strut,” the oldest recording on this year’s list, is an early example of the “stride” style, in which the pianist’s rhythmic left hand jumps around the keyboard, an influence on Duke Ellington and many others that followed.

And “Don’t Stop Believin’ might have sunk to the dustbin of classic rock history, but “The Sopranos” resurrected it in the final scene when Tony, at dinner with his family, plunks a quarter in the tabletop jukebox at Holsten’s Ice Cream parlor in Bloomfield — while a mysterious character eyeballs him from across the room. Then an abrupt fade to black as the song erupts — did Tony just get whacked?

“Fade to black and nobody knows what happened,” Holsten’s owner, Chris Carley, said on a recent day, as the lunch crowd began filing in. Carley said since that final show, in 2007, busloads of tourists have come to the luncheonette to sit in Tony’s spot. “Not as many as in the first two years after the show, but they still come,” he said.

“Funny you should mention this,” Carley said to this reporter. “But my son was in Nashville last night, and he went to see Journey in concert.”

“Tonight’s the Night” is being honored because it was remarkably different than the teeny-bopper music of the time — even though it was recorded by four teenagers. Far from being a sugary piece of boy-meets-girl pop, the best songs on the album go much deeper, and touch on a woman’s vulnerability and coming of age, as in the Carole King-penned classic, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.”

“A woman has a right to ask, doesn’t she?” Lee said.

Matt Barton, the curator of recordings for the Library of Congress, said “Tonight’s the Night” is more than just a collection of singles. It has a theme.

“To me, it’s remarkable that almost every song references the night in some way,” he said. “They may not have set out to make a concept album, but they have this theme of the night. The songs allude to the romance and the mystery of the night.”

So, it’s fair to ask: Did the Shirelles plan it that way?

“Not at all,” said Shirley Alston Reeves, the group’s lead singer who co-wrote the song “Tonight’s the Night” with the Shirelles’ producer, Luther Dixon. “It was just a song. I think they were looking for a B-side, and I came up with the idea for “Tonight’s the Night.”

The Shirelles’ story is the stuff that rock ‘n roll dreams are made of. Four teenagers growing up in Passaic in the 1950s — Shirley, Beverly Lee, Doris Coley and Addie “Micki” Harris write their own song, “I Met Him on a Sunday,” for a high school talent show in 1957.

A local school mom, Florence Greenberg, has started her own record label and learns about the group from her daughter, Mary Jane. Greenberg signs the group, then known as the Poquellos, who become The Shirelles.

It took three years, but The Shirelles broke big on Greenberg’s Scepter label in late 1960 with “Tonight’s the Night.” Other classic hits would follow — notably, “Soldier Boy” in 1962 — and until the Beatles came to America, The Shirelles were one of the biggest groups in rock ‘n roll.

The Shirelles started making records before the other notable female groups of the early 1960s, The Ronettes and The Crystals. The Beatles arrived in America in 1964 and ushered in the British Invasion, which pretty much wiped the female groups off the charts.

Still, The Shirelles continued to perform as an oldies act and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Reeves, who lives in Hillside, says she’s come off the road for good and no longer performs, but says the Library of Congress honor is a nice encore.

“I’ve had people come up to me over the years and say these songs mean so much to them,” she said. “To know that our work will preserved by the Library of Congress is such an honor. And it’s really nice to have this honor while I’m still breathing,” she laughed.

The Shirelles now join other New Jersey artists whose work has been recognized by the Library of Congress. Among them are Bruce Springsteen’s album “Born to Run” (1975), Frank Sinatra’s “Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!” (1954), Gloria Gaynor’s disco smash “I Will Survive,” (1978), Whitney Houston’s tear-jerker “I Will Always Love You (1992) and rapper/ R&B artist Lauryn Hill’s groundbreaking LP, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” (1998).

The National Recording Registry doesn’t just recognize music, but recordings and broadcasts that have historic and cultural value. This year, the complete set of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s speeches are being entered, as is the radio broadcast of Henry Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run at Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. on April 8, 1974. The broadcast recordings of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, aired by New York radio station WYNC, are also being added to the national registry.

Anyone can nominate a recording through the National Recording Registry website.

The Library of Congress says it receives about 1,000 nominations each year. The National Recording Preservation convenes each year to consider the nominations, then recommends 35 to 40 to the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, who then chooses the final 25 for induction.

“The National Recording Registry reflects the diverse music and voices that have shaped our nation’s history and culture through recorded sound,” Hayden said. “The national library is proud to help preserve these recordings, and we welcome the public’s input.”

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Richard Cowen may be reached at [email protected].

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