In 2000, Congress created the National Recording Preservation Board, an agency of the Library of Congress, to select titles each year for a National Recording Registry. The Registry is a list of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" recordings that have "enduring importance to American culture."

The first group of recordings was selected by the Board in 2002. Fifty recordings were added to the Registry in each of its first four years; after that, the annual list was reduced to twenty-five recordings. The 2017 list of additions to the Registry was announced in March, bringing the Registry to a total of 500 recordings.

Recordings added to the Registry must be at least ten years old, and may be commercially recorded music, spoken-word documents, radio broadcasts, or any other type of sound recordings. Most of the recordings selected each year are commercially recorded music. The exceptions among 2017's Registry additions are NBC Radio's coverage of the 1945 conference that led to the creation of the United Nations; George Herzog's 1928 recordings of songs and stories of the Yanktoni Tribe, made at the Standing Rock Reservation; and a 1965 episode of the radio program King Biscuit Time that is the only surviving radio broadcast of blues musician Sonny Boy Williamson II.

Most of the music that was added to the Registry this year is available for streaming or download at Freegal and Hoopla. Added to the National Recording Registry this year were:

• "Dream Melody Intermezzo: Naughty Marietta" · Victor Herbert and his Orchestra (1911)

Herbert conducts an intermezzo from his operetta Naughty Marietta; the melody is better known as the song "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life."

• "Lamento Borincano" · Canario y Su Grupo (1930)

This song about the struggles of Puerto Rican farmers during the Great Depression is a standard, still sung and recorded by Puerto Rican musicians today.

• "Sitting on Top of the World" · Mississippi Sheiks (1930)

The first recording of this blues standard, performed by its writers.

• The Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas · Artur Schnabel (1932-1935)

This was the first time that the complete cycle of Beethoven's 32 sonatas had been recorded by one pianist. This selection is not complete, but includes almost all of the sonatas.

• "If I Didn’t Care" · The Ink Spots (1939)

The harmony singing of the Ink Spots was an early precursor of 1950s doo-wop, and this is one of their loveliest ballads.

• Folk Songs of the Hills · Merle Travis (1946)

A mixture of traditional and original songs from Travis; the originals include country standards "Sixteen Tons" and "Dark as a Dungeon."

• "How I Got Over" · Clara Ward and the Ward Singers (1950)

The Ward Singers were an all-female gospel group, one of the first such groups to find a secular audience outside the world of religious music.

• "(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" · Bill Haley and His Comets (1954)

A defining part of early rock 'n' roll; instantly recognizable from the opening chant of "one, two, three o'clock, four o'clock, ROCK!"

• Calypso · Harry Belafonte (1956)

This album added West Indian music to the growing folk scene, and crossed over to the teenage audience in a way that most folk albums of the era did not.

• "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" · Tony Bennett (1962)

Originally the B-side of a Bennett single, but radio DJs played it far more than they played the A-side, and it's been Bennett's signature song for more than 50 years.

• "My Girl" · The Temptations (1964)

A classic of early Motown, co-written by Smokey Robinson, and featuring David Ruffin's lead vocal.

• The Sound of Music (1965)

Julie Andrews is the star on one of the most successful movie soundtracks of all time; it spent more than two years in the top ten of the Billboard album charts.

• "Alice’s Restaurant Massacree" · Arlo Guthrie (1967)

In southern slang, a "massacree" is an event so far-fetched as to be unbelievable, and Guthrie's 18-minute story/song about being rejected by the Vietnam draft board because of a littering conviction certainly qualifies.

• New Sounds in Electronic Music · Steve Reich, Richard Maxfield, Pauline Oliveros (1967)

Manipulation of previously recorded sounds is the hallmark of these three pieces; Reich's contribution is the early minimalist landmark "Come Out."

• An Evening with Groucho · Groucho Marx (1972)

A concert recording of Groucho, live at Carnegie Hall, still dazzling audiences at the age of 81.

• Rumours · Fleetwood Mac (1977)

An album of songs about relationships in collapse, written and recorded while the band itself struggled with its own interpersonal drama.

• "The Gambler" · Kenny Rogers (1978)

The "know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em" refrain became such a part of pop culture that it led to a series of five TV-movies.

• "Le Freak" · Chic (1978)

Disco's moment may have passed, but this slinky masterpiece by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards is still a staple of wedding receptions and dance clubs.

• "Footloose" · Kenny Loggins (1984)

Loggins' biggest hit, a joyful cry of rebellion against conformity and repression.

• Raising Hell · Run-DMC (1986)

Run-DMC's third album featured their groundbreaking genre-crossing collaboration with Aerosmith on "Walk This Way."

• "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" · Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine (1987)

Estefan's bouncy Latin rhythms and impeccable vocals are irresistibly danceable.

• Yo-Yo Ma Premieres Concertos for Violoncello and Orchestra · Various (1996)

First recordings of concertos by American composers Richard Danielpour, Leon Kirchner, and Christopher Rouse.