JOURNEY’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin” And QUEEN’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Selected For Induction Into National Recording Registry

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JOURNEY's "Don't Stop Believin'" and QUEEN's "Bohemian Rhapsody" are among the individual songs that have been selected for induction into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian, with advice from the Library's National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB), annually selects 25 recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and are at least 10 years old. The selections for the 2022 registry bring the total number of recordings on the registry to 600, only a minuscule portion of the Library's vast recorded-sound collection of nearly four million items. "The National Recording Registry reflects the diverse music and voices that have shaped our nation’s history and culture," Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement. "The national library is proud to help preserve these recordings, and we welcome the public’s input. We received about 1,000 public nominations this year." "This is the greatest honor of my life," said former JOURNEY singer Steve Perry, citing his family’s history as Portuguese immigrants to a small town in California. "I've gotten platinum albums and gold albums and I've gotten inducted into the [Rock And Roll] Hall Of Fame. But for my mother, my father, my grandmother and grandfather, I am truly beside myself that this is happening…it's an 'only in America' kind of thing." A little over a year ago, "Don't Stop Believin'" reached 1 billion listens on Spotify. In a 2009 interview with CBC's "Q" cultural affairs show, Perry said he always thought "Don't Stop Believing" — which is also the top-selling digital download of a track not originally released in this century, according to Nielsen SoundScan — had potential as a single. It was always a hit with live audiences, though it didn't get great radio play at the time it was issued, he said. "When we were doing the song in 1981, I knew something was happening, but honestly, when I saw it in the film 'Monster' with Patty Jenkins, I started think, 'Oh my goodness there's really something.'" He added: "The lyric is a strong lyric about not giving up, but it's also about being young, it's also about hanging out, not giving up and looking for that emotion hiding somewhere in the dark that we're all looking for. It's about having hope and not quitting when things get tough, because I'm telling you things get tough for everybody." Current JOURNEY singer Arnel Pineda, who has been fronting the band for 15 years, told CBS News in 2012, "Even before I discovered 'Don't Stop Believin'', it has been my motto — you know, to never stop believing in myself. The life that I've gone through, all those hardships, I never stopped believing that someday there is something magical that will happen in my life." In 2020, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, "Don't Stop Believin'" had become a rallying call for patients recovering from COVID-19 at two hospitals in New York and Michigan. The 1981 hit was being played at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan and the New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital during celebrations for patients prevailing over the coronavirus. In March 2021, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was officially certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing 10 million or more in sales and stream equivalents in the United States. QUEEN was the first British band in music history to earn the diamond song award. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was QUEEN's first Top 10 hit in the U.S. In the U.K., it went to No. 1 for 9 consecutive weeks, a record at the time, before returning to the top of the charts again in 1991. It was named the most-streamed song of the 20th century and its companion video recently passed one billion views on YouTube, making history as the first pre-1990s video to reach one billion views on the platform. In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and Freddie Mercury's vocal performance was named by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine as the best in rock history. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is also one of the many QUEEN hits featured on the band's blockbuster compilation "Platinum Collection, Vol. 1-3", which was certified five times platinum. This blockbuster compendium, which hit No. 6 on the Billboard 200, features tracks like "Another One Bites The Dust", "Killer Queen", "Under Pressure", "We Will Rock You", "We Are The Champions" and so many more.