Listening to NPR on the way home today, I heard that Joe Smith, former president of Capital Records/EMI announced,
[he] will donate more than 200 audio interviews with popular singers including Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney and others to the Library of Congress, officials announced Monday.
The gift includes interviews that Joe Smith recorded over two years while president of Capitol Records/EMI. He compiled the candid oral histories for his book, “Off the Record,” published in 1988. The collection includes interviews with dozens of big names, including Barbra Streisand, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner and others.
Now the recordings have been digitized by the world’s largest library and will be available to researchers at its reading room on Capitol Hill. Some will be streamed on the library’s website later this year to provide wider access. NPR.org
Can’t wait to hear these. They played snips of several of the interviews. The link to NPR is above. If you want to read the press release from the Library of Congress, click here.
It’s amazing how fast the field of digital archiving is moving.
