Albums by The Doors, Radiohead and Lauryn Hill will be preserved by the Library of Congress in recognition of their historical contributions to music.

The giant federal library in Washington on Wednesday named 25 new entries to its National Recording Registry, which will preserve the best available copies to safeguard for posterity.

The new inductees include the 1967 self-titled debut by The Doors, which featured the hit "Light My Fire" but also the experimental 12-minute song "The End" that was structured like an Indian raga.

The Library of Congress in a statement credited the psychedelic rockers led by Jim Morrison with pushing "artistic, sexual and psychological boundaries."

The Library also honored the 1960 self-titled debut by Joan Baez, calling the work seminal for women in folk music and carrying an "authenticity over sentimentality" that hinted at her later activism.

Among more recent works, the Library of Congress chose The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the Fugees singer's introspective 1998 solo album written while she was pregnant.

"Hill's vocal range, smooth clear highs and vibrato are stunning. The rapping is rhythmically compelling while always retaining, and frequently exploiting, the natural cadences of conversational speech," the Library of Congress said.

While primarily focused on US artists, the Library of Congress selected British experimental rock band Radiohead's 1997 album OK Computer, saying that the dystopian work "has endured as a statement and a cautionary tale for the digital age."

Non-musical recordings added to the Registry included radio coverage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral in 1945. 

AFP