Statistics
As of 2011, the oldest recording on the list is Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville's Phonautograms which date back to 1853. The most recent is the song "Dear Mama" by 2Pac which came out in 1995 on his album Me Against the World.
Selections vary widely in duration. Both the early Edison recordings and the instrumental "Rumble" by Link Wray clock in at under three minutes; the Edison Talking Doll cylinder is only 17 seconds long. Meanwhile Georg Solti's recording of Wagner's complete Ring Cycle is approximately 15 hours in duration and Alexander Scourby's recitation of the King James Bible is over 80 hours in length.
Read more about this topic: National Recording Registry
Famous quotes containing the word statistics:
“We already have the statistics for the future: the growth percentages of pollution, overpopulation, desertification. The future is already in place.”
—Günther Grass (b. 1927)
“July 4. Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination.”
—Andrew Lang (1844–1912)