Sweeney Todd, the murderous barber who sent his victims to their Maker impeccably shaved, is being sent to his own just reward: a permanent place in the Library of Congress.
On Wednesday the Library is expected to announce that the original cast recording of “Sweeney Todd,” the blood-soaked musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, will be one of 25 items added to its National Recording Registry, along with Art Blakey’s “A Night at Birdland” albums; Jeff Buckley’s cover of the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah”; and Isaac Hayes’s theme from “Shaft.”
Other items that will also be added to the registry include Bing Crosby’s and Rudy Vallee’s recordings of “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime”; the Everly Brothers single “Cathy’s Clown”; the 1962 comedy album “The First Family,” a satire on President John F. Kennedy and his clan; recordings of President Lyndon B. Johnson; and the Linda Ronstadt album “Heart Like a Wheel.”
These entries into the registry, which, the Library said in a news release, are chosen for preservation “as cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures, representing the richness and diversity of the American soundscape,” bring its total collection to 400 recordings.