Library of Congress Beefs Up Recordings Collection, but Watch Out for That Barber


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.