Quick Takes: ‘Dark Side’ joins registry

Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” is no longer just the rock album that has logged more weeks than any other on Billboard’s national album chart nor merely the one that acid heads favored for syncing up as a twisted soundtrack for “The Wizard of Oz.” It’s also now going into the 2012 National Recording Registry.

“Dark Side of the Moon” is one of 25 recordings over the last century singled out by the Library of Congress for their “cultural, artistic and historical importance to the nation’s aural legacy.”

It is joined in the registry by “Cheap Thrills,” Janis Joplin’s second release with Big Brother and the Holding Company from 1968, Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” album from 1966, saxophonist Ornette Coleman’s 1959 debut album “The Shape of Jazz to Come,” Chubby Checker’s 1962 hit single and dance phenomenon “The Twist,” Van Cliburn’s 1958 recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and the blockbuster 1977 soundtrack album from “Saturday Night Fever.”

The National Recording Registry grew out of passage of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, under which the Library of Congress was charged with preserving culturally significant recordings. When recordings are elected to the registry, the best available copies are identified and preserved at the library’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va.

—Randy Lewis

Brooks, Strait to perform together

Garth Brooks and George Strait will perform together for the first time at next month’s Academy of Country Music Awards to honor Dick Clark.

The performance by the two most recent winners of the academy’s artist of the decade award is symbolic. That award will be renamed for Clark, the entertainment icon and longtime producer of the ACM Awards who passed away last year.

The pairing of two of country music’s most beloved — and bestselling — stars will draw plenty of attention to the 48th annual awards, which air on CBS on April 7 from Las Vegas. Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan host the show.

—Associated Press

Hollywood film fest exec named

Jon Fitzgerald, co-founder and former executive director of the Slamdance, AFI Fest, Santa Barbara and Abu Dhabi film festivals, was named executive director of the 17th Hollywood Film Festival.

Fitzgerald will be in charge of development, artistic direction, programming, marketing and overall festival management. He will also be involved in the Hollywood Gives Back Project, which will be combined with CineCause, Fitzgerald’s philanthropy platform.

The festival, which will take place Oct. 17-21 at the ArcLight Cinemas, is also adding a new online element. The festival will select a number of short films that will be streamed online.

—Susan King

Facebook COO tops book lists

Sheryl Sandberg has the ears, and the eyes, of the country’s book buyers.

Sandberg’s “Lean In” sold 140,000 copies its first week of publication, has gone back to press seven times for additional printings and now has 400,000 copies in print, publisher Alfred A. Knopf said Wednesday.

It has been at No. 1 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list since coming out March 11 and has also placed high on lists for Barnes & Noble and independent sellers, topping the nonfiction list for IndieBound, a list for independent stores.

Facebook’s chief operating officer is hoping to create a national movement to help women advance in the workforce and her book became the focus of intense debate well before publication.

She also appears to be helping sales of other books. Since her recent praise of “Now, Discover Your Strength,” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, the hardcover edition of the 12-year-old book has moved into the top 300 on Amazon. Fred Kofman’s “Conscious Business,” which she has cited as essential for executives, also jumped into the top 300 on Amazon and currently is out of stock. The book first came out in 2006.

—Associated Press

Finally

Renewed: CBS has renewed “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” for next season and said the entire cast will return.

Donation: Author Stephen King and his wife, Tabitha, have agreed to pay $3 million to overhaul their century-old hometown library in Bangor, Maine, as long as $6 million is raised from other sources.

TV deal: Music fans will for the first time be able to check in live on the proceedings at the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, courtesy of a deal struck with the AXS TV cable channel.