The worst Barbra Streisand performance of all time?

There are quite a few on the "Classical Barbara", though I recall that I think one of the Wolf songs was very good. But her language pronunciation and classical style is really way off-base. I'm a big fan of hers usually, and I didn't want to listen to the album more than once.

You've gotta be kidding, OP.

The only use for her Jingle Bells rendition might be as the theme song for Seroquel or another drug used to manage bipolar mania.

Wow, Jingle Bells and A Little Help From My Friends are equally horrendous. How could she think those were decent enough to release?

She never sounded comfortable doing rock songs, even though she was the same age as the Beatles, Stones, Dylan, etc. Her version of Bowie's "Life on Mars" is laughable.

This is why A Star Is Born is plausible when Kristofferson's on screen, but turns into instant camp whenever Barbra sings or tries to be serious (she's OK when funny).

Changing original arrangements was her thing back in the day. When it worked, it worked very well (such as for her signature super-slow version of "Happy Days Are Here Again), but it could work disastrously, as with "Little Help from my Friends."

The "Jingle Bells" was just meant as a silly novelty. Best not to work yourself up about it.

R1, yes totally agree, and I am big fan of hers too. By her “worst” performances I mostly meant songs that were completely wrong for her. Here’s another, proceed with caution …

I actually like Life On Mars by her.

"In Trutina" by Carl Orff, Nazi collaborator.

The “What About Today” album was awful. She was only 27 years old and the album felt like something a 60 year-old would have recorded to be hip.

I vote for “Guava Jelly”. It’s so weird and I feel like she missed the sensuality of the song and made it sound like a cruise ship song. The original Bob Marley song is so sexy.

This one. Crap song, crap performance. And Babs co-wrote it herself (with John Cougar Mellencamp) so she has no one to blame but herself.

I hate the arrangement of "Somewhere" on "The Broadway Album" with the swooshing "outer space" effects--that's just ridiculously awful.

On the same album, I kind of both love and hate simultaneously the equally tacky arrangement of "State of the Art": "Ev'ry time I start to feel defensive, / I remember VIIII-NULL is EX-PEN-SIVE!!" It's so over-the-top it's just camp.

This all proves Barbra will be mentioned in the same breath as Yma Sumac in 20 years time.

"What-would-you-do, if-I-sang-out-of-tune?"

The same thing we've been doing when we've heard you do it for 60 years, Babs. We've come to expect it.

R10, yes, ugh! I forgot about that one. I think I must have blocked it out.

NUTS (1987)

Her Jingle Bells is a camp masterpiece. I couldn't believe when she brought it out in that last concert of her's on Netflix.

Wet

[...]

R18. If you don’t like her, why respond at all? Admiring someone’s talent is not the same thing as worship. And making fun or belittling someone’s taste is tasteless in itself.

[quote] "A Love Like Ours era. "

It isn't my favorite era either, OP. And I've always wondered why she insisted on performing "I Dreamed Of You" as opposed to the superior "Just One Lifetime".

[...]

R21, I don’t know what to tell you. A lot of gay men like female singers. Write to your local congressman if you’d like to see it stopped. Or you can just ignore the thread.

OP, all these songs would be sung so much better by song stylists like Liza Minnelli and Karen Carpenter.

I didn't like the crappy scenes she constructed for that last Broadway album. They were so cheesy. At least she had the good sense to keep a lot of the dialogue during "At the Ballet" from the actual show.

R23, you’re right. I’d rank Liza and Karen above Barbra in my book.

I don't understand how the caustic old gays of DL so passionately love bland, sentimental, schmaltzy singers and their bland, sentimental, schmaltzy songs.

R26, who would you suggest, then?

Seems like some people are triggered about Barbra Streisand. Anyway, here’s an oddity:

I actually love her version of Life On Mars and I think it might enjoy it even more than the Bowie original. She really brought out the theatricality of the song.

Barbra should stage live performances in her underground mall, like Tiffany did in the ‘80s.

R30 I had no idea Tiffany staged concerts in Barbra's underground mall in the '80s!

Snnnaaatch!

This:

It's strange. I think , love her or hate her, but Barbra is considered by most to be the greatest female singer of all time.

Judy is the greatest female singer of all time

R35 Judy who?

[quote]I didn't like the crappy scenes she constructed for that last Broadway album.

She ruined Fifty Percent by having some inane conversation at the beginning where her lover can't see her because he has to take his son to a game. It's a song about fucking a married man, so of course she has to make the man noble to make HER look good. Sheesh.

And it's obvious she wanted to do At the Ballet as a solo. Instead of getting Anne and Daisy and giving them almost nothing to work with because she wanted to hog the good parts.

One song that Streisand recorded that WASN'T so bad, but that she didn't like was I Know Him So Well from Chess. It's perfect for her, because she gets to sing with herself. She didn't release that or On My Own. Both of them not bombastic enough for her I guess.

Maybe she was afraid of the Whitney/Cissy Houston comparison? It's not a great song, but better than 70 % of what Streisand did record. She destroyed Some Enchanted Evening....not in the good way.

Streisand would have had her claws all over this song in her day. It's Quiet Uptown. Kelly Clarkson does so much better on it. It's sonically beautiful, but human and humane. Kelly has the most beautiful, powerful and soulful voice in the game these days. She's never perfect - that's not what concerns her most. She delivers vocally and sings the damn song.

[quote]I think , love her or hate her, but Barbra is considered by most to be the greatest female singer of all time.

In which genre?

[quote] the equally tacky arrangement of "State of the Art"

That song title is "Putting It Together."

[quote]R35 Judy who?

Judy Tenuta, Rose!

[quote] "Barbra Streisand's Worst Performance"

Well, it STARTED on April 24th, 1942...

I love, love, LOVE this thread! Keep it coming, my gays!

“I cut the picture myself, that way we would get a woman’s point of view …. THIS woman!”

[quote]Changing original arrangements was her thing back in the day.

Changing arrangements was the only way a song would be covered by different singers. Why simply reproduce the same record?

R19, are you new to the Datalounge?

Talk in’ bout the Queen Bee, baby!

[quote]There are quite a few on the "Classical Barbara", though I recall that I think one of the Wolf songs was very good. But her language pronunciation and classical style is really way off-base.

I read that the reason the phrasing is off is that the entire album was cobbled together in the recording studio in post-production, note-by-note. And that was before digital recording so they had to splice tape.

You can tell how they fudged because there one song sung in English is crystal clear, whereas the songs sung in other languages are muddled.

Barbra recorded so much crap. But when I saw OP's question the first song I thought of was "Grandma's Hands." It was such a hilariously bad fit.

I wish she had used her voice at its peak to record a Cole Porter songbook instead of Adult Contemporary schlock.

[quote] [R23], you’re right. I’d rank Liza and Karen above Barbra in my book.

Seriously?

R50, the 5th Dimension did the best version of this song imo

This one is painful to listen to

R52, that’s a great song though.

It’s sad that she didn’t make more films. A friend (an ULTIMATE Streisand queen) and I would trek to the local theater, to see her new movie. The audiences were gay men and middle aged women, who dragged their husbands to the movie theater.

R54, was your friend the type of fan who adored everything she did, no matter what it was? I have a friend like that and any time I started opening my mouth about why Mirror Has Two Faces sucked, he gets very upset

I'm a big Streisand fan.

I like her 60s easy stuff as well as her 70s disco stuff.

I'll admit that the 80s and 90s were hit and miss.

One of my favorites, though, is 1985's Emotion...

R56, for me the best thing she’s done in years was that album she did not too long ago with Diana Krall

R53 In no world is that a great song. Just that horrible synthesizer mixed far too high at the beginning lets you know it's not going to be.

And I have to smile at anyone claiming that Liza Minnelli was a "pop" stylist. She wasn't. She had a bombastic way of singing that suited (sometimes) Broadway, but not pop songs. The only time it worked was on the Results album, where the Pet Shop Boys were savvy enough to use the campiness of Liza's voice to their advantage.

R56 that face she makes at the 10-second mark is so cringe.

And who thought it was a good idea of doing a video of Barbra vacuuming? So silly.

That song sounds like much of the crap she wasted her voice on in the 80s.

'We already did it this year.'

I have to admit that's a funny line.

Now Cher is not the greatest vocalist - but she is innately more soulful sounding than Streisand.

If you've ever seen Barbara crucify Cry Time with Ray Charles, you'll know why this is so much better.

Cher looks properly scared, but she's good. She listens to Ray, she tries hard - she's sincere.

Wet snatch

*Crying Time

R55, yes, my friend LOVED Barbra Streisand. He’d immediately became defensive if anyone dared to criticize her.

Streisand queens are the worst. They are totally irrational. The woman was a saint and that was that. Of course, it irked him that Barbra didn’t receive other Oscars and hosannas for her work as a actress, director and producer.

My friend had everything related to Barbra. The books, films, photos, cds, etc. After Barbra released a new album, he’d hop into his car, and play the tape. He would drive a particular highway, while listening. It was a two hour round trip.

He eagerly awaited Barbra’s appearance on the Rosie O’Donnell Show. After the show aired, he told me he cried tears of joy. She was wonderful, as always. He thought Rosie O’Donnell was too emotional, as she invaded Barbra’s personal space. (Remember, goddesses are to be admired, not touched.) He was overjoyed when Barbra married James Brolin. He loved their wedding photos.

Unfortunately, my friend and I had a falling out. It’s a long story. We never spoke again and he died 8 years later. To this day, I regret that I didn’t try to mend the friendship.

RIP charlie. I always suspected he was dead, R64. Thanks for sharing your memories.

I think I dislike Streisand fans more than I dislike her (now). When I was a fan myself in the early 1970s, her devotees were insufferable. I thought they were like that because they were teenagers, I didn't know this disease continues into adulthood. But there are other nutcases who swoon over film and music stars, such as those still obsessed over the Joan/Christina Crawford saga.

R64. He sounds just like my friend! Haha. One thing that irks me is when he says “Oh Streisand can sing ANYTHING, she’s just so versatile”. I have to bite my tongue hard on that one … many examples proving the exact opposite of that statement have been posted throughout this thread.

And in addition, I’m not a Streisand hater whatsoever. I have a couple of her albums and a few of her films but her shtick can get on my nerves sometimes.

It was a pleasure to share my memories, R65. My friend died in 2004. Ironically, after we saw “A Mirror Has Two Faces”, we had that falling out a few months later. I haven’t talked about him in years. It was rather cathartic to write a DL post about him. May my friend Rest In Peace.

Why do gays love her when she rarely discusses gay issues even though she has a huge gay fanbase and has a gay son? I’ve never understood why she’s so worshipped by gays when she has never done anything for the cause.

And don't forget how she dropped The Normal Heart for The Fucking Mirror Has Two Faces. A film like The Normal Heart in the early/mid-90's would have really been something special, but she went off and made a film no one asked for that was as lightweight as a butter cookie.

For all this talk about how she wants to make important films and play important roles, she hasn't really done many of those types of projects. She gets scared and goes back to predictable fluff just about every time.

R71, you hit the nail on the head. Not to mention that for a long time she was one of if not the most important woman in Hollywood, so she could have literally played or picked anything she wanted. But she didn’t.

R69 here. My friend never mentioned that Barbra wasn’t as publicly supportive, as she needed to be. (I think she became more of an activist and supporter after her son Jason revealed he was gay.) I suspect it bothered him, but I didn’t dare to besmirch the Streisand legend. Ironically, he was very angry with Bette Midler for not being a public supporter. At that time, she moved to New York and became an advocate for cleaning up the public parks etc. He thought Bette should’ve dedicated her time and money for AIDS causes and gay rights.

Sidebar - My friend LOVED Barbra’s son, Jason, albeit naturally.

I don't think the adoration of Streisand by her fans is any more insufferable than the adoration of Judy Garland, Madonna, Lady Gaga, et al..

Fans are, by their nature, annoying and blind to the truth about the object of their veneration.

R69 here. Regarding “A Normal Heart”, my friend said Larry Kramer and Barbra were having artistic differences. I think he blamed Larry Kramer for being difficult, not Barbra.

Bette was much of a supporter in the eighties and early 90's than Barbra was. Bette performed at the very first AIDS benefit in NYC. Barbra's absence during that period was noticeable enough that Vanity Fair questioned her on it when she was being interviewed promoting Prince of Tides.

Your friend was right in that she didn't start becoming visible until her son came out.

8The White girl in the R50 video is REALLY working it, and I don't mean Liza.

Her entire performance in All Night Long.

Barbra was one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of painful success throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she allowed them to identify with her.

Haha! Very good R79.

R79, didn’t you post the very same words about Madonna?

Wait till you hear what he has to say about Judy, R81!

"Papa Can You Hear Me", from a middle aged Yentyl. Yeah, papa can hear you and he doesn't give a fuck anymore.

Streisand was very talented, but her poisonality is draining.

But I still want the bitches house that overlooks the Pacific ocean. Fuck the poor and needy when you can have your own basement shopping mall slash self-shrine?

Brolin want to pull a "Sudden Fear" on her ass.

[quote]"Papa Can You Hear Me"

I forgot about that one. God, how I hated that song. And I showed up for Yentl the day it opened.

Let's both get jobs as her personal assistants. We can hang out at her mall and score free fro yo. Course the Musak will all be Streisand, but I do like her vocals.

For those saying Barbra doesn't do enough to support the gay community, I'd like to point out that the B Dalton books in her basement mall always carries the International Male catalogue and Playgirl, so there you go!

I sure do miss that catalog.

What's wrong with JJ Malibu? That's where real men buy their gitch & kink wear.

[quote] Ironically, after we saw “A Mirror Has Two Faces”, we had that falling out a few months later.

What did he think about her other movies, like "A Prince of Tides," or "On the Clear Day You Can See Forever"?

[quote] Not to mention that for a long time she was one of if not the most important woman in Hollywood, so she could have [bold]literally[/bold] played or picked anything she wanted.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

For example, could she have played Vito Corleone? Or Jaws?

R91, no I don’t think she would have wanted to play Vito Corleone or Jaws. I was just emphasizing that if she had wanted to get a project off the ground then it probably would have been possible given her stature. She has at times lamented the fact that she wishes she could have done certain roles but if she were really motivated, she could have made it happen. That’s why we ended up with things like Mirror Has Two Faces instead of The Normal Heart for example. It was falling back on something safe as opposed to new or challenging territory, just like pretty much any of her output from the 90’s onward.

[quote]The “What About Today” album was awful.

Maybe. But I love her Alfie. Love, love, love it.

That's easy, every time she tried to act.

R91, and I don’t keep using the word literally. I used it once

Gypsy was another film she could have made instead of The Mirror Has Two Faces. But she probably felt she was too young(at 54!) to play the mother of an adult woman and the potential profits weren't to her liking.

R96. I have to admire Patti’s honesty here. Instead of kissing Streisand’s ass (which a lot of people are expected to do), she comes out and just says she’s too old for Gypsy at this point

[quote] For those saying Barbra doesn't do enough to support the gay community, I'd like to point out that the B Dalton books in her basement mall always carries the International Male catalogue and Playgirl, so there you go!

HOW. DARE. YOU.

It’s Rizzoli.

Hey R70 , her foundation has given millions to gay activism- all proceeds from the single Somewhere went to AmFar (1986)- she has been on the cover of Advocate for her relentless support for same sex marriage going back to the early 90s, she almost single-handedly turned around a Colorado anti gay initiative by encouraging a boycott by her entertainment peers and thus others of Colorado destinations (e.g. ASPEN.) Her production company made a film of an out lesbian cornel’s fight to live openly enlisted…. Want more? Go to her foundation website- as I started out.

R99, thank you for clarifying this issue. Barbra deserves tremendous credit for her support and activism. I did not realize this began in the 1980s.

[quote]But I love her Alfie. Love, love, love it.

Apparently, so did Barbra. She loves to tell the story about being in a cab and hearing it on the radio, calling the station and asking, "Who was that girl singing Alfie? It was beautiful!"

Random fact: as a teen I always thought the song in A Star is Born is called a woman in the MOOD not moon.

I thought it had some sexual connotation I didn't know about.

I'll always love Barbra's genius 1960s song vocals, delivery and gorgeous orchestrations and production. But when I was younger I recalled reading that as the decade turned, it was her producers who wanted to encourage her to update her style to be contemporary with other hitmakers of her same age demographic -- but that she herself was quite hesitant and afraid nobody would accept the jarring change coming from her. After all, nobody her age in the 1960s could pull off covering such beautiful standards the way she so iconically and successfully did. But at least she tried. So I give her a pass on this "filler-like" cut, which reminds me of her "Minute Waltz" entry on one of her earlier mid-1960s Lps. These cuts were from that era when her voice to me just couldn't do anything wrong.

She sucks. Has terrible tacky taste. Was given a beautiful voice but no gift for musical interpretation. She hates performing and it shows. She sucks. Her vocal abilities were freaky at the start and her sonic production was astounding. But the bitch doesn't know how to sing a song.

She destroyed much more than she elevated. In short time - all songs became victim to her ego for prolonged finishes, meaningless modulations and her curious enunciations of spitting lyrics or cycling final notes into outer space. She did not sing the songs as much as their production serviced her vocal ego. And that is everywhere and anywhere and everything she "sang" after 1972. Every single thing.

Streizand is not a good singer at all. A good studio vocalist - sonically yes. If you like her mostly kiked up goy dreck interpretations of popular and classic songs.

She has hundreds of worst performances. And four good albums.

"She did not sing the songs as much as their production serviced her vocal ego. And that is everywhere and anywhere and everything she "sang" after 1972. Every single thing."

Agreed but i love her and love listening to her sing.

God that was awful. She just tries too hard and can't be effortless. it's a pop song, for God's sake.

That made realize how perfect the original version is. Not only it sounds better, it's more emotional.

Is Barbara always like this? I don't know her work.

She's famously meticulous and tasteless R106.

The racist, antisemitic LSA troll has arrived at R104.

What's LSA?

"Fuck the poor and needy when you can have your own basement shopping mall slash self-shrine?"

I may be alone in my opinion but I don't understand the flack for her basement mall.

Instead of throwing all her memorabilia and collections into a warehouse or a small room, she displayed great creativity and chose the "mall" idea.

With her career, I think it is a very tasteful way of remembering and displaying the artifacts of a career about which most entertainers can only dream.

She really doesn’t “get” pop or rock music. She sustains notes too long and uses too much vibrato, which doesn’t sit right with this type of music.

The Mirror Has Two Faces was a trade off to get financing for The Normal Heart, which was considered very uncommercial. Like Bette Midler agreed to do Hocus Pocus in exchange for $ for For the Boys, which no one wanted to finance. You know how that movie came out. I'm happy Streisand never did The Normal Heart.

R112, did For The Boys suck?

[quote]I recalled reading that as the decade turned, it was her producers who wanted to encourage her to update her style to be contemporary with other hitmakers of her same age demographic

It was COLUMBIA RECORDS and Clive Davis who more or less forced her and several other traditional vocalists to go "pop." I don't know what you mean by producers. Other record companies followed suit, Tony Bennett refused and left the record company.

Avigdor WAIT!

The problem with Streisand isn't just her lack of taste, but her monstrously sized ego and almost pathological arrogance. There are many singers who lack musical taste and yet, they have the good sense of working with producers and musicians who will guide them towards something that will allow them to showcase their talents, while remaining aesthetically pleasing. She has always been incapable of doing this: things must be done HER way at all times and nobody else's suggestions are to be taken into account unless she considers that they serve her rigid and static vision of what a good musical performance ought to be.

The only occasions when she has let loose a little were the 70s, when she did rather successful incursions into folk rock and disco music, the two albums she's done in collaboration with the Gibb brothers/Bee Gees and her brilliant performance of Jim Steinman's Left In The Dark. Curiously enough, those are the times when she relinquished control and let others do things properly, while limiting herself to sing. Everything she has done after that has been insultingly pedestrian and dull, as she seems to be happy droning her way through some of the most uninspired, generic and mediocre material ever (A Love Like Hours, Higher Ground and Christmas Memories are some of the dullest pap ever recorded, and they sadly set the tone for what would be the protracted twilight of a once great career).

I personally hate her 60s output, as she mostly took substandard material that had been rightfully forgotten and breathed new life into it with her spectacular voice. The seventies and very early eighties are, without a single doubt, her best moments... And also some of her worst, as R1 mentions: what was she thinking when she recorded the horrible Classical Barbra and Barbra Streisand... And Other Musical Instruments? Still, it's the 70s when she recorded Stoney End, The Way We Were, Superman and Guilty, which are excellent.

Streisand's artistic story is, sadly, one of too much power being given to someone too self-indulgent and with very little sense, which ruined what could have been a glorious career. And just so that I can counteract the barrage of negativity that I've written here, I am adding one of her best moments from the Superman album. Cabin Fever proves that she could do light rock very effectively, but sadly she soon went the way of overly mannered Broadway covers and insufferably sedated balladry.

Good post, R116, though I hate the majority of everything she did after 1975.

It would have been in Barbra Streisand's best career interest for her to have died in the early 1970s. We wouldn't have gone through Jon Peters, a Star is Born, Yentl and all of the crappy music she recorded. She would have won a posthumous Oscar for The Way We Were.

And there are no lice on your body….

[quote]So I give her a pass on this "filler-like" cut, which reminds me of her "Minute Waltz" entry on one of her earlier mid-1960s Lps.

That wasn't filler. It was the comic highlight of her TV special. It was written as a visual joke to be seen, not just heard. That LP was the soundtrack from that special.

That said, I think her hilariously bad "Gotta Move!", where she manically flings herself around the Philadelphia Art Museum, is from the same show.

I had friends who, instead of announcing they were leaving a party, would very dramatically declare, "Gotta MOVE!"

Gotta Move was in her early nightclub act and first appeared on that second solo LP aptly called The Second Barbra Streisand Album.

R120 True. It was rerecorded for the TV special "Color Me Barbra." The song was written for her, which I would take as an insult, as it is dreadful.

I remember reading that they were using new color TV cameras for the special, hence the name. They had three of them. But two of them stopped working. So they had to use only one camera, which necessitated doing separate, additional takes for medium/long-range shots. This meant that they had to work throughout the night at the museum.

[quote] The problem with Streisand isn't just her lack of taste, but her monstrously sized ego and almost pathological arrogance. There are many singers who lack musical taste and yet, they have the good sense of working with producers and musicians who will guide them towards something that will allow them to showcase their talents, while remaining aesthetically pleasing. She has always been incapable of doing this: things must be done HER way at all times and nobody else's suggestions are to be taken into account unless she considers that they serve her rigid and static vision of what a good musical performance ought to be.

Her choices created unparalleled success for, as a female recording artist. Based upon your commentary, you’d think she was some 1 hit wonder; who spent the rest of her career turning out flops. She’s one of the most successful female artist of all time. She’s recorded 40+ albums. You’re bound to not love every single song. How do you even begin to tell someone with her type of success that their choices were all wrong and you (for reasons known to no one) know better. Is Streisand the one who has an exaggerated sense of self or is it you?

R15 - it could have been worse if Mark Rydell used Bette Midler.

Wow, that Cabin Fever song is awful. The actual song, I mean. And Streisand sounds like she’s channeling Heart.

She is something, that Streisand always got something up her skirts. I wrote a song that she claims is her favorite song, A Sleeping Bee, which is really the song that started her career…but she does not sing it very well. She takes every ballad and turns it into a three-act opera. She simply cannot leave a song alone!

She really might have been good in Gypsy as late as the early 2000s. That material is so good that you really have to work hard to not land at least a few of the laughs and emotional moments. She could have managed an Oscar nom easily and finally be taken seriously like she always wanted to, but she waited far too long.

I think what others have said is true. She's not really a natural performer. It was just something she realized she had a knack for and used it to her advantage, but you don't see a lot of joy in many of her performances. Compare her to someone like Liza who doesn't have Barbra's gorgeous voice, but who seems like she'd rather be on stage or in front of a camera more than anything.

She just doesn't have good interpretive skills.

R125 haha is that an actual quote?

She also doesn't have good taste.

There is a reason why her albums are a dime a dozen in thrift shops. Too much sludge, not to mention she recorded so much and didn't always let the quality control be the top priority. And a lot of her albums didn't age well.

"jingle bells jj jingle bells jingle all the way WHOA!!...JJJJJJJ jinhGLE JJJJJJJ JinGLE"

Ugh, horrible.

[quote] Compare her to someone like Liza who doesn't have Barbra's gorgeous voice, but who seems like she'd rather be on stage or in front of a camera more than anything.

Liza is more of a ham. She also had to really sell her performances because her voice alone wasn’t always enough. We also know that Barbra suffered from terrible stage fright. I don’t know that it makes sense to say that she’s not “a natural performer.” She’s a performer who suffers from stage fright.

“ Artistically, Streisand`s turning point came in the late `60s, less than a decade after her professional debut. Though still in her 20s, she already was beginning to rely on gaudy vocal mannerisms. After her brilliant work in Jule Styne`s stage show 'Funny Girl' in 1964 and her TV specials that quickly followed, Streisand had begun to slip into unwitting self-satire.

The CD excerpts from her 'Belle of 14th Street' TV special (1967), for instance, show Streisand indulging in a huge vibrato, garish vocal slides and hyper-melodramatic readings of lyrics. In her Central Park concert (1968), she turns even 'Silent Night' into a kind of star vehicle, distorting its phrases as if it were some big-finish Broadway number…

So what happened? Why did one of the most spectacular pop voices of this century turn from concerts to film?

To this listener, the answer is clear: As a singer, Streisand had quickly run out of ideas. Blessed with a magnificent instrument and rewarded with early success, she could find nowhere to go interpretively, no meaningful way to develop or deepen her work.

Thus through the `70s, her recordings (those already released and those unreleased until now) simply became increasingly overwrought and overproduced. Listen to Streisand`s syrupy recording of 'We`ve Only Just Begun' (1971), and the Carpenters` famous version will sound, by comparison, restrained. Check out Streisand`s recording of 'You`re the Top'-its phrases badly bent out of shape, its lyrics often unintelligible-and you will hardly believe this is the Cole Porter original.

So Streisand, having reached an artistic dead end, gradually withdrew from music and plunged into film.

It`s worth noting that it is not always so: Just consider earlier vocal stars such as Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. Like Streisand, each won fame as a singer early in life; like Streisand, each ventured into film.

But Garland, even as her voice began to deteriorate in later years, remained-to the end-the most commanding female balladeer of her generation. Fitzgerald, at 73, is singing more inventively and creatively than ever. And Sinatra, at 75, offers a dramatic insight that only a lifetime in music can yield.

Streisand never was able to reach that level of interpretive depth in music. Ultimately, it seems that only the most hard-core Streisand fans will be able to endure the more narcissistic aspects of this CD package. The many tracks devoted to recordings of Streisand accepting prizes and accolades test one`s patience. Ditto the 28 pages (of a 92-page program booklet) devoted to listing more awards.”

…ouch

Barbra Streisand has never received due credit for her pioneering role in shattering female convention and laying the groundwork for second-wave feminism. Emerging from bohemian nightclubs where her campy patter and vintage costumes were shaped by gay male sensibility, Streisand embodied a scrappy non-conformism and confrontational toughness that strikingly contrasted with the emotional depth and elegant beauty of her singing.

[quote]Compare her to someone like Liza who doesn't have Barbra's gorgeous voice, but who seems like she'd rather be on stage or in front of a camera more than anything.

Well, not anything.

A friend and I still laugh about the way Barbra tried to rock out on the line “the dinosaurs surviving the crunch.”

I'm so pleased that someone singled out the line "I remember VIE-NELLL is EXpenSIVE!!!" from "Putting It Together"

It was a truly dreadful take on a new lyric by both Streisand and Sondheim.

Her, because she screams it. Him, because vinyl is not expensive.

[quote] She’s one of the most successful female artist of all time.

Yet another individual who confuses commercial success with artistic success.

[quote]She simply cannot leave a song alone!

Hey, Truman, that's exactly what Ira Gershwin said about my versions of his songs! HA!

"Streisand, having reached an artistic dead end, gradually withdrew from music and plunged into film."

R132, that's not true. Acting her goal from the beginning, and movies were the pinnacle in her plan. Streisand didn't go into movies because her singing career was dead, she went into movies because THAT'S WHERE SHE WANTED TO BE. She never really cared that much about music or singing.

Reply 110, you may be partially right. I looove her music and it has been a big part of all our lives. I still want to bag on her for her effected personality and her hoarding of weath. Let's dish over some fro yo, in her subterannean shopping mall.

R90, my friend was captivated by “On a Clear Day.” Of course, he enjoyed the story, the visuals, and Barbra.

Regarding “The Prince of Tides”, He rhapsodized about it. I think it was one of his favorite Barbra films. He enjoyed the book before he saw the movie. The storyline touched him emotionally. He was upset when critics made catty comments about her manicure and her glamorous appearance. Also, he was infuriated because the movie did not win Oscars. (If anyone dared to insult Barbra, Streisand queens will never forgive or forget it.)

I have more stories about my friend and his love of Barbra, if you’re interested. There were a few Barbra movies he thought were less than stellar.

Singing was her talent though R139. Her voice was HER gift. Streisand has only wanted to be beautiful. There are many PHD thesis written on her lifelong obsession to be thought beautiful and her extreme arrogance and distaste for the only thing she did well. She doesn't have stage fright. She fears being caught from a bad angle. Even her most beautiful vocal moments are just that...a few notes in a song. She seldom didn't murder some part of a song. Her bad taste is legendary. Her recorded work is not well remembered or appreciated. She certainly was successful. At DRECK.

Twenty years before I was born - she did this. It's not subtle, but it is controlled and stunning. But she went downhill from those early sixties thrills. Climbing a monument to herself.

The review at @ R132 pretty much nailed it. And it's not from some DL poster of today. Just the truth.

Streisand sold out everything. Her voice is far from the greatest or most powerful. She has long since been surpassed. She certainly isn't a great interpreter of music. But her voice was uniquely beautiful. Special. But she didn't like to sing for people. Not before her movie career dried up. And she made mostly all shit movies too. Bitch is a very successful failure. She gives nothing to people when she performs. Dolly and Bette and Liza and Bernadette are all more loved. Sarah, Whitney, Ella, Aretha and Judy are all far more brilliant singers. Eydie Gorme, Linda Eder and Celine are better vocalists than Barbra too. The list is long.

I do like her version of Memory - because she barely nails the E#5. She's restrained on that song. Doesn't sing it as well as others have - but attempted being direct and not overly produced. She knew it was a great song and she recorded it before anyone had heard it. That's probably the reason for some taste and restraint on her part. A few of the songs on Stoney End are very beautiful too - for her voice alone. I'll be Home.

RIP Barbara Streizand.

Is she dead, yet? Was it consumption what dun her in?

I'm far from a Streisand fanatic, but I've always thought "On a Clear Day" is underrated and one of her best films. It's the kind of thing she was perfectly suited for. It would be interesting to see what the original three-hour roadshow version was like, but it's probably impossible to reconstruct something like that now.

[quote]Singing was her talent though [R139]. Her voice was HER gift.

So? She wanted to be a movie star above everything. A movie star like Rita Hayworth was a movie star in the 1940s.

Then she failed, R145. Streisand's film career is a joke. Rita Hayworth will always be a Movie Star.

DUH, R146.

^ this old bitch^

Barbra's problem was that she peaked at the beginning. Watching her do "My Man" from Funny Girl ... how do you top that?

It's funny, her hit song "The Main Event" is disco crap, but I just can't help liking it. Maybe it's that LONG note she holds at the end of the song.

Holding LONG notes is Barbara Struessels major vocal hallmark. She does it in every song.

It's usually edited to get that effect, R150.

Yeah right R132. Her 60 year recording career is not up to snuff. How dare she sing a Bernstein ballad in her 70s and do sell out tours. How dare she record the most varied catalogue of music in recording history. She was suppose to only record what you like. Streisand is not a cult performer, not a victim, she is as Marilyn Horne and Rene Fleming have said: the consummate singer.. She has used her talent, taste, and clout due to sustained success to go everywhere- not to everyone’s taste including mine, but she really has no peer in her recorded catalogue. And apparently a lot of people liked a lot of it, both recorded and in concert- all 60 years. Arlen, Berlin, Rodgers, Bernstein, Mitchell, King, Lennon & McCartney, Bacharach, Styne, Nyro, Joel, Legrand, Wonder, Holmes, Hammerstein, Herman, Hamlisch, Gibb, Jabara, Schubert, Schumann, and on and on including some of her own. She has her bombs and flubs- but for the most part she has been the muse for song writers and musicians for decades producing a body of recorded music that is astounding- all of it still in issue, and selling.

No, not at all, R151. I am a singer and composer. Streisand's hallmarks are her hummingbird fast vibrato and her ability to sustain L O N G notes. That golden burr to her tone. She overused them all to the point of making a lot of melodies meaningless. She's not great with lyrics either. Johnny Mathis can sustain a note longer and purer than Babs - AND he's a dude. Kinda. This final note is like 24 seconds? But he doesn't do it on every fucking song. You can tell Johnny is pleased with himself. Why not? Mathis is a sexy singer to me. He's decades before my time but as a vocalist he and Streisand had much in common. The vibrato and modulations. Emotional singing. Except Mathis has so much more artistry during his career. All in the eye and ear of beholders. Streisand has some sonically beautiful moments, but she's never been a singer who just loves to sing and perform. She so far from natural. She's a recording artist. Trust me though R151. Barabas Streizand could sustain notes.

I thought you were dead charlie @ R152. Streisand has never been any great composers vocal muse, except Glenn Gould who was totally nuts and obsessed with the most minute moments and inflections of her voice. He as of course, insane. His musing are illustrative though. Barbara was embarrassed by his obsession. She preferred to be praised by Marilyn and Alan Hamlisch.

Streizand touched a lot of songwriters with her "renditions." Violated more. Some liked the attention = $$$ Not many enjoyed her vocal strokes. Barabas destroys most music. Let's be honest.

Marilyn and Alan Hamlisch

WTF

I was watching that Emotions video and it's so bad. She tries so hard to be sexy - of course, she also directed it.

Lady Gaga.

r152, that was one impressive hissy fit!

The Conflation is REAL, R155! Her paid minions. Barbra can experience loss - but never friendship.

I’d still like to fuck Jason though

Jason is 65 years old. UGH. Barabas is almost 90. Don't fuck them. Clone them. Brabart's ASS is not the showstopper it once was. What the fuck was she doing showing off her ASS on all those Album Covers?

What's it all about Milfy?

r112 For the Boys was a Fox movie, Hocus Pocus was Disney. Not sure how that would have worked.

R133, Camille Paglia, though it's hard to believe, was one of those teenage mega fans who used to hang around the Funny Girl stage door to get a glimpse of their idol in 1965 - her admission. These fans were not normal, they were obsessed.

Evaluating Barbra Streisand as a singer and personality in retrospect is completely different that what it was at the time it was happening. Of course, it works that way with everything. Having been around in the 1960s, I think part of Streisand's career choices had a lot do with her running away from the overpraise and the pressure of being considered the greatest female singer who ever lived by critics. The obsessed fans who easily accessed her. All of this in her early 20s before she went to Hollywood.

So Streisand "went Hollywood" and became a Malibu Barbie as styles changed and there was no other place for her. The only way she would be able to continue as the diva she was in the 60s was to stay in New York and go back to the theater. Her star would have dimmed and maybe she could have done some quality stage work and live/recorded singing without the pressure. But that wasn't going to happen in a million years.

R153 When Johnny Mathis started screeching like Anthony Newley, I had to turn it off.

Old white fags screech. Johnny Mathis soars. Who's Anthony Newley?

When I think of Barbra Streisand, I think of wasted potential. She wanted so desperately to be taken seriously that she lost almost all of her sense of humor that made her so interesting in the first place. She'll probably be considered an entertainer's cautionary tale in the history books. She's got more money that she knows what to do with, but most of her work hasn't stood the test of time and has been forgotten.

her twitter feed

the DL grammar trolls would have a field day

R166, I posted about that here in 2004. I said that Babs has sold out to mediocrity and didn't live up to (what was said about) her potential.

The DL went nuts defending her!

I had a friend, now dead, who was a huge Streisand fan, too, R64. I never asked him a thing about her or his feeling for her and I found it interesting that he wouldn’t introduce the subject to me either, except briefly and only very occasionally when he couldn’t suppress his desire to gush any longer.

I think we both felt that it was one thing our friendship, the best of my life, could not have survived. Sooner or later I’d have had to say how I really felt about her and that would’ve done us in.

But he’s dead and I can say it now. I really just don’t like anything about her. Above all, all that “Am I pretty” stuff. The answer, now and forever, is: No, Barbra. You’re not. You’re striking, at best. You are, however, vastly wealthy and you are celebrated by gay men who simply come unglued when you open your mouth to deliver a song (for reasons that will never compute to me). Let that be enough!

P.S. I’m sorry you were never able to repair your friendship. When my friend died, I learned what mourning is. I didn’t really understand that it can last for the rest of your life.

I have a friend who is a Streisand nut. I let her gush. We went to see The Mirror Has Two Faces and she was tearing up at the end while I sat there in disbelief at the whole maudlin mess of the film.

She was taken by her boyfriend to see her at her last concert at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn. She admitted that the voice is shot and she was vocally all over the place. But she was happy to have finally seen her live.

Hasn’t stood the test of time? Why then is her entire recorded catalogue still in issue and selling? Why do singers from opera to popular music continue to hold her as the standard for their professions? And why in her 70s does she sell out huge venues. And who in recording history has come close to recording the breadth of music that she has. My guess is that you have no idea.

[quote]Why do singers from opera to popular music continue to hold her as the standard for their professions?

WHO in hell would that be?

[quote]Hasn’t stood the test of time? Why then is her entire recorded catalogue still in issue and selling?

Are you again confusing commerciality with quality? Being popular doesn't mean good,

🤢🤮

Of course, not every song she recorded could be a gem. But that one at R173 is especially atrocious.

Enough is Enough. She sounded like she was lowering herself to sing disco. Donna’s performance was much more self assured and comfortable with the material. It was total stunt casting. Not unlike Madonna snagging Britney for their shitty duet.

Streisand later seemed embarrassed by her disco days (sort of like the Fockers movies too.)

For me, this was her most successful foray into disco:

Anything the last 15 or so years. She whisper shouts. Just not pleasant to listen to. Judy was better on death's door.

R178, she hits a clear note without shouting here and that was only 3 years ago.

R179 thanks I can hear her howling this live now

May her voice rest in pieces.

Pretending to be happy to present the first Oscar for direction by a woman to someone else.

I hate her cover of Alfie. She totally ruined the melody of the song by dragging it out and oversinging it. That story about hearing it on the radio and calling the station to find out who it was is unintentionally hilarious. Norma Desmond would wince at saying such a thing.

She sounded good as late as 2009 and decent as late as the Oscars in 2013, after that her voice fell away quickly.