Barbara Streisands albums...not that great

Hoo boy my reaction as well when I listened to 'Stoney End' for the fist time in 30 years. What a racket.

She made some weird choices in the beginning, but Stoney End was when she still started really going off the rails.

first*

Have you ever heard the Christmas 🎄 Album??

Guilty is solid from beginning to end.

Make It Like a Memory is a fucking odyssey. Her bombastic delivery finds its niche here perfectly.

R3, are you so full of poseur neediness that you have to mess up your reasonable post with the unacceptable "curation" and "code signals,"

You're not impressing anyone here with your silliness and off-the-mark pride.

Unlike Ms. Streisand, who works towards her own standards, which are focused on lushness, precision, and churning it all into butter.

The poor girl has a God-given voice but terrible taste in music.

Butterfly is a fucking mess.

Streisand's taste in music matches her taste in clothes.

R5 that is an incredible record. My mother turned me on to that one a few years ago.

“The Way We Were” in my opinion, has the best drumming ever executed on a pop track. It’s just amazing.

Her voice was thrilling and often impeccable. Her taste wildly uneven. I heard it when she released each album. What took you guys so long to catch on?

The only Streisand album I need in my collection is the OG Greatest Hits from 1970. Though I admit to also having A Star Is Born (sentimental/kitsch value) and Guilty (her most consistent studio album IMO, but still not devoid of filler)

core singles, not code singles.* Fucking phone.

For example: "No Mo Tears" is fucking phenomenal, but the "Wet" album wasn't.

No Mo’ Tears (Enuff’s Enuff)

For r4.

I don’t mind the Stoney End album so much.

Streisand is out of her element with the Joni Mitchell covers - she has no sense of Mitchell’s detached wariness, and her Dusty Springfield remakes don’t work for me either, as she’s missing Springfield’s sensuality and vulnerability.

But I like the Laura Nyro songs! Stoney End benefits from the tighter production, and she really seems to have fun with Flim-Flam Man.

Most surprising to me is her rendition of Gordon Lightfoot’s classic If You Could Read My Mind. It doesn’t touch the original, and I still prefer Johnny Cash’s stripped down version from the Rick Rubin years, but I enjoy Streisand’s dramatic, over-the-top reading.

The seventies stuff is uneven and often bland to me, but I like this record better than the others from the decade.

I never got why people referred to as some great interpreter. She seems to approach (attack) all material the same way, whether it be Beatles, Bowie, Bacharach or Harold Arlen.

[quote]Dusty Springfield remakes don’t work for me either, as she’s missing Springfield’s sensuality and vulnerability.

Nice analysis. Barbra's Who Can I Turn To is no match for Dusty's. Dusty really brought a yearning and sensuality to the song, and Barbra's was rather flat.

Here's Barbra's version ;

Dusty's Who Can I Turn To -

[quote]She made some weird choices in the beginning, but Stoney End was when she still started really going off the rails.

Hardly, r2. Regardless of how you feel about it, she was just keeping up with the times and extending her recording career.

Despite her amazing voice, I don't much care for her material either. But taste is individual, isn't it? And her taste is pretty consistent whether it's music, architecture, or interior decorating.

That duet with Donna Summer sounds like two cats in heat out in the back alley.

Her seventies stabs at contemporary songwriters’ burgeoning classics were really hit and miss.

Sometimes, when there was swelling orchestration to complement her vocal showboating, it really comes together, as on this version of Jimmy Webb’s Didn’t We, which appeared on her Live Concert at the Forum album from 1972.

Her taste may be questionable - more so in later albums - but hers is a voice for the ages. Remarkable and unforgettable.

I think her first album is immaculate. It’s simple and cohesive and bizarre at times.

I've never been a huge Barbra fan, but I like a lot of her late 70s/early 80s pop stuff.

Her voice is certainly a beautiful instrument, but it’s always lacked soul and nuance to my ears. She’s no Judy

Is there filler on Guilty? If there is, it’s good filler. I love that she admitted in the book she had no real idea what Woman In Love was about - but sang it anyway as instructed by Barry Gibb. (Hint, Barbra: It’s about belting the chorus!)

I liked A Star Is Born (as someone said above, kitsch value) but Evergreen is beautiful and so unique - does it actually have a chorus? I like Streisand Superman as a B-side/outtakes from ASIB. And sometimes her voice just sounds so good, it doesn’t matter what she’s singing. I’ve always loved her vocal performance on My Heart Belongs to Me, it’s such a hothouse of a ding. Another one where in the book she says she didn’t really understand it.

Mostly, I like Kooky Barbra. And I liked The Broadway Album.

I’m sure I said it on the book thread but listening to the memoir makes you realise that careers are what happens while the talent is waiting around for something better to do. A lot of her discography sounds like it was under contract.

*hothouse of a song

Jamaican dialect unintended.

[quote]Her voice is certainly a beautiful instrument, but it’s always lacked soul and nuance to my ears

It's *all* about the voice not the interpretation, r26. Like Ronstadt.

This is still amazing.

ButterFly is a nadir for me, but I don’t mind the next one after that, the Rupert Holmes record referenced upthread.

Again, when the big production matches her voice, the songs can work.

LOL - agree Butterfly is the nadir. Blech. Guava Jelly, anyone? Grandma’s Hands?

[quote]Grandma’s Hands?

Grandma's Hands comes off a bit like...

If we’re talking Lazy Afternoon, I prefer this one.

Her thang has always been the Power Torch Song. And she went through all the Broadway tunes.

Most everything after The Broadway album is forgettable.

That was her last true masterpiece.

Agreed, her version of Somewhere is my favorite recording of that song

Barbra's best ever...

"The Way We Were" album...not the movie soundtrack, but the album titled, TWWW. It's brilliant especially the magnificent, "The Best Thing You've Ever Done."

R38, “Pieces of Dreams” is really nice

I'm listening in a high quality headphones, and the production on every single album is masterful. The mixes are outstanding.

Also, I think the thing I'm reacting to is there's far, far more if her recordings that are of its time and haven't aged well.

Finally - Je M'apelle Barbra was underrated.

Miss Lake Dardanelle, I love you.

Babs, you put out a lot of shit, but when you were good, you were very good.

OP, don’t listen to anything after 1970 and you’ll understand why Babs was great. Was.

”Love is the Answer” is a solid album. Most of her albums since the 90s have been cheesy. The music sounds like cheesy demos on Casio keyboards from the 90s. All those cheap sounds they have on keyboards they never use for contemporary music, it’s on her albums.

R42 is correct. If one is uninitiated and wants to know what all the fuss was about with her, one just needs to listen to the Greatest Hits that was posted up thread to understand what the big deal was.

Most of them suck ass I couldn’t stand a lot of her at any time

The early albums especially 1, 2, and 3 are absolutely phenomenal.

Really fell in love with this Anthony Newly song

My Name is Barbra one and two, Color Me Barbra, People. A subtle album of standards that I love (she doesn’t), Simply Streisand.

I plan to redo all her greatest hits when she finally croaks.

Oh my god that’s a MARY! R47

Gotta own it to sell it, r50!

r38: I share your praise for "The Way We Were" album. Every song is exquisite.

But this cut is my favorite. It may well be my favorite Streisand recording. Flawless Peter Matz arrangement.

Recorded in 1967 for the aborted BELLE OF 14th STREET TV soundtrack album.

R52, you must (?) know that he majority of that album was recorded in 1969 and shelved for Barbra’s contemporary period staring in 1971. It was quickly revived into a “new” album when The Way We Were single was a hit. They needed an album for the single and had this one in the vaults.

r53: I do indeed! It was to be called "The Singer". Two or three (?) songs were newly recoded to fill it out.

The title song from that album was performed by new Columbia artist Liza Minnelli in 1973. "The Singer is the seventh studio album by American singer and actress Liza Minnelli, released in 1973. It marked her first release under Columbia Records and was highly anticipated by the public.

The change in Minnelli's discography began on March 1, 1972, when the actress and singer signed her contract with Columbia Records. In September 1972, recording sessions began for what would become "The Singer" .Originally, fellow label artist Barbra Streisand was set to release an album with the same title, featuring the track by Walter Marks, but the project was shelved, allowing Minnelli to breathe life into an album that would become a significant part of her own musical journey.

Check out her 1969 “What About Today?” album that until recently I’d never listened to, let alone never known existed. Really good stuff.

Please do not compare Liza with a real SINGER like Streisand.

Singers released so many albums back then, at least one per year. Sometimes more.

^ two a year in the 1960s.

How gay am I? I listened to two albums over and over and over way back when I was a young man.

Barbra's Second Album and Johnny Mathis killing it on his "Faithfully" album.

Greatest Hits albums suck.

It basically comes down to Broadway Barbra vs Pop Star Barbra. I prefer the former.

I always liked the "Barbra Joan Streisand" album. It's not perfect, but her voice sure was.

^ GOD I hate that album. Summer of 42 was nice though.

She was lucky to come along when she did. Tastes in music and movies were going to change radically in a few years. By 1968 or 69, the music she was recording and movie musicals were over for most people. Given her lackluster pop albums from 1969 or 70 onwards, I wonder if she would have become the megastar she did.

For the longest time I thought the disco hit "Superman" which was played on the radio was Barbra Streisand singing. Her "Streisand Superman" album was released the same year and I thought this disco song was the hit from it.

The first Streisand album I owned was "Greatest Hits Vol 2." It had the song "Prisoner (Love Theme from Eyes of Laura Mars)" which I got for Christmas when I was a kid. I eventually bought all her albums over a short period of time from dollar bins at the record stores.

[quote]By 1968 or 69, the music she was recording and movie musicals were over for most people

Not exactly, R64. It was over for people under 40. The record companies and TV networks froze the over 40s out and focused on youth culture. There was an audience, but it had no value to them (they thought). So they wanted the great vocalists to record "contemporary" music that alienated their audience and that youth would never buy. Streisand accepted what she had to do and created an new musical persona, one that used inferior material. But it sold better.

What album, if any, can I find Barbra's rendition of "Brother Can You Spare a Dime" that is played at the end of the Golden Girls episode where the girls spend the night at the homeless shelter?

R65 Has it been a challenge as a deaf person pursuing your interest in popular music?

R68, it seems it was part of an EP called Second Hand Rose.

I was unaware that EPs were even a thing in the sixties.

Like the eyes of Laura mars theme

Her best music is when she is singing live in concert or on TV shows. There is an incredible amount of video available on YouTube going back to the beginning of her career.

[quote] Grandma’s Hands?

Her interpretation of that classic Bill Withers tune reminds me of what Truman Capote said about her version of A Sleepin' Bee: "She takes every ballad and turns it into a three-act opera. She simply cannot leave a song alone."

R68 That was not Barbra singing.

The singer was uncredited but there is discussion on the net that it´s either Judy Collins ore GG theme singer Cynthia Fee.

The first time Babs okayed songs of hers to be used for TV was in 2016. Her husband had directed some Christmas thing for Hallmark and using two songs for that production was her gift to him. Otherwise they could not have afforded it.

R68, it was part of the medley in MY NAME IS BARRA TWO. Forget what R70 said.

r68: "My Name Is Barbra, Two" - Part of the "Bergdorfs " number.

I think her two songs from SUNSET BOULEVARD from 'BACK TO BROADWAY' are two stand-outs from the 90s. She really set the standard for those two numbers - Lupone , Close, Carroll, Buckley and the others don't even come close.

Her MEMORY on The Broadway Album is also pretty great. The whole album is very good.

WHAT Memory from the Broadway album???

I like 'Stoney End.'

The problem with Barbra is that she has always been given far too much credit as a musician because of her voice's exceptional beauty, when in reality she doesn't have any taste whatsoever and is too self-indulgent to venture out of her comfort zone, unless she was forced to do so by her record company. Moreover, her neuroticism and inability to relinquish control even for one second, makes most of her albums impossibly boring because everything sounds the same.

Her first albums are soporific, but she was going against the grain by singing forgotten musical theatre tunes, old standards and making unexpected jazzy versions of songs by The Beatles, Jimmy Webb and Paul Simon. Still, they are still coma-inducing pap. When she tried to orientate her career toward a more contemporary audience, the results were uneven but the highs were glorious. Stoney End has some great numbers that show that she could do folksy pop like the best of them, and her late 70s / early 80s output, when she dabbled in rock and exploded into disco, can be sublime. Her Paul Jabara numbers, Cabin Fever from Superman and Guilty, her collaboration with the Bee Gees, are simply awesome. And let's nor forget how SUPERB her version of Jim Steinman's Left In the Dark was; just pure perfection.

Sadly, she soon grew bored with trying to occasionally challenge herself, decided to go back to what her long term fans liked the most, and she's been insufferably tiresome ever since. Not even ever attempt to recapture the magic of Guilty by working a second time with a particularly uninspired Barry Gibb, could save her from her own dullness. In short, La Streisand is very much a singles artist and most of her output is, in my opinion, inexplicably overrated.

WELL...Smell you, R81!

[quote] When she tried to orientate her career toward a more contemporary audience, the results were uneven but the highs were glorious.

SAYS YOU

R81, Left in the Dark is sheer camp.

Jim Steinman meets Barbra Streisand. I’m envisioning the studio starting to smoke because every dial had been turned up to 11 and Barbra broke off the chain keeping up.

[quote]Truman Capote said about her version of A Sleepin' Bee: "She takes every ballad and turns it into a three-act opera. She simply cannot leave a song alone."

Also from House of Flowers...

R81 Hi Patti! Sorry Madonna took Evita from ya but at least we will always have your tits on screen from Summer of Sam!

[quote]unless she was forced to do so by her record company.

She was never 'forced to do' anything by her record company. She always had complete control over her recordings, and Columbia let her. That is why she has been with them for over 60 years.

One of the funniest bits in IN 'N' OUT is the fight that erupts at Kevin Kline's bachelor party -- among a bunch of straight men -- about Barbra being overrated.

R87, she and her manager negotiated for total control with Columbia in her first contract. It cost her some money but turned out to be the right decision.

I don't this video was ever released. I think she's vocally incredible here while giving the song a poignancy.

R89 Correct - and she has kept that in her contract ever since. She's probably the only artist to have that kind of control throughout their career.

R90 That is Barbra at her best. It was recorded in early 1988 for her second Broadway album, produced by Rupert Holmes. For reasons not really understood, she decided to shelve the album when it was nearly completed. Some tracks have been released, but never this one. It should have been released on 1993's 'Back to Broadway' instead of some of the crap she did release on it ("Some Enchanted Evening", "Music of the Night"). We fans are hoping she will release it on an upcoming 'Release Me' album (we thought for sure it would have been included on the first or second volume, but no...).

R90 more like Make My Garden BLOW!

R81, one of the best assessments I’ve ever read, bravo!

R94 is R81.

Barbra sounds great on that Make Our Garden Grow but the arrangement is for shit. The point of the song is contentment, a point that is lost as she makes the song bigger and bigger in typical Barbara fashion.

I actually like two of her most reviled 70s cover versions: Bowie’s Life on Mars and Lennon’s Mother.

Her first, "The Barbra Streisand Album," and "Color Me Barbra" are about perfect.

For Streisand albums. It IS a special category.

^ Jon Peters

R89, She has also owned her masters since the very beginning. This is one of the reasons why she is incredible wealthy. She has a special vault containing the tapes of everything she has ever recorded.

If she were to ever sell her catalog like other musicians are doing right now, then she would be an instant billionaire. It makes sense for her to do that before she dies.

This is gayest fucking thread I've ever read in all my years on DL.

Keep it up fags.

She does not like the first at all. I agree. Sone good stuff but also lots of unnecessary dramatics, yelps etc that were not really characteristic of her at the time. Listen to her Bon Soir album for an example of her early voice.

I have long wondered how perfectionist Barbra allowed that horrendous crack at the end of Don’t Rain on My Parade on the OBC to stand.

^ She hates it, I LOVE it

R64, it really is fascinating how Barbra was the best-selling female artist of all time until Madonna and Whitney along. But whereas those two men still generate SOME interest in Gen Z members, Barbra does not. And it's not hard to see why. She comes across as pre-modern in many ways, including her music. She debuted the same year as The Beatles but the latter's catalogue is far more popular by a landslide. Barbra has always seemed older than she actually is. She and Celine have that in common. That, and neither would ever be called "cool", ever.

R65 Hard to believe Columbia was trying to sell Barbra as "hot" with that ad campaign.

r100 her catalogue is not worth a billion, but the $300 million they'd offer might tip her into billionaire status.

Let's face it, if you can't sell the music commercially, then it's of little value. No one is buying her albums like they used to. Her streaming numbers are shit. Broadway tunes and sleepy ballads haven't been in style since the 70s, maybe the 80s. Many people have sold their catalogues recently, none of them are getting big bucks because unless you can be placed into a TV commercial, a movie, or have loads of covers, your work has little value today.

So, I think she'd get an offer so small, her fans' heads would explode. Celine Dion's catalogue is likely worth more than Streisands today, because at least her songs are relevant with Gen-Z thanks to TikTok. No one is checking from grandma Barbara.

R105, Barbra always seemed "older" because her music belongs to the previous generation, and that wasn't a bad thing. The Beatles and all the 1960s rock groups was music for teenagers. Streisand was for adults, people over 30 bought her records. In the 70s, Clive Davis talked her into going contemporary, and appealed to her age - she was still in her 20s. Rarely have I liked that music, but I understand why she agreed to join her age group.

That $300 million number was being SUPER generous. She's probably be under in the $200 million range.

R105

^ EWWWWW

R110, I thought that was Richard Simmons.

If Queen's catalogue is at 1.3 billion or so, there is no way in hell Barbra's is anywhere near 1 billion. Probably 300 or 400 million.

Would actually suck to be her and look back and remember the endless fuss she made over every detail on every album and every movie, only to have 90% of her life’s work have such little meaning, relevance, staying power, or vitality later on.

No it wouldn’t, R114. That’s because Barbra doesn’t know any of that.

[quote]it really is fascinating how Barbra was the best-selling female artist of all time until Madonna and Whitney along.

Barbra has fallen down on the global all-time biggest selling female artists list. Madonna has fallen to #6, and Whitney is hanging on at #10. Celine is at #13.

She probably has one of the greatest voices of all time but her choice of music was meh most of the time. I loved the Funny Girl album and the duets she did. Her Broadway album was great. She is great at torch songs. I wish she had done more of them.

Anyone know what OBC stands for?

R117, then you simply don’t know her catalogue. Its easily contains the widest breadth of music ever recorded by a single artist. He Mr concerts are a tour through great composers, lyricists and songwriters of the 20 and 21st centuries- many who she knew and literally clambered to have her record their music. Very few people, even fans really know all her catalogue but rather early, Broadway, pop etc. Dans tend to think early Barbra is the great Barbra,, or Bee Gee Barbra or Broadway etc.

R119 is the epitome of a stan

As a middle schooler I got hooked on Color Me Barbra after the telecast......

Soon got all the LPs up to that point, and was exposed to the American Songbook,... many cuts I was not familiar with at age 14.

By Stony End, I was a fan of all those current singer songwriters, so Barbra's covers seemed rather pointless.

So I'm a fan of the early stuff.......

also a fan of Peter Matz.... whose name seems to have been forgotten ... it took up to R52 for his name to appear on this thread.

R120, that’s “charlie” - big Streisand worshipper/apologist and celebrity bullshiter at the Datalounge.

As a middle schooler I got hooked on drugs….

R119 is good ole Charlie, defending Babs as always.

R121

The last time she used a "new" orchestration by the great Peter Matz was 2006 live in concert.

[quote] “My personal thanks to Marilyn Lovell Matz for sharing a very special piece of music with me. Marilyn combined and arranged William Saroyan's foreward to his play The Time of Your Life with Rodgers & Hammerstein's ‘A Cockeyed Optimist’ from South Pacific, orchestrated by her late husband Peter Matz. Peter was a gifted composer and arranger who was so important to my musical career ... and to me.”

R118 OBC is the catalog code for 'Original Broadway Cast', which is for a music album from a Broadway production. Shows that originate outside of Broadway usually go by 'OCR' for "Original Cast Recording" (such as the West End recording of 'Phantom of the Opera', or the LA production of 'Sunset Boulevard').

For music from movies, it's 'OMPS' which stands for 'Original Motion Picture Soundtrack' (though over the years it has also been labeled 'OMS' for 'Original Movie Soundtrack').

Hope this helps

“He Mr concerts are a tour through great composers, lyricists and songwriters of the 20 and 21st centuries- many who she knew and literally clambered to have her record their music. Very few people, even fans really know all her catalogue but rather early, Broadway, pop etc”

Maybe SOME songwriters would have clambered to have her record their songs, but even some of those people would have shuddered at the thought of actually producing them with her. And it’s simply not true that “very few people” know her catalog. She has sold millions of records. Even an inconsequential platter of pap like Songbird sold a million copies. But her music just doesn’t hold up. It’s either of it’s time and/or for people with a specific interest in her kind of showbiz soft rock or Broadway pop. Cher and Dolly Parton don’t have the amazing gift that Streisand has (her voice) but they are more relevant to younger audiences because their older songs still resonate and they’re more charismatic and likable. And despite all of the plastic on the outside, there are actual real people inside.

[quote] Its easily contains the widest breadth of music ever recorded by a single artist.

Oh please, go fuck yourself.

R116, Madonna is still number one but she will be overtaken by Taylor Swift soon. I think it's like comparing apples and oranges but it is what it is.

There's a fairly new book out that explores her entire recording career.

This is an example of what I’m talking about where her music sounds like a demo on a Casio keyboard from the 90’s.

Here’s a Babs song right here.

This song is from 2005. Yes, almost 20 years ago but 20 years ago didn’t sound like this. This sounds like 1988.

R134 Sounds like the same album but it’s 17 years apart.

R108 Here she is covering The Beatles in the 60s.

Paul and Barbra are the same age.

Barbra sang it like she was his mother’s age.

R136 this song

God, that is ONE song that doesn't need the showtunes reinterpretation! Capote was right! ^^

Her rendition of "Jingle Bells" has always been my most hated Christmas song ever.

I was born in 1987. I did not grow up with Barbra on the radio, she certainly was never on MTV.

I remember “Tell Him” with Celine. But I remember hearing it through commercials and being promoted through shows like Entertainment Tonight. Maybe they played the music video on VH1 but I didn’t like it as a 10 year old.

I think when I was younger, she was like Frank Sinatra to me in that I knew who she was, I knew she was famous and beloved but I didn’t know her music and it certainly wasn’t for me.

It wasn’t until I got older that I started listening to Barbra. I enjoy her first album the most. The rest are tough to get through although there’s some songs here and there I like.

The “Guilty” album has definitely had a revival. I didn’t hear those songs until I was older and satellite radio started playing them.

But to me, Julie London and Ella Fitzgerald’s music aged better to me.

Once the rhythm kicks in halfway into this song the Babyface production suits her really well here.

OMG. The “Left in the Dark” troll…the only person who should be singing that song is Ellen Foley.

Barbra’s Emotion videos actually played on MTV when they were released. As did Bette Midlers cover of The Rolling Stones Beast of Burden, which also got nominated for a few VMAs.

R129, Rondstat herself the first person to tell you the same!

Thanks R131 I ordered that book ($40 on Amazon)

I didn’t order the book (R131) because the author prefers the FG movie soundtrack over the Bway cast album. Movie = overproduced, Broadway = spontaneous

I got the book and went through it once. It's all the same info that's on his website already - nothing new.

Well, if it sucks I'll just send it back.

This song is funny.

I was told that the song was "sexy," R149

R103, that "nasty crack" (in her voice) what got her the two votes that provided her with an Oscar in the fateful tie.

[quote]Its easily contains the widest breadth of music ever recorded by a single artist. He Mr concerts are a tour through great composers

And no one needed the tour through the fatness of your fingers pounding in exasperated, erroneous fanaticism, dear.

Oh, dear.

R149, I would never call it funny. She slowed the tempo unnecessarily and her delivery was excessively mannered, turning a lighthearted, danceable song into a boring snooze fest. Again, if someone had pushed her a little instead of allowing her to do exactly what she wanted, the results would have been infinitely better.

R103 and R151, that "nasty crack" in her voice, in all seriousness, was what Bob Ross would have termed "a happy accident." In almost anyone else's voice, that crack would have come out as a horrible squawk, but because of the beautiful vocal instrument she was given, it cracks from the original pitch into a perfect overtone and then back to the original pitch. This is an effect that jazz trumpeters and saxophonists strive for but seldom achieve, and that I've never heard a vocalist manage, even by accident like this. Ella would imitate this effect in her scat singing when she was really cooking, but it wasn't the real thing, like this was. They would have been crazy to throw that take out.

Thanks, R126.

R153 It makes me giggle because she took a very sensual lusty song and took it to Disneyland.

She gave the cruise ship version.

That crack is horrible.

Note that the illiterate Trump lover Jon Peters “produced” the Butterfly album.

Walls? Lmao!

I wish my last name was Von Tussle

"Evergreen" is her best song IMO. So beautiful.

^ no taste

If mentioned above I missed it, but in hindsight the poor box office of Hello Dolly and On a Clear Day had to be part of the reason she shifted gears into the Stony End era.

If those two films had been big moneymakers, her solo output from 1970-73 may have been very different.

Clive Davis from Columbia Records visited Babs on the set of Hello Dolly to propose that she do an album of contemporary songs. The result was Stony End. Dolly and Clear Day had not been released yet.

^^My apologies. I fucked up. I remembered the story that Clive Davis told in his autobiography about visiting Babs on the Dolly set, but Stoney End did indeed come out after those two movies. As punishment, I will force myself to listen to Streisand Superman album and ponder those super-sexy cover images.

Well, before she recorded the Stoney End album in 1971, the result of Clives visit on the Dolly set were Barbra recording three pop songs. Clive was concerned about the failure of her latest album of standards "Simply Streisand" to reach the top 10.

So in an effort to update her repertoire she recorded three contemporary pop songs. The single released in 1968 (“Our Corner of the Night” / “He Could Show Me” ) did not sell well . Nore did the follow up album "What About Today?" in 1969.

After disappointing sales of the Dolly and Clear Day soundtracks and her first Greatest Hits collection, she finally managed to boost her sales in 1971 with Stoney End.

Stoney End came after she successfully managed to modernise her image in movies with The Owl And The Pussycat.

“Our Corner of the Night” and “He Could Show Me” could qualify for one of the top three WORST pop singles ever recorded.

Wet

Really wet

"Wet" was one last chance to try to get Barbra looking sexy with that perm.

With the title "Wet" was Barbra referring to her Downtown Suzie?

Ugh, R171. I would call Barbra many things, but sexy? You would need to use a very loose definition of the word, as well as relying on a darkened lens smeared in LOTS of Vaseline. Also, there's nothing sexy about the insanely mediocre and dull title track, as well as most of the equally drab ballads that make the majority of that album.

No R172 because they would have included barf bags with the album if that was the case.

Lots and lots of schlock

^ but it was POPULAR!!!

Actually, r172, she was, explicitly referencing her vaginal secretions in the title song.

R173 is an idiot.

Bab's personal musical tastes don't bother me half as much as the fact OP forgot to include an apostrophe in the thread title.

Is is pronounced Strei-SAND or Strei-ZAND?

R180, I've always thought that it is pronounced SHTREI-zand, since it's a German surname.

Sand, like on the beach.

WET is (supposedly) the only album in music history which begins and ends with the same word - which happens to be the title of the album.

I wish she would release an album of music from the movies.

I did, bubbeleh at R184. They got my good side for the record sleeve.

I love her version of One Tin Soldier

^ WHAT?

Skip 'The Movie Album'. After 17 years in the making, it was a major disappointment to fans of Streisand and fans of Hollywood. There's a reason she never did a sequel to it (in 21 years) as she did with 'The Broadway Album'.

But the sequel to the Broadway album has some of the worst, overblown arrangements of any of her albums. Makes one appreciate the genius of Peter Matz.

I am revolted by her "Ladies Who Lunch".

A spectacular voice whose oeuvre, with a few exceptions, bores me to tears.

R191, well snell you!

The instrument is great but she has the worst taste of all time

Was she popular with teenagers in the 60s - 80s?

I imagine she was like Michael Buble, Norah Jones, and Josh Groban a little bit? No one my age as a teenager liked them but they sold a shit ton of records and they were really popular?

The age of music consumption has also decreased throughout the years. Like it’s truly a young persons game. You have to practically be under 25 to score a hit single today unless you’ve been out for a long time.

I feel like I’m the 90’s when I was growing up, age and image wasn’t that important if you had a good song.

R194, there was a small teenage audience for Babs in the 1960s because she was “rebellious” and outside the norm, but most of her audience was 30+. In the 70s those silly pop songs and love ballads were all over the radio (especially The Way We Were and A Star is Born) but that’s where it ended. By then it was a late 40s, 50s+ audience.

I love her version of Disco Duck.

When she dusts off some old nuggets from the early days it´s still phantastic.

Her voice is pretty solid for a 78 year old singer to my untrained ears.

R196 Wow, so older audiences were carrying her career the whole time?

Wow!

I've always thought if her as a caberet artist. I do like her early work, the television specials were innovative at the time. She matured but her taste wasn't suited to the times. Jon Peters sexed her up but it always seemed contrived. We wanted our 2nd hand Rose and she wanted hot pants. Watch, A Star is Born. her ass is very prominent. He made sure

Jon Peters was the largest of her many mistakes. What a cunt.

Do you think she let Peters pop it in her pooper? Somehow I cann't see her giving up the backdoor...

Now was this song supposed to be a joke? With a sense of humor?

I do love her version of We've Only Just Begun

It was released 20 years after it was recorded, R204.

R201, Jon Peters was the best thing that happened to her career post-The Way We Were. Her music and film careers were going nowhere fast before she met him. She was seen as uncool and old-fashioned. He came along and turned her into the biggest singer and box-office star of the decade. A Star is Born was huge and a real cultural moment. Her albums during the Peters years were the biggest of her career, especially Guilty. The public was fascinated by their passionate relationship.

Thank you for your contribution, Jon.

BS Go help someone else you self centered rich bitch-you put that “stiff-shit-spell” on Celine you jealous cunt!

IDGAF what OP thinks.

I love Bab’s voice and much of her songs.

I never liked the songs she chose. At least Whitney could get down.

[quote]r206 - A Star is Born was huge and a real cultural moment

Oh brother.

I don’t think Jon Peters was around by 1980 when she recorded the Guilty album.

I was an infant, but I can still remember how over-marketed A Star Is Born was.

I think Barbra had a kind of universal appeal initially, and also with younger women. When she emerged, it was a different time culturally. It was during the Kennedy administration when the country had actual cultural aspirations. There was also a show business firmament. If you won an Oscar - it made you (I’m talking prior to her win though it was still incredibly prestigious then too). And of course television was monolithic. If you were on television on a Sunday night you were talked about all week. And even in the early ‘60s, your parents’ records were your records. And Barbra Streisand, as evidenced by her television specials, was a dynamic, even edgy performer. On television, her vocal performances were physically raw which gave her a unique energy. And throughout the 1960s she was ascendant, with an “ugly duckling/underdog” narrative. She wasn’t the pretty girl but she became fashionable and, on second thought, gorgeous. You couldn’t believe the voice, the passion, the sexual energy of her performances (the girl always yearning for more) coming out of someone so young. She was kookie. She conquered Broadway. And by the end of the decade, film, of all things. Her talent and unique persona were undeniable. I’m reminded of Debra Winger singing along to the OBCs of Merman’s Anything Goes and West Side Story (also an INCREDIBLY popular film) in Terms of Endearment and I think Barbra had that kind of appeal as well. I’m sure Emma in Terms would’ve sung along to Don’t Rain On My Parade as well.

As a child in the early ‘70s, I loved the song The Way We Were - everybody did. I remember going to other people’s homes and their young mothers had the 8-track tape of The Way We Were album with Barbra in a black turban. There was still more of a mono culture than people think. Even if you don’t embrace Star Wars, you can’t escape it.

Barbra had many cultural moments like that throughout the ‘70s - Evergreen was certainly one. It was undeniably beautiful. You’d her the opening guitar strings on the radio and your heart would stop, drawn into the exquisite beauty and undefinable mystery of love itself. You Don’t Bring Me Flowers was another - a recording that was made on demand for its adoring audience, which was everybody, graceful and dignified in its depiction of heartbreak, divorce and separation, something that was keenly felt given the divorce rate in the ‘70s and was only beginning to be acknowledged in popular culture (Kramer v Kramer would be released about two years later - the No. 1 box office hit of its year). And the Guilty album, of course, which just took on a life of its own from the day of its release, topping the singles and the album charts almost immediately, that all in white campaign everywhere, huge posters of Barbra & Barry clinched in their tight white silk outfits that seemed to define the moment - inheriting a lot of the Saturday Night Fever listeners as well, almost as if Barbra & Barry had reinvented each other. Barbra was a pop star. Even something like My Heart Belongs To Me was a huge hit for her in the summer of…1977? ‘78? And it sounded sexy and steamy.

She broke through to a universal audience at different times with different offerings which strung together to make her an undeniable super star, aside from her massive devoted fan base. Not as niche as you might think, in retrospect.

Interesting that the culture knew better than she did with "You Don't Bring Me Flowers".

R214, I was eighteen in 1974 when The Way We Were was all over the radio. My peers - the ones who knew her - considered her records “my parents music,” and had little interest in Barbra Streisand. It was like that even though her fans like to think otherwise.

The amazing thing is that she did almost no promotion for her albums from 1964 to1986. There were ad campaigns and some rare radio callins but no personal appearances whatsoever. No late night shows ore touring to push album sales.

Starting with The Broadway Album she startet to put more effort into her promotion.Only when her sales were dwindling and she opted for the recordbreaking Nr1 in every decade did she play the game. For her last Nr1 she even pulled a trick out of the Madge handbook of recordsales and did a couple of live gigs before the album release,where each ticket included a purchase of the new album.

Since she is in the record studio now i´m looking forward to see Babs maybe out and about again.

Sure R216 but like you said “it was all over the radio.” Inescapable.

cabin fee eee eeee ver is killing me

You laugh, R219. But on Streisand Superman she also sang Love Comes From the Most Unexpected Places of which she said, “From having read the book, this would be a great theme song for [DL Fave Film] LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR” !!

And the song was written by DL Cult Fave KIM CARNES!! Pre-Bette Davis Eyes!

WHEN WE

[quote]OBC of Merman’s Anything Goes

Sadly, no such album exists.

Why didn't she sing on We are the World? Was she too good to sing for black children?

Babs..."gets down"

R223, they wouldn't allow her to perform with her (natural) boobs hanging out, so she passed. Ten years later she added silicone. Too LATE!

Was this song popular with the kids of the 80s when it came out? It was cool?

R222, from the soundtrack credits for Terms of Endearment:

Anything Goes By Cole Porter Performed by Ethel Merman Produced by Jule Styne (uncredited) Orchestrated by Buddy Bregman (uncredited) and Nelson Riddle (uncredited) Courtesy of National Broadcasting Company

Not an OBC but it is Merman.

No, no, no, R226. And that was 4 years after Guilty. That was all done with Richard Baskin and a slew of other producers.

Why is it so important that “the kids” like anything? Teenagers don’t control the world, and most of them have lousy taste. When someone over 40 tries desperately to appeal to kids, it looks foolish.

It's fulfilling to know that things you have enjoyed and are meaningful to you have a cultural legacy. It's a pity if you don't know that sort of joy.

Emotion was considerd Easy Listening /Adult contemporary music. She was as cool with the kids as Dionne Warwick, Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton John and Miss Ross, whose 1984 release Swept Away considered a similiar mix of synthesized uptempo songs and schmaltzy power ballads.

Even though Emotion is considered a dud by Barbra herself, the critics and fans it managed to find an audience and sold over 1 Million copies

R229 Because they were the main consumers of music for a long time.

Cher and Tina were able to do it, that’s what extended their careers.

R231 Diana had a little more life with the kids in the 80s. I think “Telephone” was a big song in the R&B crowd with the kids.

R231 Which is dead now. Easy Listening / Adult Contemporary is gone now.

Mature Content Warning:

This video may contain music of an adult nature. If you are easily offended please exit now.

She looks good on the r70 album cover.

Maybe because the camera’s far away.

Re: album covers: Why is she standing in the pit from “Silence of the Lambs” @ r141?

Actually, R232, they were a large segment of the record buying audience, not the only segment. Youth oriented performers yearned to graduate into the adult market. Such as how Bobby Darin did it, such as how Berry Gordy got The Supremes a gig at the Copa. They sang Rodgers and Hart in the act, the idea was being more sophisticated.

Lauper reflected on her path to success - and some of the challenges she’s faced along the way - in a recent interview with The Guardian. Her advisors originally wanted to try and position her as the next Barbra Streisand.

“Look, you already had a Streisand,” Lauper recalled telling them.

Next, she said they pitted her against Madonna, as the two women rose to fame around the same time.

“As if you could only have one woman who is successful. What the hell is that about?” Lauper told the publication. “That woman’s been entertaining us for years. She’s made great pop songs. I want to be competitive, but not pitted against another woman. I’m not into that.”

[quote]Why didn't she sing on We are the World?

She was asked but turned it down. She reportedly regretted her decision, and jumped on the next big charity song which was "Hands Across America" the following year.

R136, that reminds me of how Barbra was one of the few female singers Aretha admitted she admired. It's interesting because Barbra was far more popular than Aretha when they were both at their prime but the latter is a far bigger catalogue seller.