45 years ago this week...

How nice. How nice for us all.

R1 I agree with you. It is a beautiful album, and still holds up 45 years later.

Compare this to the crap that passes as 'hit albums' from today's pop tarts. She blows them away. Can you imagine Taylor Swift trying to sing 'After the Rain' or 'Kiss Me In The Rain' ? Geez. Can you imagine Beyonce and Swift trying to duet on 'No More Tears' ? Your ears would bleed.

R2 Let me guess - Donna had a problem with "I'm gonna let myself get absolutely soaking wet" and "Rip off the roof and stay in bed."

Collective eye roll.

R3 Wrong, as usual.

Collective eyeroll.

Other than the Donna Summer duet, I hated all of the songs. Streisand was slumming in the 1970s.

[quote]Compare this to the crap that passes as 'hit albums' from today's pop tarts.

I wouldn't exactly call this song a masterpiece. Of camp kitsch, maybe. But Donna, Barbra and even Jabara have done much better work.

[quote]Streisand was slumming in the 1970s.

When she was with Jon Peters, she lost a lot of her artistic drive and became more about chasing the money. I think she's even admitted to that, which was why she became interested in doing Yentl. Interestingly, it was that project that finished them as a couple.

Jon Peters is such a cunt. He deserves worse than he's gotten.

Besides being an illiterate asshole, Jon Peters had no taste. EVERYBODY in Streisand's inner circle hated him. R6, I agree that her drive had diminished (she even talked about retirement in 1973), but bastardizing yourself with the dreck she did in the 1970s is inexcusable. I wish she had retired in 1973.

"(Wet) My Vag is Like Melted Buttah!"

Barbra Wet

Let's see: 45 years ago this week, my mother was starting her third year of law school.

OMG kill it!!! Kill it ALL!!!

Wet. Hee hee hee.

She was WET now she’s DRY

She devotes a chapter in her memoir to the recording of WET and to Donna Summer.

The album started when she was enjoying her jacuzzi that summer. She loved the colors reflecting on the tiles, blah, blah, blah - and then she wanted to take photos of herself in the jacuzzi for her next album cover. That's when she decided to do another concept album (her third in a row), this one about water, and title it 'Wet'. She spoke very lovingly about Donna Summer as a person, and the great time they had recording the duet together. (Summer did the same about Streisand 20 years earlier in her memoir, and considered Streisand a lifelong friend).

What struck me was that Streisand, as we all know, did dozens of duets over the years and handful with female singers (it has always been rumored that Streisand never wanted to duet with women, and be compared to the other female vocalist). Of the female duet partners, from what I recall, only two get a chapter devoted to them in her memoir - Judy Garland and Donna Summer. Not even Celine Dion gets this kind of attention in the book, and Kim Carnes was never mentioned. This tells me she has always held Garland and Summer with great respect.

I think she puffed up the Summer part. Not because she had issues with her, but because Donna was 1) Black 2) Dead

Is this like the gay version of the Bicentennial Minute?

"This day in gay history .... "

R15 I doubt that. I believe she had a lot of respect for Summer because she was a celebrity who respected privacy, and could be trusted. Summer never gossiped about anyone, nor did she ever have a bad thing to say about anyone or anything. (Which kind of made her television interviews boringly predictable).

R16 No, wrong thread.

Was “it’s raining men” supposed to be on her wet album? By the time it was released Ross was working with chic and Streisand was getting ready to work with the Gibb brothers. 1980 was a career best year for Ross and Streisand. I don’t see that song fitting into the Diana or Guilty albums.

I’d imagine, too, that Barbra would’ve wet herself entering the studio purposely, just to extra ensure the desired effect she was after for recording.

[quote][R15] I doubt that. I believe she had a lot of respect for Summer because she was a celebrity who respected privacy, and could be trusted. Summer never gossiped about anyone, nor did she ever have a bad thing to say about anyone or anything. (Which kind of made her television interviews boringly predictable).

Agreed. Barbra hand-picked Donna to sing the Oscar-nominated “Papa Can You Hear Me” at the Oscars. Streisand did not attend because she was pissed that she was not nominated as best director for the film. She wouldn’t have chosen Donna had she not respected her as a vocalist.

When she and Summer were recording 'No More Tears' , Jabara was in the studio witnessing the recording. Everyone involved told him he had another #1 hit on his hands, so within those few weeks, he quickly wrote another song for the two of them - "It's Raining Men" (this time paying attention to the 'water theme') and wanted them to record it before they left the studio at the end of August. It would've been included on Streisand's 'Wet' album, and Summer's 'On the Radio'.

He also wanted Ross to be included as a 'trio', and to be included on (what's been rumored since then) as a 'Best of...' compilation album from her catalogue (not necessarily her 'greatest hits) for Christmas, 1979. Once Summer dropped out, it was to be a Streisand / Ross duet. But Gordy didn't 'play nice' with Columbia (the way Casablanca did) and the plan was dropped. So was the Ross compilation album for the Holiday season, possibly because there wasn't a new single on it to help sell it.

Supposedly, Jabara was quickly going through a list of other singers to duet with Streisand on what he felt was going to be another big hit for him (Gladys Knight was said to be at the top of his list) but time was running out for Streisand, who was scheduled to release the album in six weeks (in time for Grammy consideration).

I can't picture Ross and Streisand recording together. Is Diana even mentioned in the book?

It's a shame we never got a super recording or a photoshoot of all the big divas together in one room. Aretha, Barbra, Diana, Tina, Bette, Liza, Cher, Dolly. It would have been truly something.

Was this before or after she crimped her hair and went down the stony end?

R23 Streisand was in Europe that week, promoting the movie's release (how convenient), but did catch the live show and Summer's performance. In an interview a few a weeks later, Summer said the next day after her performance, she received the biggest bouquet of pink roses she had ever seen in her life from Barbra, with the most beautiful thank you note attached. She had a professional photographer photograph the bouquet, enlarged it, framed it and hung it on her wall to remember it. That's how special it made her feel.

[quote]I can't picture Ross and Streisand recording together. Is Diana even mentioned in the book?

She is - Streisand called her 'one of the great singers' who performed at Clinton's inauguration in 1993, along with herself and Aretha Franklin.

Summer ...nor did she ever have a bad thing to say about anyone or anything.

Except the gays

Wet was also the first Barbra album I got. A friend had it playing in his car that I was a passenger in and I was gobsmacked.

The fact that it was ignored by the Grammys - especially the Streisand / Summer duet - is a mystery we shall never figure out (although some people had suggested that the voters believed both Summer and Streisand had won enough Grammys between them that decade - don't know if I agree with this).