Here I am, back in unfamiliar territory. This time in the very unlikely neighborhood of Barbra Streisand. Babs to her friends, Barbara Joan Streisand to her family, and Mechastreisand to Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
My personal interest in her as a singer was simply for the Gibb brother's penned tune, Woman In Love, a song I'm not ashamed to admit I think is fantastic. It's what ultimately led me to buying her 1980 album, Guilty. As for her remaining 80's albums, Emotion (1984), The Broadway Album (1985), and Till I Loved You (1988), those ended up in my collection for being found in the bins for a dollar each while digging in the used CD section of McKays.
She's among one of the more common artists to find a plethora from when diving into most used bins, be it at shops, conventions, or yard sales. You'll typically find her among the fodder of Celine Dion, Jewel, Cheryl Crowe, Reba McEntire, and every throw away country artist of the 90's and beyond. Point being, there's a reason her albums are a buck a piece, and that's why I bought the ones from the 80's.
As for her personally, I don't know much. She's has a storied career which began at the Bon Soir nightclub in 1960. She then made her first television premiere on The Jack Paar Show (1961), which continued into her first Broadway appearance in 1962's I Can Get It For You Wholesale. She kicked off her solo recording career with 1963's The Barbra Streisand Album, and appeared in her first feature film, Funny Girl in 1968. She's even stepped behind the camera to produce and direct, with her first time being for 1991's Prince Of Tides. In between all of that, and ever since, she's worked hard to become a legacy singer / actress across the 20th and 21st centuries. That in a nutshell summarizes her lifetime career.
Keeping in tow with my ambition to push through listening to all the albums I own, which grows increasingly difficult as more get added to the fold, I finally come to Barbra. I'll admit, I have mixed feelings about this. I'm not foreseeing walking away from this as a fan. Further, I'm anticipating a lot of songs I simply don't like. I expect I'll hear a lot of ballads, love songs, and other such styles I'm not a big fan of. However, I'm also hopeful that among these I will hear a few here and there that I can get onboard with.
If there was one thing I'd say excited me for 1980's Guilty, it would be that all songs were written by Barry Gibb, and sporadically with the aid of his brother's Robin and Maurice. Yeah, I dig the Bee Gees. I'm not gonna lie. They're amazing song writers, and performers.
With hopes a little raised, I fired the album up, and admittedly heard what I expected. The overall pace of the tracks are slow. However, there's a definite Bee Gee's vibe to them, both in style and sound. With that said, I don't think that most of these would work if sung by the guys. These definitely need a woman's vocal, and Barbra absolutely nails every note.
I did end up pulling a few for my shuffle list, but don't know if I would necessarily actually listen to most of them again if they came around on my IPOD...Yes, I still listen to music on an IPOD. These songs included, Guilty, Promises, Life Story, Make It Like A Memory, and of course, Woman In Love.
Before even finishing this post, I was already a couple tracks into her follow-up album, 1984's Emotion. So without further ado, I jump over to that post, which you'll be able to pick up yourself tomorrow.
As for Barbra herself, there's not much more I can add to her personal history. I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't know her name, even if they've never seen one of her movies, or heard any of her music...Now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever seen one of her movies. Well, that's a problem for another day. I still have three albums to get through.
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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS September 20, 1980 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS September 20, 1986 |
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