Gay Icons - The Divas: Barbra Streisand (part 2)

Hello, my friends! In 1970, Barbra Streisand was at personal and professional crossroads. On a personal level, an affair with Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, put the final nail to the coffin of her marriage to Elliott Gould - they divorced in 1971. As far as her film career was concerned, she had to follow up her Oscar-winning role in Funny Girl and her buzz-generating role in Hello, Dolly. As far as her recording career was concerned, things were getting a bit stale - and Barbra felt it was time for a change. To signify that particular turning point, a Greatest Hits album was released in 1970.

Our good friend, Record Man, shared with us his love of the song He Touched Me. Since it is found on the Greatest Hits album, I thought I'd dedicate it to him. This iconic hit was originally featured in My Name Is Barbra Two and released on 45 as well. The song came from a Broadway play that her (then) husband Elliott Gould was appearing in, entitled Drat, The Cat.

As far as cinema goes, after being directed by two Hollywood veterans (William Wyler and Gene Kelly) in her first two movies... she was once again directed by a Hollywood veteran (Vincente Minnelli) in her third movie, On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever). The title track is extraordinary:

She followed that up with a comedy, Herbert Ross' The Owl and the Pussycat. In 1971, she released a very important album in her career, called Stoney End. It was produced by Richard Perry, who could do no wrong in the early 1970s, producing classic albums by Carly Simon and Ringo Starr. Stoney End redefined Streisand as an effective pop/rock singer, which her last outing, What About Today? had failed to do. Three tracks were written by Laura Nyro, including the wonderful title track that was the first single which returned Barbra in the US Top 10 (#6) for the first time in 7 years:

Another amazing song was Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind:

Also worth listening to, Joni Mitchell's I Don't Know Where I Stand:

The album also hit the US Top 10 and was certified platinum. On her follow-up album, Barbra tried to do for (or to) Carole King what she had done the last time around with Laura Nyro, to redo her material in a similar manner and essentially hijack it (while providing a big jump in songwriter royalties, of course). This was not so easy to do in the case of Beautiful, Where You Lead, and You've Got a Friend, however, since, unlike the Nyro songs, by the time Streisand got to these tunes, they were already on King's own chart-topping album, Tapestry. Nevertheless, Streisand, who after all is a much more powerful singer than King, did them well and even eked out a Top 40 single on Where You Lead:

The album also contained other gems, such as a delicate reading of John Lennon's Love:

... As well as the only recording of I Mean to Shine, written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, soon to launch Steely Dan:

Live Concert at the Forum (retitled Barbra Streisand Live in Canada) is her second live album, released on October 1, 1972. Produced by long-time collaborator Richard Perry, it was recorded at The Forum in Los Angeles on April 15, 1972, during a concert held in benefit for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign. From this album, I'd like you to listen to Jimmy Webb's Didn't We:

In 1972 she starred with Ryan O'Neal in Peter Bogdanovich's comedy, What's Up, Doc? Cole Porter's You're The Top was featured on the opening and closing credits:

Barbra Streisand... and Other Musical Instruments (1973), an album drawn from Streisand's fifth and last network TV special, has the dubious distinction of being the worst-selling Barbra Streisand record in the Columbia Records catalog. The idea of the special was to have Streisand sing many of her best-known songs and other pop standards over musical accompaniment from a variety of national origins. from this album, here's Glad to Be Unhappy:

Then, in 1973 we were introduced to Barbra's best movie, which featured her best song. Sydney Pollack's The Way We Were was one of the best romantic dramas of the 1970s, if not the best. Streisand and Redford made sparks fly and the bittersweet ending was era-appropriate. The theme song deservedly won the Best Song Oscar. Not only that - the song's composer achieved the impossible, winning 3 Oscars for his music in the same year: Best Original Score and Best Song for The Way We Were and Best Score Adaptation for The Sting. The film also awarded Barbra her second Best Actress Oscar nomination. This is the movie version of the song The Way We Were:

This is the version that was released as a single - and made it all the way to the top of the US charts. It's my favorite version:

I know that my friend Stelios loves Gladys Knight - and I'm sure that he'll appreciate her great version of the song:

To capitalize on the single's huge success, an album was rush-released on January 1, 1974. It flew all the way to the top of the charts and it was the first Streisand album that I ever bought. The album's second single was Stevie Wonder's epic All In Love Is Fair:

The album also contains three songs composed by Michel Legrand with lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman, my favorite of which is the Oscar-nominated What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?:

There's also a version of Paul Simon's Something So Right:

Streisand started a relationship with hairdresser/producer Jon Peters in 1974. He went on to be her manager and producer. The first album that he produced for her was 1974's ButterFly. The album contains a cover version of a song that I absolutely adore, David Bowie's Life on Mars. Although it doesn't hold a candle to the original (nothing could), it a very good version nonetheless:

I know that many of you would also like to hear Bowie's original:

Also on the ButterFly album, Bill Withers' Grandma's Hands:

In 1975, a sequel of Funny Girl, called Funny Lady, was released. Not as successful as the original, but it did well anyway, especially commercially. The song How Lucky Can You Get? was nominated for the Best Song Oscar:

Lazy Afternoon was released in 1975 and was duly certified gold. It included Rupert Holmes' My Father's Song:

... As well as Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over), a song that Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland originally wrote for the Four Tops in 1966:

Classical Barbra (1976) consists of songs by classical European composers. The newspapers gave the album mixed reviews, but classical pianist Glenn Gould wrote: "For me, the Streisand voice is one of the natural wonders of the age, an instrument of infinite diversity and timbral resource...Nothing in this album is insensitive or unmusical".

From this album, this is Debussy's Beau Soir:

Then came another milestone for Barbra: after Janet Gaynor and Judy Garland she took on the leading role in the film, A Star Is Born. Actually, scratch that: She took complete control of the 1976 version of A Star Is Born. She co-produced the film with boyfriend Jon Peters, she was the star, she co-wrote some of the songs - she even directed a few minor scenes herself, after she and Frank Pierson disagreed over the necessity of those scenes. She would have directed the film herself if she could get the financial backing for it, but at the time big Hollywood productions were just not handed over to female directors. 42 years later, it's still hard...

Barbra Streisand originally wanted Elvis Presley for the part of John Norman Howard. She even went to Las Vegas to see Elvis after one of his performances in 1975 and talked to him directly to convince him to play the part. Elvis wanted to do it, but Colonel Tom Parker, his manager, was angry that Streisand did not come to him first. He told the producers that if they wanted Elvis, Elvis' name had to be at the top of the movie poster, above Streisand's name. Moreover, it was said that he asked them for a very large sum of money. Elvis hadn't been in a movie since 1969, and nobody knew what he could do at the box-office, because of all that, Elvis Presley didn't make the movie, although he had been Streisand's first choice since the beginning of the project.

His replacement, one of the sexiest men of all-time, in my humble opinion, Kris Kristofferson, did not get along with the director. According to Kris, Frank Pierson, himself a World War II veteran, looked down on Kristofferson for being in the Army, but not going to war in Vietnam. Kristofferson later said: "I was too drunk to give a shit."

Frank Pierson also had problems with Barbra. He was so angered by his experience working with her on this film, that he wrote a first-person account, published in both New York and New West magazines, detailing what a horrible experience it had been. Pierson portrayed his star as egocentric, manipulative, and controlling. The article was published just prior to the film's release in December 1976 and Streisand and Pierson have never worked together again. Also, Kris Kristofferson said: "Filming with Streisand is an experience which may have cured me of the movies."

With all this bad press before the film even opened, the film critics had already sharpened their knives and were ready to slaughter Barbra. Even so, the power of the film prevented them from being utterly dismissive. In fact, a few of them were enthusiastic: Variety wrote, "The new A Star Is Born has the rare distinction of being a superlative remake. Barbra Streisand's performance as the rising star is her finest screen work to date, while Kris Kristofferson's magnificent portrayal of her failing benefactor realizes all the promise first shown five years earlier in Cisco Pike."

Even the less-than-enthusiastic had something good to say: Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, "I enjoyed a lot of A Star Is Born. I thought Miss Streisand was distractingly miscast in the role, and yet I forgave her everything when she sang."

It was Vincent Canby of The New York Times who identified the problem: "Streisand never plays to or with the other actors. She does A Star Is Born as a solo turn. Everybody else is a backup musician, which is okay when she's belting out a lyric, but distinctly odd when other actors come into the same frame."

However, neither bad publicity nor mixed reviews prevented the film from shining brightly. A Star Is Born, the first Dolby System film released with rear channel information, making it the first Dolby surround sound film, was the second-highest grossing film of 1976, having a gross that was 13 times its budget in the US alone.

It was also nominated for four Oscars, eventually winning Best Song for Evergreen (a #1 platinum hit which also won a Golden Globe, one of five wins, and a Grammy Award for Song of the Year). The song was written by Streisand and Paul Williams, making Barbra the only woman to win Oscars for Best Actress and Best Song.

The song album, credited to Barbra & Kris, was also a huge hit, #1 and 4x platinum in the US, #1 and 3x platinum in Canada, #1 and platinum in the UK, #3 and 2x platinum in Australia, #1 in New Zealand, and certified gold in Hong Kong.

In the film, Barbra is introduced with a good funky song called Queen Bee:

The Woman in the Moon is another highlight:

Lost Inside Of You is a song that tugs at our heartstrings:

The huge hit, Evergreen, naturally stands out:

My favorite part of the film is, however, the finale. Kris' character is dead and Barbra's character will have her first concert after the death of her loved one. She begins singing With One More Look at You, a tender ballad that expresses her sense of loss and then segues into the song with which Kris opened the film, Watch Closely Now. She begins softly and as she goes on she cranks up the energy, turning it into a rock song - a perfect illustration of the character's emotional arc. This is good quality audio:

There might be a few seconds missing in the following video, but it's truly worth watching because you get to see Barbra's amazing performance:

Her next album, released in 1977, was called Superman. It peaked at #3 in the US, selling more than two million copies. My Heart Belongs To Me was the first single and peaked at #4 on the US Hot 100:

The next single was the title track - it was inexplicably released a couple of years later and wasn't a hit - well, it wasn't that memorable:

Love Comes from Unexpected Places, a Kim Carnes song, is a song that stood out:

... As did Billy Joel's New York State of Mind:

Her next album, Songbird (1978), peaked at #12 in the US and was certified platinum. The title track peaked at #25 on the Hot 100:

In the album, there was also a Neil Diamond cover called You Don't Bring Me Flowers. The song was written by Neil Diamond with Alan and Marilyn Bergman for the ill-fated daily TV sitcom All That Glitters. The song was intended to be the theme song, but Norman Lear, the show's creator, changed the concept of the show and the song was no longer appropriate. Diamond then expanded the track from 45 seconds to 3:17, adding instrumental sections and an additional verse. The Bergmans contributed to the song's lyrics.

In 1977, Diamond released the album I'm Glad You're Here with Me Tonight, which included the track You Don't Bring Me Flowers as a solo performance:

This is Barbra's solo performance from Songbird:

These solo recordings were famously spliced together by different radio stations, creating unofficial duets, the success of which led to the studio bringing the two performers together for an official duet recording – which hit the top of the charts in the US and Canada and made the top 5 in the UK. This is a live performance at the Grammys:

Also in 1978, Barbra had a hit with a theme from a movie that she wasn't in: Prisoner (Love Theme from Eyes of Laura Mars) is a great song and was unjustly overlooked in the Oscars that year. The movie was very interesting too, starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones. Here's the song:

Barbra reunited with Ryan O'Neal for the 1979 comedy called The Main Event. Barbra was great in it, but Ryan phoned it in, while the screenplay and direction left a lot to be desired. Even if the critics panned it, the film was a success at the box-office. So was the film's theme song, The Main Event/Fight. It peaked at #3, US, and was certified gold:

Wet was released in 1979. It is a concept album of sorts with all the songs referring to or expressing different interpretations of, water. Wet is also the first and the last word sung on the album.

The album was a major success for Streisand, due largely to the album's #1 hit single, No More Tears (Enough is Enough), a duet with Queen of Disco, Donna Summer. This is the single version:

This is the extended 12" version:

The album's follow-up single, Kiss Me in the Rain, managed to enter the US top 40:

The biggest selling album of Barbra Streisand's career, Guilty (1980), is also one of her least characteristic. The album was written and produced by Barry Gibb in association with his brothers and the producers of the Bee Gees, and in essence, it sounds like a post-Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees album with vocals by Streisand. Gibb adapted his usual style somewhat, especially in slowing the tempos and leaving more room for the vocal, but his melodic style and the backup vocals, even when they are not sung by the Bee Gees, are typical of them. Still, the record was more hybrid than compromise, and the chart-topping single Woman in Love has a sinuous feel that is both right for Streisand and new for her. Here it is:

The title track, a duet with Barry Gibb and a huge hit, won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal by Duo or Group. This is it:

What Kind Of Fool was another duet with Barry Gibb and another US top 10 hit:

Promises was the album's last hit single:

Memories was released in 1981. It is primarily a compilation of previously released material but includes three newly recorded songs. The album was certified 5× Platinum by the RIAA, reaching #10 on the US albums chart. The album produced two hit singles. Comin' In and Out of Your Life peaked at #11 in the US:

Memory, the theme from the hit musical Cats was a huge hit in France, selling 750 000 copies:

Once again, Barbra was about to make a career change, both in films and in music. Therefore, this is the perfect point to end this part of the story. We will soon be together with the third and final part. Goodbye, for now, my friends, and keep yourselves safe and happy!