Barbra Streisand's status as one of the most successful singers of her
generation is all the more remarkable not only because her popularity has been
achieved in the
face of a dominant musical trend -- rock & roll -- which she did not follow; but
also because, despite an amazing singing voice that has enthralled practically
anyone who has heard it, she has always used singing as a mere stepping stone to
other careers, as a stage and film actress and as a film director.
Barbra Streisand struggled briefly as an actress and nightclub singer in New York
in the early '60s before landing her first part in a Broadway show, I Can Get It
for You Wholesale, in 1962. The cast album for that show and a subsequent
appearance on a studio revival of Pins and Needles were her first recordings.
Signed to Columbia Records, she released her first album, The Barbra Streisand
Album, in 1963. It became a Top Ten, gold-selling record, turning
Barbra Streisand into one of the best-selling recording artists of the early '60s.
But despite three successful albums by early 1964,
Barbra Streisand turned her back on potentially lucrative concert bookings in favor
of a starring role in the Broadway show Funny Girl, in which she appeared for
more than two years. "People" from that show became her first Top Ten single,
and the People album her first chart-topping LP. She turned to television in
1965 with My Name Is Barbra, the first of five network specials. In 1967,
Barbra Streisand went to Hollywood to film Funny Girl, for which she would win an
Academy Award. But by 1970, with her second and third films flops and her
recording career flagging in the face of rock, she seemed consigned to Las Vegas
before turning 30. Instead, she returned to hit-making with a Top Ten cover of
Laura Nyro's "Stoney End" and a successful non-singing performance in the
comedy The Owl and the Pussycat.
In the 1970s,
Barbra Streisand successfully married her musical and film acting interests, first
in The Way We Were, a hit film with a theme song that became her first number
one single; and then with A Star Is Born, which featured her second number one
single, "Evergreen," a song she co-wrote. From that point on, every album she
released sold at least a million copies. In the late '70s, she found recording
success in collaboration: her duet with
Neil Diamond, "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," hit number one; as did "No More
Tears (Enough Is Enough)," a dance record sung with
Donna Summer. She had her biggest selling album in 1980 with Guilty, which
was written and produced by
Barry Gibb of
the Bee Gees and contained the number one hit "Woman in Love." In 1983,
Barbra Streisand's first directorial effort, Yentl, became a successful film with a
Top Ten soundtrack album. In 1985, The Broadway Album returned her to the top of
the charts. 1991 saw the release of Just for the Record..., a boxed set
retrospective, and her second film as a director, The Prince of Tides.
Barbra Streisand returned to the concert stage in 1994, resulting in the Top Ten,
million-selling album The Concert. In 1996, she directed her third film, The
Mirror Has Two Faces; and in 1999 she released A Love Like Ours.
The 2000 album Timeless: Live in Concert was recorded at her Las Vegas show
on New Year's Eve 1999 and released on both CD and DVD. A year later, the new
holiday album Christmas Memories arrived, then a sequel to The Broadway Album,
The Movie Album, appeared in 2003. In 2005, a deluxe, CD/DVD reissue of the
original Guilty was followed a month later by Guilty Pleasures, a new album that
reunited
Barbra Streisand with
Barry Gibb. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book
Barbra Streisand for your next corporate or private event.
|
