Barbara Joan “Barbra” Streisand (/ˈstraɪsænd/ STRY-sand; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, film and television producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment and is among the few performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT).
Streisand began her career by performing in nightclubs and Broadway theaters in the early 1960s. Following her guest appearances on various television shows, she signed to Columbia Records—insisting that she retain full artistic control and accepting lower pay in exchange, an arrangement that continued throughout her career—and released her debut, The Barbra Streisand Album (1963), which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Throughout her recording career, Streisand has topped the US Billboard 200 chart with 11 albums—a record for a woman until 2023[2]—including People (1964), The Way We Were (1974), Guilty (1980), and The Broadway Album (1985). She also achieved five number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100—”The Way We Were”, “Evergreen”, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”, “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”, and “Woman in Love”.
Following her established recording success in the 1960s, Streisand ventured into film by the end of that decade. She starred in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl (1968), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Additional fame followed with films, including the extravagant musical Hello, Dolly! (1969), the screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc? (1972), and the romantic drama The Way We Were (1973). Streisand won a second Academy Award for writing the love theme from A Star Is Born (1976), the first woman to be honored as a composer.[6] With the release of Yentl (1983), Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio film. The film won an Oscar for Best Original Score and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical. Streisand also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, becoming the first (and for 37 years, the only) woman to win that award. Streisand later produced and directed The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).
With sales exceeding 150 million records worldwide, Streisand is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the second-highest certified female artist in the United States, with 68.5 million certified album units. Billboard ranked Streisand as the greatest solo artist on the Billboard 200 chart and the top Adult Contemporary female artist of all time. Her accolades include two Academy Awards; 10 Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grammy Legend Award; five Emmy Awards; four Peabody Awards; the Presidential Medal of Freedom; the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award and nine Golden Globes. (wikipedia)
My Name Is Barbra, Two… is the second of two studio album tie-ins by Barbra Streisand for her debut television special of the same name, which first aired April 28, 1965. The second album was released in October 1965 to coincide with the rebroadcast of the special on CBS.
The Medley (Track 11) is the only music from the television program, while the remaining tracks were newly recorded for the album.
Barbra Streisand in her dressing room, October 1965:
Executives at Columbia planned a major advertising and promotion campaign, including full-page advertising in TV Guide and Esquire magazines, saturation radio spot in 30 major markets, retailers supplied with 38-inch die-cuts, streamers and pre-pack counter browsers and 800 transportation display locations with four-sheet posters to draw attention to both the new album and the rebroadcast of the highly acclaimed TV special.
The album was certified Platinum and peaked at #2 on the US charts and #6 in the UK charts. (wikipedia)
My Name Is Barbra, Two… is not exactly a sequel to My Name Is Barbra, though it contains a medley of songs about poverty that was performed as one of the three sections of the TV special. For the most part, this is just the next Barbra Streisand album, containing the usual mixture of recent songs (“He Touched Me,” “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “No More Songs for Me”) and lesser-known songs by classic pop writers (Rodgers & Hart’s “Quiet Night” and “Where’s That Rainbow?”), filled out by full-length versions of songs from the medley (“Second Hand Rose,” a song associated with Fanny Brice that became Streisand’s second Top 40 hit, and “I Got Plenty O’ Nothin'” from Porgy and Bess). The medley lacks the TV show’s visual complement of Streisand cavorting in a department store, but the arrangement and her performance still camp up songs like “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” a dubious choice of interpretation. (by William Ruhlmann)
Personnel:
Barbara Streisand (vocals)
+
unknown orchestras
Tracklist:
01.He Touched Me (Levin/Schafer) 3.09
02. The Shadow Of Your Smile (Love theme from The Sandpiper) (Mandel/Webster) 2.47
03. Quiet Night (Hart/Rodgers) 2.25
04. I Got Plenty Of Nothin’ (G.Gershwin/I.Gershwin/Heyward) 3.07
05. How Much Of The Dream Comes True (Barry/Peacock) 3.05
06. Second Hand Rose (Clarke/Hanley) 2.09
07. The Kind Of Man A Woman Needs (Leonard/Martin) 3.53
08. All That I Want (Forest/Wolfe) 3.49
09. Where’s That Rainbow (Hart/Rodgers) 3.38
10. No More Songs For Me (Maltby/Shire) 2.53
11. Medley 5.45
11.1. Second Hand Rose (Clarke/Hanley)
11.2. Give Me the Simple Life (Bloom)
11.3. I Got Plenty Of Nothin’ (G.Gershwin/I.Gershwin/Heyward)
11.4. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? (Gorney/Harburg)
11.5. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out (Cox)
11.6. Second Hand Rose (Clarke/Hanley)
11.7. The Best Things In Life Are Free (Henderson/Brown/DeSylva))
More from Barbara Streisand in this blog:
The official website:
Superman (1977) is the nineteenth studio album by American singer Barbra Streisand.
The biggest selling album of Barbra Streisand’s career 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. Other hits were the title song and “What Kind of Fool,” both duets with Gibb. (The song “Guilty” won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal by Duo or Group.) (by William Ruhlmann)
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