Barbra Streisand's 2-Disc Broadway Album

In early 1985, Jon Peters sent a memo to Lee Solters, Barbra's publicist, regarding an exciting new recording project that would return Barbra to her theatrical roots. The memo contained some interesting points: the album would be recorded live at a Broadway theater and sold to cable television as a special; and the album would be a double, or 2-disc recording.

The final album, The Broadway Album, which has now become one of Streisand's best-selling and most critically acclaimed, featured 12 songs.

Although the plan to record the album live was abandoned, Barbra did spend eight months recording seventeen songs. Some of those songs were not released.

One song recorded for the double album, but ultimately not released, was I Know Him So Well. The tune, from Chess, was eventually included on 1991's retrospective, Just For the Record. Barbra, in her liner notes, said the track did not make it onto The Broadway Album for two reasons: for one, Chess hadn't opened on Broadway yet, so, therefore, it was officially not a Broadway tune. Secondly, Barbra said, "I thought it sounded too 'Pop', like it was trying to be a contemporary hit, and seemed out of context with the rest of the material."

Barbra also recorded Home, from The Wiz. This song, associated with Stephanie Mills (and, later, Diana Ross in the film version of the musical), was recorded by Barbra with a pop arrangement. The track sounds good, but Barbra's rendition didn't really bring anything new to the song. Perhaps that's why, ultimately, it was dropped from the album.

Karen Swenson's book The Second Decade confirms that Streisand recorded but abandoned Being Good Isn't Good Enough from Jule Styne's musical Hallelujah, Baby! According to Swenson, Adolph Green (lyricist) said, "We had to write another lyric for the last half of the chorus. We wrote two lyrics and neither satisfied Barbra. So it's out of the album." It would have been fantastic for Streisand fans to hear her sing another Jule Styne tune, as he wrote the music to Funny Girl.

Paul Jabara and Bob Esty, the team that put together the hit single of The Main Event, worked on the medley from The King and I, which would have sounded very different had the entire track been included. As it stands, a luscious, 4:51 minute version of I Have Dreamed / We Kiss in a Shadow / Something Wonderful exists on the final album. The original plan was for a longer medley, beginning with Shall We Dance — and a few lines from Hello, Young Lovers. The complete medley, running 8 minutes long, is, indeed, substantial. The medley begins with Barbra in ballad mode ("We've just been introduced...") then quickly takes off into an uptempo, "disco" version of Shall We Dance, complete with background singers declaring, "Shall we dance!" For the final album, it appears as if the editors decided to leave off the 3:45 dance introduction and, instead, start the track with I Have Dreamed. Although Shall We Dance is vibrant and fun (like Barbra's other disco arrangements of Splish Splash or Shake Me, Wake Me), it was probably dropped for time issues and also because of Barbra's "Pop" comment above.

More Broadway Rejects

Barbra also attempted to record other songs for The Broadway Album. Although it's possible she layed tracks in the studio with a full orchestra, it's also possible these tunes never got past the demo stage.

Barbra wanted to perform Rose's Turn from Gypsy (another Jule Styne show, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim). The song had been in Liza Minnelli's act for years. Barbra wanted a fresh approach for her album, though. She was also worried about Ethel Merman, the larger-than-life personality forever associated with the role of Mama Rose. "I worked on Rose's Turn for quite a while for this album, but I couldn't quite solve it," Barbra told a reporter. "I even asked Stephen [Sondheim] to try and figure a way of integrating it with Some People, but it didn't work."

Streisand loved the songs from Sunday in the Park with George by Sondheim, and considered recording Finishing the Hat and Children and Art. Move On, the finale of the show, was recorded fresh for Barbra's 1993 album, Back to Broadway.

Barbra also experimented and recorded different orchestrations of the songs on The Broadway Album. Many fans would love to hear the complete jazzy version of Can't Help Loving That Man of Mine. Barbra included an excerpt of the song on the HBO special about recording The Broadway Album. Although the hot trumpet gives the song a completely different feel than the classical orchestration (with Stevie Wonder's harmonica), it, nonetheless, sounds like a fantastic Streisand vocal, a la Moanin' Low.

Listen to a clip of Barbra's jazzy version of Can't Help Loving That Man of Mine:

Putting It Together...

Other songs reportedly recorded for inclusion on The Broadway Album: Unusual Way from Nine; Show Me from My Fair Lady; There Won't Be Trumpets / A Quiet Thing from Anyone Can Whistle and Flora, The Red Menace (a new recording, not the 1974 version).

Interestingly, Adelaide's Lament is taken for granted as having appeared on the original Broadway Album. Well that's true ... sort of. The comedic track did not appear on the original Broadway Album LP (i.e. vinyl album). Side one ended with the King and I medley and side two began with Send in the Clowns. To entice buyers to invest in The Broadway Album compact disc — which, in 1985, was still considered new technology — Columbia Records included Adelaide's Lament as a "bonus track" on the digital recording. Many Streisand fans with "old-fashioned" record players could not hear the song until they upgraded their sound system and bought a compact disc player. Years later, of course, The Broadway Album CD includes Adelaide's Lament positioned before Send in the Clowns.

copyright © 2003-2007 Matt Howe