October 4, 2003 - Interview/feature cover story by Melinda Newman (published September 26)
On Oct. 14, when Columbia puts out "The Movie Album," a lush collection of 12 film songs newly recorded by Barbra Streisand, it will mark the release of her 60th album.
Her 40-year career includes trips to the top of the Billboard albums chart, the most recent No. 1 being 1997's "Higher Ground." Streisand has spent her entire career recording for Columbia, and if "The Movie Album" is certified for shipments of more than 500,000 copies, she'll collect her 49th gold album from the Recording Industry Association of America. She has 26 platinum albums (1 million copies shipped) to her credit.
Streisand spoke to Billboard's Los Angeles Bureau Chief Melinda Newman about the album for an article that is on the cover of the Oct. 4, 2003 issue of the magazine. What appears below is their conversation ....
You do what I think is one of the most beautiful movie songs ever that so few people know: "Calling You" [from "Bagdad Café"].
Isn't that interesting? I remember being enchanted by it when I saw that movie that I loved, and I even met Percy Adlon afterwards because I wanted to meet the director of a movie that I thought was so original and haunting and interesting, so I kept it in my mind. When did that come out?
1988.
Yeah. And that's what's nice about doing a thematic album, which I always tend to do. It gives me a focus and a discipline of where to find the material.
What's interesting is that there are no songs on here post-1988. It made me think that's really the era that began with songs being on albums that was like, 'Get me the biggest artist we can find, and we'll have them do a title song that has nothing to do with the movie.
Very interesting observation. I didn't think about it, I just thought of a song, and whenever they were written, that's when they were written. But that's interesting, that nothing's after 1988.
Somebody just called my attention to the fact that only one song won the Academy Award, which is "Moon River." But there are so many, when you think of these wonderful movies and wonderful songs that have never been nominated for awards and yet have stood the test of time and they're classics today.
I remember thinking, it was about what films weren't nominated—I was staggered! "2001..." and "Close Encounters" and "Singing in the Rain."
What I liked about this, there are some songs on here that I think are typical — you clearly have a close association with Marilyn and Alan Bergman through your movies, and I know you're very close friends with them, and you would expect you to do "Moon River," because you've done it over the last 40 years — but some of these on here are completely out of left field.
I sang "Moon River" when I was 19 on a television with my pianist Peter Daniels.
On Mike Wallace's show, right?
Yeah, with Mike Wallace. I don't think I ever sang it again.
Given that you were 19 when you first sang it, and you're a little older than that now, how has the song changed in your mind, in terms of how you as a singer interpret it?
I really don't know. I don't think about it as intellectually as that, I just do it from my instinct, you know, from my gut, from my heart. Not so much from my mind. I just let the music flow through me and it just reminded me, I guess, of being at the beginning of my career in some way. And the fantasy life, you know how different it is at my age now versus when I was 19.
As I was reading your comments from the liner notes, it's clear that no one handed you these songs. You knew all of them.
Yeah. It came from my past, from my experience. A lot of them, as you see, from my youth.
So they all deeply resonated with you. It wasn't a matter of Jay [Landers, co-executive producer] handing you a song and saying, "Hey, have you heard this?"
No, he did give me a lot of songs to hear. But, I have no attachment to a song like "The Very Thought of You." Someday I'll sing it probably because my manager loves it, it's his favorite song, so I said, 'If I do a second album, then I'll sing it for you.' But at least even that gives me a purpose. Singing it out of my love and respect for someone who loves it. And there's a motivation in that.
But all of these you had a connection to.
Uh-huh. Basically. I mean, "Second Time Around" I never really had a connection to in my past, just my present.
I think the fans are just going to gobble up your notes about this. You're very revealing, Your thing about "Smile," that two days earlier Sammy your dog had died. I don't even know how you went to the studio two days later.
Well, I had to. You book an orchestra, and you gotta go sing. This isn't one of those dates that they do these days where you can just come and sing to the tracks.
You had a lot of people waiting for you.
Yeah, it was 65 musicians. But it was perfect, again, because I could use my emotional truth. And the thing is, for someone, something, some animal that I lost. That died in my arms.
A few months later, I went into an antique store and a friend of mine who owned it — Bountiful in L.A.— she had a little dog that came running to me and just put his head on my shoulder, and it was just serendipitous or something. I don't know what the word would be, but it was just this connection. I've never seen a dog like this. I didn't want another boy, because Sammy was Sammy, but in honor of Sammy, I got a girl and named her Samantha. So she is Sammy, but a girl.
Was Sammie named after Sammy Cahn?
No, because I had had a string of Sadies. The cast of "Funny Girl," when I was 22, gave me a surprise birthday party, and the cake was sitting on a box. So they said 'Put your hand in the box." I can't imagine, I've never had a dog, and the idea that they bought me this dog, I couldn't believe it. I stuck my hand in the box and pulled out this little thing and fell in love and she became my little girl. I named her Sadie, after the song. And so I've always had "Sadies," but I've never had a boy dog before Samuel. I had boy dogs, don't get me wrong. I had other dogs like German Shepards, and bigger dogs. Dobermans, and dogs like that.
But none that were like a companion like this?
No, so I never had a little boy until Sammy. It's so funny because I have a very fine Aubusson rug in my bedroom and yet Samantha — she even goes to restaurants, I hide her under the table. And this one restaurant, they brought her a bowl of water, and I fed her a little bread, which wasn't too bad for her, but I noticed last night that she wasn't feeling too well, and she threw up on my very fine Aubusson carpet. And you know what, when you love something that much...
The dog or the carpet? I'm assuming you mean the dog.
Yeah, it's like "Who cares about the carpet?" And that's an amazing sign of love, are you kidding me? She threw up on this, and I said, "Who cares?"
Well, this is your 60th album.
Can you believe it? I can't quite imagine it. [The number] includes soundtracks, but I never thought I'd be making 60 albums.
It's quite an impressive number. How do you feel when you go into the studio? Do you still have that sense of nervousness and excitement?
Yeah, especially since Sony [Pictures] built me my own booth and bathroom. Sony used to have a studio — you needed a car to get across to your booth, and then the bathroom was outside in the street, so if it was raining or something, you were out of luck. I love my Sony studio, and I love singing live with orchestra.
You produced the album. It's amazing to me because most people — and you're not most people — most people would have no idea how to produce an album like this with an orchestra and work with an arranger. Why do you think that's such a lost art?
And I've been doing that forever!
Of course you have.
You know, it is funny, when you're a woman, they kind of say nothing much of you being a producer. Isn't that interesting? It's like you're the singer of the album and nobody talks about — I'm interested and fascinated that you brought it up because it's true. They kind of discount—they throw it in with the singing.
It's completely different. You're in charge of getting the arranger, you're in charge of dealing with the orchestra, the budget, because you're executive producer too...
And then there are people that just produce records, they don't sing them. It's a separate job, I keep trying to tell them. They used [say], "Can't you just throw it in?" and I said, "No! What do you think I've been doing for months at a time? I don't just sing. I sit and work on the record."
When did you actually start working on this?
Over the years, I'd call Jay and say, "Put down this song. It's a song I'm going to sing from a Shirley Temple movie." As I heard a song from a movie, I'd say to Jay, "Where's the list [of movie songs] I've been giving you? I'll eventually get around to it."
So why did you decide this was the right time to do an album like this?
Well it's been coming for a long time, I've been talking about it for a long time and it just seemed the right time. I had enough songs.
What made you actively decide you had enough songs?
Well I had a contract, I had to go in and sing.
It's hard to believe that people like you are dictated by contracts even though I know you are.
There were many years that I had a contract that I never fulfilled my contract. You think I even know the contract? I never concern myself with that. I like the creative process and I do have a business sense, but I really don't make an album until I'm ready to make it. Meaning, when I have to be inspired and say, "I can't wait to get back and play with the orchestra again."
How did you even find out the Sondheim had written lyrics for "Goodbye For Now" [from the film "Reds"]?
Well that was one of the themes that I had remembered from a movie, and remembered liking the theme. So I just called and remembered knowing that Stephen Sondheim was connected to it and wrote the theme, so I just asked the office if he would write a lyric, and he said he had a lyric. It's an amazing lyric because it's like only Stephen could think of a song that starts in the middle... He seems to write so brilliantly for actors. Actors, in other words, start a song with 'Yes.'
I want to talk about "Emily" and the whole way you make that how a woman would love for a man to be singing that to her.
Well you know what's so fabulous is that because I do have this repertoire with people in the music business, or who write songs anyway, I'm not afraid to ask for something that I might not get.
At first, [composer] Johnny Mandel looked at me kind of nutty when I said, "I love the melody of 'Emily,' but it's really a man's song, so I would just need a little verse to set it up so that it could be sung by a woman." And he looked at me funny, and said, "Well, I don't think you can do that."
So I called Marilyn and Alan, and they happened to be on the Johnny Mercer estate board [the song's lyricst]. So I said, "Well, you can only ask. They can say no, but will you write the melody for it if they say yes to the lyric?" And they did say yes to the lyric, so I'd say to the Bergmans, I think it should be something like, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if somebody could whisper in my ear 'Emily.'" And they would write that line, better than I just said it, but that was the concept, and I'm able to sing "Emily," and probably a lot more women will be able to sing it.
I just do that because I like things that are original and make sense to me. I wouldn't quite know how to sing it without that verse.
You have been on Columbia through your entire career. What's your relationship like with the label?
I just always have insisted on creative control. Even when I did [1985's] "The Broadway Album," the people there at the time were very upset with me, because if you remember the opening words of that song ["Putting It Together"], it was very negative against the record company, but I was just repeating words that they really said to me: "What do you mean do a Broadway album? It's not commercial, nobody will buy it."
Several million copies later...
I think it's one that opened at No. 1. It was such great poetic justice, artistic justice, but those people are no longer at Columbia Records.
You've given up live performance, but you continue to record albums.
I enjoy recording. That's fun for me.
So the magic doesn't go away? That's like your playground almost.
Yeah, so that's why I resent — the press can be very cynical and mean, and I saw the first blurb — somebody wrote something about Sammy and "Smile," and it said: "I thought she was retired." And I went, "Who ever said I was retiring from making records?" It's just another way to be mean, I guess.
Because you have no plans to stop.
Why would I do that as long as I have a voice? And I'm so pleasantly surprised [I still do], and I thank God. I never practice, I never warm-up, I never do scales. I'm talking all day and I'm dealing with lawyers and real estate, and I'm designing houses and clothes and things like that.
Celine Dion told me she never talks the day she records. Well I said, 'How the hell does she do that? I could never do it.' I can't be quiet.
Did you watch any of these movies again before you went in?
Didn't have time. But I remember it's fun to.
Do you think people were surprised that none of the music on here is from movies you've been in?
I tried to do 12 original songs. When you buy the album you're buying songs that you've never heard before. If you want to find [the Streisand/Bryan Adams duet] "I Finally Found Someone" — I can't even remember what album it's on. The soundtrack to "Mirror?" Is it on another album?
Let me tell you this, once I finish a record, I do not want to listen to it again. So I can't remember what the hell's on it. Because it takes me months of listening to this stuff, and I listen to this person's car and that person's car, and a good stereo and a bad stereo, and I am so sick of it by the time it comes out, that there's no way I can play this thing.
So you'll never listen to this album again?
Well, I would say for years.
Do you think about what your fans are going to get from this? I mean, you have such a loyal fanbase...
It's very, very nice. I mean, [Columbia executive] Peter Fletcher was telling me things about people who download music and my records don't suffer that much because my fans really like to buy the package and read the booklets.
We put as much time in the booklet as I do making the record. I mean, down to the green in the booklet [which] is the color of the fabric of my couch. The blue-grey is the color that is like the ocean that I look at at a certain time of the day. And then a color spectrum that, you know, each album has a lot of my art direction as well as my music.
You're showing a respect for them that a lot of artists don't show for their audience. So they're showing that same kind of respect for you in return.
That's nice, that you could look at it that way because I was thrilled to hear that the percentage of sales on my records don't change. Even if they download it, they'll buy it.
Right. They want the artwork, they want your comments here. So what is next for you? Another volume of this?
Oh no. That I can't think about. I just finished this one, Melinda! Leave me alone! (laughs)
End.
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