In order to keep this Barbra Streisand Shallow Dive moving, I have to do a lightning round on the rest of her 70s releases. She followed The Way We Were with a half dozen albums, one per year.
Butterfly (1794), which saw her dabble in R&B and reggae, has been dismissed by Streisand herself as her worst album. Lazy Afternoon (1975) offered a more laid-back collection of easy listening material. Classical Barbra (1976) featured songs by European composers performed in multiple foreign languages.
Barbra Joan Streisand came out the same year as Stoney End and found Streisand continuing her shift into pop music.
The album is an interesting one that helps define both her strengths and limitations. Covers of songs by John Lennon and Carole King fall rather flat. The beauty of King’s Tapestry tracks, for example, is how simply and earnestly she sings them. The same songs delivered with theatrical bombast are somehow lessened.
But Streisand’s delivery of work by Burt Bacharach and Lara Nyro on the same record is transcendent.
Barbra Streisand slowed down the torrid pace that resulted in ten albums in just five years, waiting two years before her next release.
Unfortunately, she closed out the 60s with her first real flop — 1969’s What About Today?. She took the advice of record exec Clive Davis and released a collection of contemporary songs, including tracks popularized by Simon & Garfunkel and The Beatles.
Barbra Streisand continued to churn out albums in the mid-60s, releasing four between 1966 and 1967.
First came Color Me Barbra, another record that accompanied a television special. As the title suggests, it was Streisand’s first TV production not shot in black and white.
Then came Je m’appelle Barbra, which found her singing most of its tracks in French.
I was hoping for a little change of pace after Barbra Streisand’s first four albums and I got it with her fifth, 1965’s My Name is Barbra.
Released in conjunction with a TV special of the same name, this album is split between a song cycle about childhood and a lineup of Broadway standards more in line with her earlier work. The TV special, which was a big hit, featured these songs as well as a third act of more mature material. Streisand would release My Name is Barbra, Two… later the same year to finish out the tie-in.
Meet Me In Montauk 