Thoughts on Streisand’s vintage tracks

I read in the news a few weeks ago that Barbra Streisand was coming up with a new album titled Release Me. I thought, how interesting that Streisand is singing Release Me. Wonder how she’ll do it? Wrong. She has not recorded the Engelbert Humperdinck song. In fact, there is no song titled Release Me in her latest CD.

Release Me in this case is seen as the plea of the songs included in the album. Something like, “please release me, I’ve been caged too long.” Well, not really caged, but kept in vaults from a year ago or 25 or 40 years or more. It turns out that Streisand has kept all of the tracks she has ever recorded and she owns the rights to all of them.

This reminds me of recording at the old Cinema Audio studios in Mandaluyong and watching artists recording over previously used two-inch tapes. It was heartbreaking. The tapes were expensive and producers used to recycle them to save on cost. In the process, they were forever erasing songs by Pilita Corrales, Nora Aunor and all those other great singers. Lucky Streisand got to keep hers.

Streisand’s Release Me is made up of recordings she has made but which were never included in any of her albums. Some, because, she changed concepts or had too many songs. Others she rejected outright because they did not meet her perfectionist ideals. And so those songs have languished in storage, unheard until now.

In the case of local recordings, the tapes that were not erased became the casualties of modern technology. As studios switched to digital recording from analog, the tapes were more often than not just left to the elements to rot. Lucky are those recordings that landed in the hands of somebody with a sense of history. These were preserved, and later, digitized, to be enjoyed once more by music lovers. Streisand’s recordings, even those on only two tracks, have been perfectly preserved.

Can you think of any moment when Streisand was less than perfect? She always makes sure she is perfect. And these so-called “rejects” show that what will not pass muster for a Streisand back then, is so much more than most artists today can aspire to accomplish. Release Me, made of rejects, is a beautiful album. It makes me wonder if anybody 20 years from now would be interested in listening to Nicki Minaj.

Did you know that Sreisand recorded Home from the musical The Wiz? It was the amateur show staple for birit girls in the ’70s. It was supposed to go into Streisand’s Broadway Album, but was junked because it was deemed too pop for her Broadway image. No matter, it has now been released and all I can say about it is, wow! Nobody does birit songs like Streisand. On the other hand though, how come she never seems to strain at the high notes?

Did you know that she recorded a stand-alone version of With One More Look At You from A Star Is Born? It was the finale song in the blockbuster film that starred Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, but it was done as a powerful medley with Watch Closely Now. She reins in her performance here and the song comes out as a wistful ballad.

This makes me think of how Streisand first offered A Star Is Born to Elvis Presley. Kristofferson did an excellent job but still I wonder, how it might have been with Presley, a movie with him and Streisand at that.

Did you know that Streisand can sing country? The painful Try To Win A Friend here is a good example. Check out, too, how she covers Randy Newman’s I Think It’s Going To Rain Today. Norah Jones has a version and it is nice to know that a great song is a great song, no matter how it is sung. Of course, her reading of Jimmy Webb’s Didn’t We is unlike any other.

Streisand started out in Broadway musicals. So that must be why her medley of How Are Things In Glocca Morra? from Finian’s Rainbow and Heather On The Hill from Brigadoon come out so heartfelt. They may seem dated now but I still love watching the movie versions. It is so easy to get lost in the music when Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly are dancing.

The best of the line-up though is If It’s Meant To Be. It is a new song by Brian Byrne with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman and it was supposed to be included in Streisand’s What Matters Most album. The song envelops the listener in emotions. It is the main reason I cannot seem to want to stop listening to the album. And the most remarkable thing is Streisand sounds unchanged. No difference at all from her singing in 1968 to this one from a year ago.

So I think age is just a number. It is no excuse for songs. The songs will remain beautiful year after year after year. So will a voice like Streisand’s. Feedback from her New York show is that she sang for three hours and held the audience mesmerized. She has also made an announcement. There will be a part two of Release Me. More tracks are begging to come out. And she has them all.

Now again I wonder, how much of our recordings from 50 or so years ago had been preserved? Streisand even has pictures from the sessions and the well-annotated booklet recalls dates and names and everything. What foresight! She knew she was creating history.