Simply Streisand

Performer: Barbra Streisand
Producer: Jack Gold; Howard A. Roberts
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Includes liner notes by Richard Rodgers. The essence of SIMPLY STREISAND is perfectly captured in its title. It is quite simply Streisand singing timeless ballads composed by the likes of Rodgers and Hart and Jerome Kern, songs written in a style she wears as comfortably as one would a favorite cashmere sweater. The orchestral accompaniments, arranged by Ray Ellis and David Shire, are straightforward but elegant. There are no gimmicks here, and the constant toil of self-reinvention is yet to come. The sweet earnestness of "I'll Know" and the earthy beauty of "All The Things You Are," with its gentle Latin rhythms, show no flashiness or self-conscious showmanship, merely a singer at the top of her form becoming one with her music. The album's finest moment may be the opening track, "My Funny Valentine." Starting with just Streisand, in her purest flute-like tone, with strings quietly providing a minimal counter-melody, the song steadily grows to a rousing fanfare-like climax. When she makes that longing melodic leap during the line "yet you're my favorite work of art," one cannot help but feel she is singing to the song itself. SIMPLY STREISAND is truly Streisand at her simple best.

When she emerged in a 1960s pop scene dominated by rock & roll, Barbra Streisand was a breath of fresh air to those nostalgic for the great Broadway-oriented pop vocalists of the past. Her stratospheric range and (initially) anachronistic taste in material made her the new Grande Dame of non-rock pop music. Along the way she experimented with the flavors of the day, from folk-rock to disco, but she always returned to the Great American Songbook for inspiration.

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