The Broadway Album

The Broadway Album
Studio album by Barbra Streisand
Released November 5, 1985
Recorded July–August 1985
Genre Vocal, show tunes
Length 47:44
Label Columbia
Producer Richard Baskin, Bob Esty, David Foster, Paul Jabara, Peter Matz, Kim Skalecki, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand chronology
Emotion
(1984)		 The Broadway Album
(1985)		 One Voice
(1987)

The Broadway Album is the twenty-fourth studio album by director, composer, actress and singer Barbra Streisand, released by Columbia Records on November 5, 1985. Consisting mainly of classic show tunes, the album marked a major shift in Barbra Streisand's career. Streisand had spent ten years appearing in musicals and singing standards on her albums in the 1960s. Beginning with the album Stoney End in 1971 and ending with the album Emotion in 1984, Streisand sang mostly rock and disco-oriented songs for Columbia records. Noted Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim personally penned additional lyrics for the songs "Putting It Together" and "Send in the Clowns" on request of the singer.[1] The album, originally released on the Columbia label and subsequently re-released by Columbia and Sony Records, was a critical and commercial success. First certified gold by the RIAA on January 13, 1986, it reached four times platinum on January 31, 1995.[2]

This album has gone to sell 7.5 million copies worldwide.

The album was accompanied by a television special, Putting It Together: The Making of the Broadway Album.[3] The original LP and cassette releases contained 11 tracks. The subsequent CD release added the bonus track of "Adelaide's Lament".[4] In 2002, Columbia rereleased The Broadway Album with another bonus track, "I Know Him So Well".[5]

Production

Barbra Streisand started her career on Broadway, and so considered this in sense returning to her roots, after two decades of recording popular music of the day. She considers the tracks music she has great respect for, deeming it some of the best music and lyrics ever written. The lead single, Putting It Together from Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, was rewritten to be about the dichotomy between art and commerce in the music industry. Barbra hired her previous The Way We Were director Sydney Pollack, as well as David Geffen, head of Geffen Records to play the parts of the antagonistic studio heads. Barbra wanted to record the entire piece live to capture the atmosphere of Broadway shows. Many of the musicians also played in Funny Girl 22 years before, and a month of rehearsals with Stephen Sondheim was undertaken before recording.[6]

Chart and Awards

The album reached #1 on the "Billboard 200" chart in 1986, selling 218,000 copies in that week and earned Streisand a Grammy Award for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance". It launched two successful singles. "Send in the Clowns", from A Little Night Music, reached #25 on the "Adult Contemporary" chart. "Somewhere", a song from West Side Story, reached #5 on "Adult Contemporary" and also earned a Grammy for producer David Foster for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)/Best Background Arrangement". According to the liner notes of Barbra's retrospective box set: Just for the Record, the album also received a record certification in Australia.[7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic link
Entertainment Weekly(A) link
Robert Christgau(C) link

In 1993, Entertainment Weekly looked back nostalgically on the album as "the work of a supreme singer-actress still unspoiled enough to fall in love with the characters she sings".[8] Writing at the time of the release, Rolling Stone took a slightly more cynical view, although after criticizing the album for its self-consciousness and overproduction, reviewer Francis Davis did concede that the album "works somehow, if only as a reminder of what a neglected wealth of riches Broadway offers and what a marvelous singer Streisand is when she's not trying to pass herself off as a rock star".[9] New York Times reviewer Stephen Holden, once himself with Rolling Stone, had no such reservations, declaring shortly after the album's release that Streisand had "just released what may be the album of a lifetime".[10] The album was ranked #37 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the '100 100 GREATEST CDS ', the fourth highest album by a female artist to appear on the list.[11]

Track listing

  1. "Putting It Together" (Stephen Sondheim) – 4:20
  2. "If I Loved You" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers) – 2:38
  3. "Something's Coming" (Leonard Bernstein, Sondheim) – 2:55
  4. "Not While I'm Around" (Sondheim) – 3:29
  5. "Being Alive" (Sondheim) – 3:23
  6. "I Have Dreamed"/"We Kiss in a Shadow"/"Something Wonderful" (Hammerstein, Rodgers) – 4:50
  7. "Adelaide's Lament" (Frank Loesser) – 3:25 (CD Bonus Track)
  8. "Send in the Clowns" (Sondheim) – 4:42
  9. "Pretty Women"/"The Ladies Who Lunch" (Sondheim) – 5:09
    • from Sweeney Todd/Company
  10. "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" (Hammerstein, Jerome Kern) – 3:31
  11. "I Loves You, Porgy"/"Porgy, I's Your Woman Now (Bess, You Is My Woman)" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) – 4:35
  12. "Somewhere" (Bernstein, Sondheim) – 4:56
    • from West Side Story

Bonus track

  1. "I Know Him So Well" [Session outtake] (Tim Rice, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus) – 4:14

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Chart (1985) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[12] 29
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[13] 11
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[14] 8
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[15] 1
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[16] 26
UK Albums (OCC)[17] 3
US Billboard 200[18] 1

Certifications and sales

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
Canada (Music Canada)[19] 2× Platinum 200,000^
New Zealand (RMNZ)[20] Platinum 15,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[21] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[22] 4× Platinum 4,000,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

Personnel

Performance

Production

References

  1. ↑ The Broadway Album at AllMusic
  2. ↑ RIAA search engine. Accessed October 18, 2007.
  3. ↑ Putting It Together: The Making of the Broadway Album at the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ Howe, Matt. Compact Discs: New Technology . Barbra Streisand Archives.
  5. ↑ The Broadway Album [Bonus Track] at AllMusic
  6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Seg9G_eFazE
  7. ↑ Liner notes, C4K 44111. Columbia Records, 1991
  8. ↑ Sandow, Greg. (June 25, 1993). Back to Broadway. EW.com. Accessed October 18, 2007.
  9. ↑ Davis, Francis. (January 16, 1986) The Broadway Album. Rolling Stone. Accessed October 18, 2007.
  10. ↑ Holden, Stephen (November 10, 1985), "Barbra Streisand: 'This is the music I love. It is my roots'", The New York Times, pp. Late City Final Edition, Section 2, Page 1, Column 1
  11. ↑ "100 GREATEST CDS A LOVE-IT-OR-LOATHE-IT GUIDE TO THE ESSENTIAL DISC LIBRARY". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
  12. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Barbra Streisand – The Broadway Album" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 0642." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Barbra Streisand – The Broadway Album" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – Barbra Streisand – The Broadway Album". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Barbra Streisand – The Broadway Album". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Barbra Streisand | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Barbra Streisand – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Barbra Streisand. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – Barbra Streisand – The Broadway Album". Music Canada.
  20. ↑ "NZ Top 40 Albums Chart". Recorded Music NZ. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  21. ↑ "British album certifications – Barbra Streisand – The Broadway Album". British Phonographic Industry. Enter The Broadway Album in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Gold in the field By Award. Click Search
  22. ↑ "American album certifications – Barbra Streisand – The Broadway Album". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
Preceded by
Miami Vice (soundtrack) by Various artists		 Billboard 200 number-one album
January 15 - February 14, 1986 		Succeeded by
Promise by Sade
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