Y&RWorldTurner

The 60's was her most critically acclaimed era, even today it is.

But her real peak in popularity and the most prolific era in her career was the 70's. When she was at her height as both a popular singer and actress. It's also when she really started to camp her image up with bad perms and those nails...

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A gay classic? LOL

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Her cover of Nyro's Film Flam Man is also great.

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The Stoney End album was Barbra's first forray into contemporary pop. She tested the waters in her flop 1969 What About Today? album, where she covered contemporary songs, but in a very Broadway/standard way.

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I always thought the songs from Yentl were far superior to the film itself.

Michel Legrand's score and compositions are really magnificent. I think he may have gotten her and brought the best out of her voice than any other producer/composer she's worked with.

Legrand and The Bergman's kept that entire project together, IMO. Barbra's voice during the Yentl period was perhaps at its peak too.

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Sneak peak of Girl Gone Wild video:

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Here's the 1998 Behind The Music special in its entirety.

Again, I can't fully link it, since embedding isn't allowed:

...http://vimeo.com/6752935

One of the best Behind The Music specials VH1 ever did was Madonna's. There's an even longer version from 2001, but here is the original version that aired in 1998 during the Ray of Light era.

She talks about the Sex book era in this part

...http://vimeo.com/6743317

(I can't embed the video or post the link fully)

Some of Shep's Pettibone's best work was with the Erotica era remixes, which were heavily house-influenced and surpassed a lot of the album versions.

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It's really a testament to Babs that she managed to transcend so many different eras and trends and still keep her core element and audience in tact.

I'm partial to her 70's output, which is all over the place and the era she was embraced pop and contemporary music the most.

Those television specials she did hold up well too.

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Her take on this has always been my favourite:

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I'll admit to liking some of her work, even if she sometimes has a very grating personality.

As Disco was also a topic, here are Barbra's brief forays into disco. I know some may consider her Guilty album, produced by Barry Gibby as disco-lite, but to me, it's always been more Easy Listening, with the exception of Promises.

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And of course:

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The Sex book wasn't even that graphic, IMO.

That 92-93 period was scathing for her. She was overexposed, and you couldn't turn on the TV or read a magazine without something talking about her. Up until that point there had been a careful balance between the music and the image she was trying to convey, and the music was lost in the shuffle during that era. Not to mention, Erotica was never a particularly commercial and radio friendly album, and one of the reasons she primarily focused on ballads in the mid 90's (with Something To Remember), was to soften up her image.

Bedtime Story was her transition album, and one of her most dated IMO.

Of course, in addition to motherhood and the glow she had after Evita, it all laid the groundwork for Ray of Light in the end.

I still consider this the best closing any of her tours:

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Though, I think this one was perhaps her most heartfelt:

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I know the Blonde Ambition tour performances of Express Yourself is considered iconic, but I prefer the faux-disco Girlie Show version:

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Another highlight for me.

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Several versions of Blonde Ambition were filmed. The one from the Japan show, which is widely available online, and there's one from a date she did in Spain that aired in Spain and the UK. That's the one where the weather was reportedly 100 degrees and Madonna's hair was frizzy...

The show from Nice, France of coursed aired on HBO, and one of the Paris shows was apparently filmed entirely during the making of Truth or Dare - which many consider the best recorded show of the lot.

Blonde Ambition had an iron-clad contract with Pioneer that stipulated that it could only be released on laser disc (remember that?) for a certain amount of time. Neither Madonna or Warner Brothers own the DVD rights to it, despite conflicting claims. Though, I'm sure it could be purchased or at least licensed.

The 1990 HBO broadcast of the Blonde Ambition Tour was such a huge event during the summer of 1990. It really helped set the stage for a lot of modern pop tours. I still consider that era her peak in not only popularity and cultural relevance, but in artistry.

In a lot of ways Girlie Show is a better produced tour, but nothing can top her raw energy and her audience interaction on the Blonde Ambition Tour. Her sense of humour was great back then too.

Whitney left everything to Bobbi-Kristina in her will, not surprisingly.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/story/2012-03-07/Whitney-Houston-will/53403342/1

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2111832/Whitney-Houston-leaves-daughter-Bobbi-Kristina-ex-husband-Bobby-Brown.html

I never thought Oprah was the classiest woman, but she couldn't wait at least 6 months?

I guess anything to bring attention to the disaster that is OWN...

Fact is Oprah's Next Chapter is the highest rated show on OWN, and last month's Whitney special (which was a re-broadcast of the 2009 interview with Whitney) was OWN's biggest success last month. This is so not a coincidence.

It's a blatant appeal on Oprah's part for ratings, which her network basically needs.

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I just had to. No one did Whitney better than Debra Wilson.

In an era of overproduced generic pop music, she stands out due to her only selling point being her voice and ballads.

I think people were craving something different from the average run of the mill pop star, and Adele just struck that cord and came along at the right time.

21 is also a massive success in the UK, and was the #1 selling album in both the US and UK last year (worldwide overall too).

I do think her US fans are a bit more obsessive though, but she's equally as successful in the UK.

http://www.billboard...006310552.story

Adele's '21' Becomes Longest-Running No. 1 Album Since 'Purple Rain'

February 29, 2012

By Keith Caulfield (@keith_caulfield), Los Angeles

Not unexpectedly, Adele's "21" album spends a 22nd week atop the Billboard 200, selling 297,000 (down 59%), according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's now the longest-running No. 1 since Prince & the Revolution's "Purple Rain" soundtrack scored 24 weeks at No. 1 in 1984 and 1985.

This is also the ninth consecutive week for "21" at No. 1 -- the most in-a-row frames at No. 1 since the "Titanic" soundtrack racked 14 straight in 1998.

"21" -- released slightly more than a year ago in the United States -- has now sold 7.7 million in the States. Of that figure, 1.8 million were sold in 2012.

Adele has a second album in the top 10 this week, as her first set, "19," descends 4-7 with 39,000 (down 56%).

As this week's sales charts reflect the week (ending Feb. 26) following the busy Grammy Awards-fueled frame (ending Feb. 19), we see a lot of albums' sales collapse after a fast rise last week, like Adele's two albums and the Civil Wars' "Barton Hollow" (10-31 with 15,000; down 48%).

The late Whitney Houston's "Whitney: The Greatest Hits" holds at No. 2 with 174,000 (down less than 1%). Meanwhile, her single "I Will Always Love You" slides 2-13 on the Digital Songs chart with 101,000 downloads sold (down 72%).

As physical stock of Houston's albums are finally reaching retail outlets, some of her older catalog sets rise on the list. "The Bodyguard" soundtrack, for one, rallies 38-6 (47,000; up 176%) while her "Whitney Houston" album motors 37-9 (30,000; up 72%). Since her death on Feb. 11, the bulk of her album sales have come from digital downloads, as most retailers didn't have physical copies of her albums on hand.

The band fun. has a banner week on the Billboard 200 as its second album, "Some Nights," debuts at No. 3 with 70,000 sold. Its new album sold almost as much as its last set has sold in total (74,000).

Its debut set, "Aim and Ignite," debuted and peaked at No. 71 on the Billboard 200 in 2009 and has sold 74,000 to date. This week, it re-enters the chart at No. 116 with 5,000 (up 42%).

Fun. is basking in the success of the single "We Are Young" (featuring Janelle Monae), which is featured in Chevy's 2012 Sonic TV commercial. The song sells 291,000 downloads this week, returning it to No. 1 (6-1) on the Digital Songs chart (up 19%).

Back in the Billboard 200 top 10, Tyga's debut studio album, "Careless World: Rise of the Last King," starts at No. 4 with 61,000. The set's first-week release was bungled a bit, courtesy of a sample-clearance issue. A good three or four days of the album's first-week sales were mostly driven by downloads (83% of its total), as the album had to be reshipped to retailers after it was discovered that its sample of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech wasn't cleared.

Alternative hip-hop act Chiddy Bang bows in the top 10 with its debut album, "Breakfast," starting at No. 8 with 31,000. Nearly all of the copies that the album sold were downloads. The set was exclusively available in the iTunes Store last week, which also offered the album's "Handclaps & Guitars" as its free single of the week. "Breakfast" became available to all retailers on Feb. 28, a week after its iTunes launch.

Rounding out the top 10 on the albums chart this week are "Now 41" (3-5 with 54,000; down 43%) and the "2012 Grammy Nominees" compilation (5-10 with 29,000; down 66%).

Over on the Digital Songs chart, last week's topper, Katy Perry's "Part of Me," falls to No. 4 in its second week with 187,000 (down 55%).

Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" rebounds 5-2 with 241,000 (down 4%) while the Wanted's "Glad You Came" zooms 19-3 with 188,000 (up 87%). The latter's gain is likely owed to the cast of "Glee" covering the tune on the Feb. 21 edition of the Fox series.

Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain" slips 4-5 (167,000; down 34%) while B.o.B bounds straight in at No. 6 with "So Good" (164,000). Nicki Minaj's "Starships" is steady at No. 7 for a second week (155,000; down 24%) while Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" (featuringKimbra) flies into the top 10, climbing 17-8 (134,000; up 17%).

LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" is up one position to No. 9 with 113,000 (down 17%) whileChris Brown's "Turn Up the Music" falls a place to No. 10 in its sophomore frame with 112,000 (down 37%).

Just outside the top 10, Carrie Underwood arrives at No. 12 with her new single "Good Girl," selling 108,000 downloads. It enters the tally after only three days of sales, as it was released on Friday, Feb. 24. (The tracking week ended on Sunday, Feb. 26.)

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Feb. 26) totaled 6.3 million units, down 18% compared with the sum last week (7.7 million) and down 3% compared with the comparable sales week of 2011 (6.5 million). Year-to-date album sales stand at 48 million, up 3% compared to the same total at this point last year (46.5 million).

Digital track sales this past week totaled 28.1 million downloads, down 13% compared with last week (32.3 million) and up 6% stacked next to the comparable week of 2011 (26.5 million). Year-to-date track sales are at 230.9 million, up 7% compared with the same total at this point last year (215.2 million).

Next week's Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2011 when: Adele's "21" held at No. 1 for a second week, selling 168,000 (down 52%). Marsha Ambrosious' "Late Nights & Early Mornings" debuted at No. 2 with 96,000.

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Also like the acoustic version he did at last week's BRITS:

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