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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Edited March 10, 201213 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

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Edited March 10, 201213 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

Barbra's early TV specials are such fun to watch, as she seemed to take herself less seriously then. I enjoy the first, and Color Me Barbra.

I know this song is a lot of pap, but it's my favorite of hers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VxyTQnDfDk

I know Laura's version is the ideal, etc. but, still:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIC7Acx8lqM

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.

Edited March 10, 201213 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

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A gay classic? LOL

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I remember the allmusic review which seemed to suggest the 1969 one made her sound old enough to be the mother of Paul Simon or John Lennon. Even the album cover is just wrong.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/what-about-today-r24148

Do you think her mix of personality/talent is something which only could have hit it big in the 60's or at any time? She also has a very 30's vibe, to me.

Those Yentl songs are certainly very lush, yet they aren't trying too hard.

I remember seeing an old movie magazine piece on a big party thrown for her in 1963 or 1964, and they had all the usual faces (Judy, among others) but never had any photo of Barbra. I think they showed the back of her head, if that. I wonder if she bought it and threw it in the trash.

Around that time, she also tried to get Judy to join her onstage, as she said Judy was the true legend. Judy told her it was her night, and stayed in the audience.

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...

Edited March 10, 201213 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

I've probably asked this before, but is Barbra close to her sister, Roslyn (?).

I always think of those Nanny jokes about Barbra. This one was my favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyend3vTWSk

Did they ever release any of the deleted scenes for On a Clear Day ever have a release?

But, if we're talking musically and not movie wise, I lose interest by the 80s. Stephen Sondheim is my all time favorite composer, and I appreciate thatg she helped get many of his songs noticed by non theatre people thanks to Babs singing them on her 80s Broadway albums, but they're SO over produced, they just become cheesy mushy adult contemporary crap. And I feel that way about a lot of her stuff post late 70s--it startes to verge into Celine Dion territory for me (don't get me wrong, I have some Celine guilty pleasurers). There's no edge, and by that I don't mean she should do cutting edge pop, but it starts to sound like muzak to me.

I agree that "Back to Broadway" (1993) is a bit over produced. I much prefer "The Broadway Album" (1985). Alongside "Guilty" (1980) I think that's her best album since the 60s. Her rendition of "Send in the clowns" is one of my all-time favourite Babs songs.

Edited March 10, 201213 yr by I Am A Swede

I admit I like it--she actually had the gaul to ask Sondheim to re-write some of Clowns' lyrics because she didn't think they were clear enough (and he did! lol He also re-wrote Putting it Together for her, but that was to make it about the record industry and not rt like in the musical it's from).

What do people think of the "sequel" album to Guilty she did with Gibbs recently? All I remember is one of the songs was a big gay club hit in remixed form.

I do wonder at times what some of Barbra's earlier fans felt about her 70's makeover. I remember this Pauline Kael review of Funny Lady, which was, really, typical Pauline Kael, where she, who seemed to love the Funny Girl-era Barbra, was dismayed that Barbra had gone along with being something of a camp figure. Pauline said that the same gay men who were in tears during the movie were later walking through the lobby trashing her looks.

Edited March 10, 201213 yr by CarlD2

Barbra hated doing Funny Lady, she only did it because she was contractually obligated to do a sequel to Funny Girl if it was a success.

Didn't she feud with James Caan?

By the 70's, Barbra had to embrace contemporary popular music and trends if she wanted her career to survive. Apparently, Clive Davis, who was at Columbia at the time, was a big reason why she switched to more of a contemporary outlook during that period.

The 60's were really the last era where the movie musical was still relevant, and with Funny Girl, she was really the last of the people to come from that genre when it was still a commercially viable form in Hollywood.

The Broadway Album was Barbra's big "return" to her musical roots after a decade of doing a mixed bag of pop/modern adult contemporary albums.