Matt Howe: When did you first meet Barbra Streisand?
Marilyn Bergman:
1962. We were writing a show in New York [Something More with Sammy Fain] and Jule Styne took us down to the Bon Soir to hear “a girl”. He said, “You have to hear this girl.” And we had been in casting sessions all day listening to girls. The last thing we wanted to do at the end of the day was go to hear another girl singer, but he said, “No, no, no, you must come.” So reluctantly we went. Little did we know… She walked out and sang one note and I remember starting to cry and I never stopped crying the whole show.
Alan Bergman: I can remember exactly what she was wearing.
MH:
What was she wearing?
MB: She was wearing a full-sleeved white blouse and a vest and a skirt made out of a menswear herringbone fabric. The hair was up. I think it’s the picture that’s on one of the first albums. I remember Peter Daniels was playing piano. And we went backstage afterwards to meet her …
AB: … in a dressing room that was like a telephone booth.
MB: She didn’t have a dressing room, but I think she shared with Phyllis Diller. [Barbra] came out. I remember saying to her, “Do you know how wonderful you are?” She didn’t answer me, but I looked at her and I knew, yes, she knew. She did know. She knew everything then, she knows everything now.
MH: Barbra didn’t record one of your songs until the
What About Today? album in 1969 (“Ask Yourself Why”).
MB: I think that’s just the way it worked out. We’ve established from the beginning that we would never play her songs – and we don’t.
AB: She has to ask first.
MB: She either hears them, finds them, or asks us to write something. But we’ve never played her songs.
I hope that she forgets and leaves my door open
So I can have a little light from the hallway
If I can hear them talking, If I can hear them laughing
I know I won't be frightened, maybe
At night I know that's just my chair, the nice red one
But it looks different than it looks in the daytime
Sometimes I think it's moving, a big enormous monster
A dinosaur or dragon maybe
I close my eyes and there are ghosts and witches
I'm scared a wicked witch will eat me
Oh, how I wish it wasn't always dark at night...
“Mother and Child” [Child lyrics] Music by: Michel Legrand Lyrics by: Alan and Marilyn Bergman
MH: Can I ask you about Life Cycles of a Woman? In 1973, Barbra recorded “Between Yesterday and Tomorrow”, “Can You Tell the Moment”, and “Mother and Child”. The music was by Michel Legrand. The album has been discussed a lot by Barbra’s fans, how it was abandoned or not finished. Can you talk about it?
MB: I don’t know, we just never finished it. I think we all just got busy…
AB: … on other things.
MB: We never finished it.
AB: One of these days we will.
MH: Was “Wait” [from A Love Like Ours] part of that album?
AB: Yes. Absolutely. We worked on the ending [of “Wait” with Michel Legrand]. We changed the ending from the original years ago.
MH: During that same session it’s reported Barbra also sang “The Smile I’ve Never Smiled” and “Once You’ve Been in Love”. I’ve heard a bootleg of “Once You’ve Been in Love” and it’s just beautiful.
MB: There must be one around because when we did an evening that Stephen Holden moderated a few years ago in New York and he played it!
AB: [Barbra] gave it to him.
MB: Oh, she gave it to him. It’s an extraordinary record.
MH: Were “Once” and “Smile” part of the Life Cycles project?
MB: No they were from pictures …
AB: … themes from movies.
MB: “Once You’ve Been in Love” was from a picture called One is a Lonely Number. And “The Smile I’ve Never Smiled” is from Portnoy’s Complaint …
AB: … Both written by Michel Legrand. The extraordinary performance is on “Between Yesterday and Tomorrow”.
MH: “Between Yesterday and Tomorrow” is very existential.
AB: (Laughs)
MB: Yes, it’s an odd song. I like it.
MH: I have to say that combining the two of you and Michel Legrand is the perfect marriage of words and music.
MB: Well, we love to work together.
MH: And then of course, when you add Streisand’s singing … I think her best work is with the three of you.
AB: Well the chemistry is just wonderful between the words and music and the voice. It’s really something special.
MB: We’re talking about over fifty songs … amazing. It’s amazing that Sony has never collected them all together.
MH: That would be great if Sony did a Streisand/Bergman songbook album and maybe even put some of the songs that haven’t been released on it! So, back to Life Cycles of a Woman – is that the title?
MB: No, I don’t think we ever gave it a name.
AB: I don’t think we did.
MB: It’s kind of an orphan.
MH: I think fans and biographers started calling it that, and it stuck.
AB: The intention of it was to go from birth to death of a woman. That was the intention of the writing. We just never finished it. One of these days …
