Streisand / Record Sales

Barbra Streisand has recorded with Columbia Records since 1962 — That's a 59-year recording career! (as of 2021).

According to my count here at Barbra Archives .... as of 2023 there are 72 officially released Streisand albums, which break down into the following categories:

• 38 studio albums
• 10 live albums
• 14 soundtrack and cast albums
• 1 box set (Just For the Record, 1991)
• 7 “hits” albums of mostly previously released material (including her 2002 Duets album)
• 3 miscellaneous albums (the Harold Arlen album and Barbra's two “Highlights” albums).

Besides the Columbia Records albums mentioned above, there was a SonyBMG Special Markets "Super Hits" album of previously-released tracks, and a Sony Legacy Christmas compilation. Also: tracks featuring Streisand vocals have appeared on other artists' albums over the years, including duets albums by Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, and most recently with Mary J. Blige. 

The Billboard 200 list, published weekly by Billboard Magazine , ranks the 200 highest-selling albums based solely on sales in the United States.

Why is this page relying on Billboard's decades-old lists?  As Washington Post writer Travis Andrews explained, "Since their inception in 1958, the Billboard charts served a window to pop music history. Along with statistics collected by RIAA and Nielsen, they offer a road map of what tunes, musicians and genres Americans found interesting enough to consume en masse."

Digital music writer Steve Knopper added, “If you’re looking at charts to understand music history, the best analogy is using statistics to understand sports history. You’re looking at something that numerically seems simple but it’s completely impacted and changed by the era it comes from.”

Here are a few impressive facts, based on the Billboard charts (* as of 2021):

Top Ten Abums

• Streisand has a total of 34 Top Ten albums to her credit since 1963.
• Barbra Streisand has had albums reach the Top 10 (or better) in every decade since the 1960s.
• Barbra Streisand is the only woman to record a top 20 album on the Billboard charts in every decade from the 1960s to the 2020s. The only other person to achieve that feat is Bob Dylan.
• Streisand has the widest span (51 years) between first and latest Top 10 albums of any recording artist (The Barbra Streisand Album in 1963 and Encore in 2016).
• Streisand, age 74 in 2016, will be the second-oldest artist ever to notch a No. 1 album. Tony Bennett was 85 when he topped the chart in October 2011 with Duets II.
• Barbra's 34 Top Ten albums are: The Barbra Streisand Album, The Second Barbra Streisand Album, The Third Album, Funny Girl Broadway Cast, People, My Name is Barbra, My Name is Barbra Two, Color Me Barbra, Je m'appelle Barbra, Stoney End, The Way We Were, Funny Lady, A Star is Born, Superman, Greatest Hits 2, Wet, Guilty, Memories, Yentl, Broadway Album, One Voice, Till I Loved You, Back to Broadway, The Concert, Higher Ground, A Love Like Ours, The Movie Album, Guilty Pleasures, Live 2006, Love is the Answer, What Matters Most, Release Me, Partners, Encore.