Basin Street East 1963

Streisand / LIVE 

Basin Street East (1963)

137 East 48th Street
New York

May 13—June 1, 1963
Newspaper ad for Benny Goodman and Barbra Streisand at Basin Street East

Basin Street East was an elegant nightspot located in Manhattan's East Side in the Shelton Towers Hotel (now called The New York Marriott East Side).


Theodore Mann, the son of Basin Street's owner and a producer/director at Circle in the Square Theater, wrote in his memoir about a “bedraggled hippie girl” who auditioned for him for a role she did not get. “But something about her rang a chord inside me. Not much later, I read that the same actress was singing at the Bon Soir and I went to see her. Afterwards, I called my dad to say how wonderful she was, and that Basin Street should book her … Her name was Barbra Streisand.”


Streisand was booked to play the room for three weeks in 1963, sandwiched on the bill between the Benny Goodman Sextet and the Bernard Peiffer Duo. Goodman's musicians, who played for Streisand during her set, included Bobby Hackett (trumpet), Tyree Glenn (vibes and trombone), Modesto Briseno (tenor sax and flute), Jimmy Rowser (bass), and Ray Masca (drums).  Streisand's music director, Peter Daniels, was on piano as usual. Reportedly, shortly after they opened, Goodman requested the order of the evening be changed.  He felt Streisand’s dramatic set list would do better coming after his upbeat jazz performance.


Author James Gavin described Basin Street East as a “long rectangular room that held three hundred and forty.” For these shows, Basin Street East charged a $3.50 cover.  Streisand earned $2,500 a week for the gig, and her contract required the promoters print her name at least 75% as large as Goodman's.


Since The Barbra Streisand Album had been released in February, it had been climbing up the Billboard charts. By the time Streisand was playing Basin Street East, her very first album for Columbia Records had reached the #15 slot on the May 18, 1963 chart.
Barbra Streisand having her hair styled by Kenneth.
Basin Street East was also a bigger and more elegant room than Streisand had played to date. And she was sharing the bill with the “King of Swing.”

“It takes an immensely courageous girl to allow herself to be booked on the same bill with Benny Goodman,” wrote the Daily Mirror's Jack Thompson, “and to even expect to be noticed. To appear on the same program with the greatest clarinetist and to run away with the show reveals something akin to show business supremacy.”

Robert Sylvester for the New York Daily News noticed the upwardly mobile move Streisand was making by performing at the sophisticated nightclub. He published an “open memo” to Streisand in his “Dream Street” column. “I am a veteran admirer of you, child, and I don’t care how nutty you like to sound in interviews. But you are now at Basin Street, a very big successful night club indeed, and playing music for you are only such fellows as Benny Goodman, Tyree Glenn and Bobby Hackett, among others. So do not screech, dear Barbra. And do not let the queens fix your hair in that pointy-head way and do not wear the wedding dress that my Greatgramma Schofield threw away after the Civil War. Sing the way you can, baby.”

Well, Streisand did allow one “queen” to modify her hairstyle. Kenneth Battelle, a.k.a. “Mr. Kenneth” or usually just “Kenneth,” had found great fame after styling the hair of Marilyn Monroe and America’s First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. His salon, five floors of a New York townhouse on East Fifty-fourth Street, was decorated opulently with paisley wallpaper. Streisand visited Kenneth in early May, right before her engagement at Basin Street East. Kenneth created a sleek bobbed hairstyle for Streisand, which she debuted at the club. Later, Chicago hair stylist Fred Glaser would take over hair duties for the singer.

Barbra Streisand performing at Basin Street East. Photo by Popsie Randolph.
Attire-wise, Streisand opted for self-designed gowns, including a cream-colored, empire-waisted gown trimmed in ostrich feathers. She also wore an iconic gray wool dress with buttons running down the front. Barbra loved to appear onstage in a red gingham sheath dress she designed featuring an empire waist and white chiffon balloon sleeves. 

Barbra changed her act slightly for Basin Street East, too. She sang for about 35 minutes. After the Goodman Sextet performed their set, Benny introduced Streisand: “Making her debut here at Basin Street East … she’s pretty wonderful and I know you’ll think so, too. Miss Barbra Streisand.” 

Barbra took the stage and blew a kiss to Goodman (“mwah!”). She opened with “When the Sun Comes Out,” followed by “My Honey’s Lovin’ Arms.” After that, Jimmy Rowser began the thumping bass introduction to “Cry Me A River” and Streisand kibitzed with the audience until she began singing the dramatic revenge song. Benny Goodman joined Streisand with his clarinet on “Lover, Come Back to Me.” She also sang “Who Will Buy?” from Oliver!, and her nightclub go-to, “Happy Days Are Here Again.” For comedy, Streisand performed “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” and she also recited her kooky Estonian folk song monologue which ended with her not singing the song she introduced. 

The sextet accompanying Barbra created a more robust sound than her previous bands at places like the hungry i or the Bon Soir. Streisand’s songs now had horns and a unique timbre from Tyree Glenn’s vibraphone.

Ad for Benny Goodman and Barbra Streisand at Basin Street East.
Barbra Streisand performing at Basin Street East. Photo by Popsie Randolph.
Celebrities came to see Streisand sing at Basin Street East. She was visited by Kay Ballard, Georgia Brown, Connie Francis, producer George Abbott, photographer Cecil Beaton and writer Truman Capote (“She's very extraordinary,” Capote stated. “She is one of the real phenomenons of today. My favorites are Bea Lillie and Billie Holiday, and she's the only one I've heard equal to them.” Streisand admitted, “I never saw him.”)

There were reports that Streisand’s fans were overzealous and impatient sitting through Goodman’s set and the club's manager, Barney Ward was reportedly annoyed. Streisand even paid the club to replace her with comedian Jack E. Leonard on the evening of May 24th so she could fly to Washington, D.C. and perform for President Kennedy at the Press Correspondents Dinner. The program for the dinner actually makes a point to thank “the management of Basin Street East for making possible Miss Streisand's appearance tonight.”

Streisand completists will want to know that Bobby Hackett recorded one evening of the Benny Goodman Sextet’s set, plus three songs by Barbra Streisand sometime in May. It’s never been released, although Goodman fans have circulated the stereo tapes.

Two days after finishing her gig at Basin Street East, Barbra Streisand went into the Columbia Records Studio A to record some tracks for The Second Barbra Streisand Album, which would be released in August 1963. Then she was off to Chicago for more concertizing.


“[Streisand is] a potent belter with a load of style. Her dramatics are quite effective and separate her from the run-of-the-mill singer making the rounds today but there’s a need for more of let-up in her turn that runs over 35 minutes.

The big ballad sameness of most of Miss Streisand’s songbag in the opening show would indicate a one-note range which ain’t so … She’s an exciting young performer, though, and her show biz potential in all media is immense.” 

... Variety review, May 22, 1963
Quotes from Basin Street East Reviews:

Sir! Magazine review by Tom McArdle, October 1963

La Streisand is a top performer and when the mood strikes, a funny one to boot. She even drew laughs when she playfully mocked at upstaging Benny Goodman, who for this man’s money is one of the greatest greats. Tyree Glenn, that indomitable trombone player, would have none of this type of hilarity. This made the unrehearsed bit even more spontaneous and raucous. However, not all of the audience approved of the clowning in back of Benny Goodman’s magic with the clarinet.

Billboard's review by Bob Rolontz, May 25, 1963

There are few young entertainers who have come along in the past decade with the talent and ability of Barbra Streisand. She can sing a ballad with an emotional intensity that is catching, and she also has a comedy flair that to this reviewer is akin to that of the great Bea Lillie.

Miss Streisand showed all of these facets of herself at her debut at New York's Basin Street last Monday before an overflow audience that included almost all of show business, from singer Georgia Brown and Connie Francis to the town's top agents, bookers, record people and scribes.
Below: A photo gallery of Barbra Streisand backstage at Basin Street East.  Probably photographed by William Claxton ... Click the arrows to navigate.
SOURCES USED FOR THIS PAGE

  • “Here’s the Nearest We Come to Command Performances” by Merriman Smith. The Daily News, May 29, 1963.
  • “High Style Haircuts” by Paul Berg. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 2, 1963.
  • Journeys in the Night: Creating a New American Theatre with Circle in the Square by Theodore Mann. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2007.
  • Las Vegas Playground interview, by David Farmer. January 1964.
  • “New York Cavalcade” column by Louis Sobol. The New York Journal, May 19, 1963.
End / Basin Street East
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