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Executive Producers Barbra Streisand and Jay Landers gave fans previously released tracks on 2002's Duets album.
Of note on this CD:
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In Barry Manilow's early career, he served the same function for Bette Midler that Peter Daniels served for Barbra Streisand: He was an accompanist and music arranger. Later, of course, his own solo career took off and he had a string of hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s:Mandy, Weekend in New England, This One's For You, Memory, Copacapana , and more.
Yet Barry Manilow had never worked with Streisand before. “You can't imagine what it's like to hear a song you've written sung by that voice. It's amazing!” he said.
For Duets, Manilow contributed the song “I Won't Be the One To Let Go,” co-written with Richard Marx.
“Duets are tricky,” Barry Manilow wrote in the Winter 2002 BarryGRAMfan magazine. When asked about recording with other artists, Manilow elaborated: “[Duets have] to be written so that the performers can relate to each other and they've got to have melodies that can hold up individually. The trick to a good duet, in my opinion, is relating honestly to your duet partner. The song I wrote with the talented Richard Marx is called ‘I Won't Be the One To Let Go’. I've just recorded it with the brilliant Barbra Streisand ... we sound like we like each other and mean what we're singing because we worked on it together, in the same room, for days and days before we went into the studio. I think that there's an obvious connection between the two of us (we actually come from the same neighborhood in Brooklyn) and I think you will be able to feel that when you hear the song. It's a wonderful duet and I'm very proud of the song.”
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Josh Groban appeared on Paul O'Grady's British talk show in 2007 and talked about working with Streisand on “All I Know of Love.” Groban said, “I was so nervous because at the time I did the duet with her ... I was 21 years old. You just try to soak it up like a sponge ... She was so nice, she didn't have to do the song with me and she did. It was wonderful ... We got to sit and talk and go over the mix together and really sing a lot together. She's been a friend ever since,” Groban explained. (They recorded together again on Barbra's 2014 album, Partners.)
As for Streisand's working method, Groban said, “She's a perfectionist. Her phrasing is so impeccable. She'll go over a line a hundred times just to make sure it's the right way. She rehearses everything so much, and that's why she's always so perfect.”
Streisand told radio host Delilah (during an interview in 2002) about her experience working with Josh Groban. “I recorded it a while ago before he got famous,” Barbra said. “He was a substitution for Andrea Bocelli. In other words, Linda and my friend David Foster, had written a song for me and Bocelli. So [Josh Groban] did the part that Bocelli was supposed to sing. [Foster] played two different voices for me—a different kid who was Italian—and I picked Josh, and we did the duet together.”
There was a bit of record label legal-stuff involved with Groban's duet — he was signed on the Warner Brothers label. BJS Music reported: “Warner Bros. has prohibited Columbia from using Josh Groban's name in its advertising, promotion, and publicity for Duets . His name will appear on the CD, of course, but don't expect to see it anywhere else unless the situation changes.” The duet with Streisand never appeared on any of Josh Groban's albums.
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End / Duets 2002 / NEXT ALBUM ....
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