Memories Album 1981

Streisand / Discography

Memories (1981)

Memories album cover.
Below: Gallery of album back cover and CD artwork .... Click arrows to navigate.
  • ABOUT THE ALBUM
    • Released November 1981
    • Executive Producer: Charles Koppelman
    • Design: Tony Lane/Nancy Donald
    • Photography: Greg Gorman
    • Inside Photo: Welden Andersen
  • CATALOG NUMBERS
    • TC 37678 (LP, 1981)
    • CBS 10031 (UK LP — Love Songs)
    • TCA 37678 (8-Track Tape)
    • HC-47678 (LP Half-Speed Mastered audiophile pressing)
    • CK 37678 (CD)
    • CM 37678 (MiniDisc, probably 1994)
    • CD 10031 (UK CD — Love Songs)
  • CHARTS
    • Debut Chart Date: 12-12-81
    • No. Weeks on Billboard 200 Albums Chart: 108
    • Peak Chart Position: #10
    • Gold: 1/29/82
    • Platinum: 1/29/82
    • 5x Multi-Platinum: 9/23/98


    Gold: 500,000 units shipped


    Platinum: 1 million units shipped.



    The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine.

Tracks

U.S. TRACKS (“Memories”)
  1. Memory [3:52] (A. Lloyd Webber / T.S. Eliot / T. Nunn)
  2. You Don't Bring Me Flowers (Duet with Neil Diamond) [3:25] (M. Bergman / A. Bergman / N. Diamond)
  3. My Heart Belongs To Me [3:22] (A. Gordon)
  4. New York State Of Mind [4:46] (B. Joel)
  5. No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) - (Duet with Donna Summer) [4:44] (P. Jabara / B. Roberts)
  6. Comin' In And Out Of Your Life [4:08] (R. Parker / B. Whiteside)
  7. Evergreen (Love Theme From "A Star Is Born") [3:06] (B. Streisand / P. Williams)
  8. Lost Inside Of You [3:59] (B. Streisand / L. Russell)
  9. The Love Inside [5:05] (B. Gibb)
  10. The Way We Were [3:30] (M. Bergman / A. Bergman / M. Hamlisch)
U.K. TRACKS (“Love Songs”)
  1. Memory [3:52] (A. Lloyd Webber / T.S. Eliot / T. Nunn)
  2. You Don't Bring Me Flowers (Duet with Neil Diamond) [3:25] (M. Bergman / A. Bergman / N. Diamond)
  3. My Heart Belongs To Me [3:22] (A. Gordon)
  4. Wet [3:56] (D. Wolfert / S. Sheridan / B. Streisand)
  5. New York State Of Mind [4:46] (B. Joel)
  6. A Man I Loved [3:59] (N. Oosterveen / G. Michalski)
  7. No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) - (Duet with Donna Summer) [4:44] (P. Jabara / B. Roberts)
  8. Comin' In And Out Of Your Life [4:08] (R. Parker / B. Whiteside)
  9. Evergreen (Love Theme From "A Star Is Born") [3:06] (B. Streisand / P. Williams)
  10. I Don't Break Easily [3:51] (B. Roberts)
  11. Kiss Me in the Rain [4:16] (S. Farina / L. Ratner)
  12. Lost Inside Of You [3:59] (B. Streisand / L. Russell)
  13. The Love Inside [5:05] (B. Gibb)
  14. The Way We Were [3:30] (M. Bergman / A. Bergman / M. Hamlisch)

About the Album

The Memories album came about because Columbia Records wanted an album from Barbra for the holidays, but Streisand was busy doing preproduction work on Yentl in London and did not have the time to record a new album. (Columbia was also in the midst of a recession, and could use the sales!)

The most Barbra could commit to was recording one or two new singles. Therefore, Columbia released Memories—seven of the ten tracks had already appeared on previous Barbra Streisand albums. Only “Memory” and “Comin’ In” were new. “Lost Inside of You” was a previously unreleased solo version of a song that was done as a duet on the Star is Born album.

MEMORY

“Memory” from the musical Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber was a semi-hit for Barbra Streisand, reaching number 52 on Billboard’s singles charts. Lloyd Webber was proud to work with Streisand. “We met when she came to see the show [Cats] and we’ve been working on a number of things together,” he told columnist Liz Smith. “[Barbra] is sheer magic!”

Streisand recorded “Memory” September 15, 1981 at Olympic Studios, London, Studio 1. With a live orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz, Lloyd Webber recalled, “I thought it unlikely that she’d sung live with an orchestra in a long time. With no overdubbing, no technical tricks, no nothing. She was nervous, but her phrasing was unerring and her musicality was uncanny. It was wonderful the way she responded. It showed me that Barbra Streisand is fundamentally a theater animal.”

Barbra filmed a music video of “Memory” to promote the album, although it was only shown in the UK. In the video, Barbra lip-synched to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s song in front of a microphone. Barbra filmed the video in London while she was doing preproduction work on Yentl.
Record industry ad for Barbra's album, Memories.

LOST INSIDE OF YOU


There are three (four, if you count the live version with trumpeter Chris Botti in 2012...) versions of the song “Lost Inside of You” in Barbra's discography from her big movie, A Star Is Born. 


First, there is the duet with Kris Kristofferson on the original soundtrack album, which is probably the most well-known. The truth is this version never really appeared in the movie. But it's on the best-selling soundtrack album.


The second version of this song appeared on this album, Memories — a solo version recorded for a possible album of studio recordings from the movie that was never finished.


There is a third version, on Just For the Record, which is identified as “alternate soundtrack version” — this is the recording that played on screen as Kristofferson's character put Esther's tape in his car's player and drove over the hill before meeting his tragic fate.

COMIN’ IN AND OUT OF YOUR LIFE

Charles Koppelman, Streisand’s producer at the time, brought in Jay Landers. “Charles asked me to find some material for a compilation he was working on with her, which became Memories,” Landers explained. “So I brought her ‘Comin’ In And Out Of Your Life,’ which was a song I’d come across a few months earlier. That was my first association with her. Then she recorded a few other songs I published or found for her.”

Bobby Whiteside wrote “Comin’ In and Out of Your Life”. “[Barbra] had a few changes she wanted to make in the song,” Whiteside said. “A couple of line changes. One or two words, nothing major. Just a couple of things she felt a little funny singing— not for any reason other than she needed an explanation. She wanted to know what we meant by a certain line or two. I think I was on the phone with London three or four times while she was recording.”

Streisand recorded the song in September 1981 in London at CBS Studios.
U.K. ad for the album, titled

“If you read the small print on the back of Barbra Streisand's new 10-song Memories album, you'll find this advisory: ‘This album contains some previously released material.’ A more accurate description would be: ‘This album contains a couple of new songs.’ Even the most devoted Streisand fan may grow weary of listening yet again to ‘The Way We Were’ (included on a Streisand album for the fourth time) or ‘You Don't Bring Me Flowers’ and ‘Evergreen’ (both for the third time). Six of the remaining eight songs also have appeared on at least one earlier Streisand LP.


The commercial attraction here is ‘Comin' In and Out of Your Life,’ Streisand's current hit single. With far more profit in an album than a single, Columbia is counting on Streisand fans to buy the ‘new’ LP rather than just the single. And, the plan is working. The LP looks like a smash. In just its second week on the Billboard list, it's No. 12.”



.... Robert Hilburn, The Los Angeles Times, December 15, 1981

Singles



Below:   Greg Gorman photographed Streisand in neutral shades of brown for the cover of Memories. 

Click through some of the alternate photographs of Barbra, taken for the cover of this album.

END / Memories / NEXT ALBUM ....

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