People 1964 Album

Streisand / Discography

People (1964)

People original album cover

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Below: Click the arrows to navigate through various versions of the front and back covers ...

  • ABOUT THE ALBUM
    • Released September 1964
    • Produced by Robert Mersey
    • Miss Streisand accompanied by Peter Daniels
    • Cover Photo:  Don Bronstein
    • Back Cover Photos: Hank Parker




  • CATALOG NUMBERS
    • CS 9015 (Stereo LP)
    • CL 2215 (Mono LP)
    • CK 9015 (1987 + 1994 Remastered CD) 
    • PCT 00020 (Cassette)
    • PCT 9015 (Cassette — “Best of Times” series)
    • CK 86103 (2002 Remastered CD) 
    • CK 5063572 (2002 UK Remastered CD with Bonus Track) 
    • N/A — Mastered for iTunes (2015 digital download)




  • CHARTS
    • Debut Chart Date: 10-3-64
    • No. Weeks on Billboard 200 Albums Chart: 84
    • Peak Chart Position: #1 for 5 weeks
    • Gold: 3/23/65
    • Platinum: 12/10/03

    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

  • Absent Minded Me [3:07]

    Written by: B. Merrill / J. Styne


    Arranged & Conducted by Peter Matz


    Recorded July 24, 1964 @ Studio A, New York


    Released as Columbia single #4-43127

  • When In Rome (I Do As The Romans Do) [2:57]

    Written by: C. Leigh / C. Coleman


    Arranged & Conducted by Peter Matz


    Recorded July 24, 1964 @ Studio A, New York

  • Fine And Dandy [2:49]

    Written by: K. Swift / P. James


    Arranged & Conducted by Ray Ellis


    Recorded August 21, 1964 @ Studio A, NYC

  • Supper Time [2:47]

    Written by: Irving Berlin


    Arranged & Conducted by Ray Ellis


    Recorded August 21, 1964 @ Studio A, NYC

  • Will He Like Me? [2:34]

    Written by: S. Harnick / J. Bock


    Arranged & Conducted by Ray Ellis


    Recorded August 21, 1964 @ Studio A, NYC

  • How Does The Wine Taste? [2:36]

    Written by: M. Dubey / H. Karr


    Arranged & Conducted by Peter Matz


    Recorded August 4, 1964 @ Studio A, New York

  • I’m All Smiles [2:12]

    Written by: M. Leonard / H. Martin


    From the Musical Production “The Yearling”


    Arranged & Conducted by: Ray Ellis


    Recorded August 21, 1964 @ Studio A, New York

  • Autumn [1:57]

    Written by: R. Maltby, Jr. / D. Shire


    Arranged & Conducted by Ray Ellis


  • My Lord And Master [2:59]

    Written by: O. Hammerstein II / R. Rodgers


    Arranged & Conducted by Peter Matz


    Recorded August 4, 1964 @ Studio A, New York

  • Love Is A Bore [2:08]

    Written by: S. Cahn / J. Van Heusen


    Arranged & Conducted by Peter Matz


    Recorded July 24, 1964 @ Studio A, New York

  • Don't Like Goodbyes [3:14]

    Written by: T. Capote / H. Arlen


    Arranged & Conducted by Peter Matz


    Recorded August 11, 1964 @ Studio A, New York

  • People [3:40]

    Written by: B. Merrill / J. Styne


    Arranged & Conducted by Peter Matz


    Recorded December 20, 1963  @ Studio A, New York

About the Album

Streisand in the recording studio making her People album

People — the album — was Barbra Streisand's fourth studio album for Columbia Records. “People” was the big hit ballad that Barbra sang on Broadway in Funny Girl. (Columbia released the song as a 7-inch single in January 1964).


“People” also appeared on the Funny Girl Broadway Cast Album, which was released in April 1964 by Capitol Records. Columbia had passed on the Cast Album, and now that Funny Girl was a big hit, it’s very possible they wanted to cash in on its popularity, too – especially since Funny Girl’s leading lady was a Columbia Records recording artist!


Mike Berniker, who had produced Barbra's first three albums, was unavailable for this one, so Bob Mersey assumed the role. “Not to minimize the importance of the record producer in those days but, at least in my case, they were usually assigned by the label to organize the sessions, book the studio, and make sure no one went over budget!” Streisand recalled in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2019. “ I don’t recall a lot of creative involvement from Bob. I found the songs, and then I worked with Peter Matz and Ray Ellis to come up with interesting arrangements. Columbia had great recording studios and wonderful engineers like Fred Plaut and Frank Laico. The engineers captured the sound, the arrangers conducted the orchestra, and I sang...so there wasn’t a lot of 'production' like there is today.”


After songs were chosen and charts were created for the orchestra, Streisand recorded the People album in four sessions in July and August 1964, while she was appearing in Funny Girl in New York.


“In those days we worked fast!” Barbra stated in 2019. “It was typical for artists to record two albums per year. I’d listen to the playbacks and pick the best takes. If there were mistakes, or if the tempo felt too fast or slow…too bad…you were basically out of time, because there was always someone watching the clock!”


She further explained that “we did three or four songs in a three-hour session…so that’s 12 hours to make an album! With all the technology today, my last album called Walls took almost 12 months!” 


Barbra recorded “Don't Like Goodbyes,” and “Will He Like Me” twice—with Peter Matz and Ray Ellis arrangements. Ray Ellis recorded all of his arrangements with Barbra in one session on August 21, 1964.


It's interesting to note that “Quiet Night” was recorded during the People sessions, but was released instead on Barbra's 1965 album My Name is Barbra, Two.


The song “Funny Girl” – which has never appeared on a Barbra Streisand album to date – was released as Columbia single #4-43127. It, too, was recorded during these sessions.


Finally, Barbra also recorded “The Morning After” with Peter Matz for this album, but it was abandoned and remade in 1968 for the What About Today? album.  “Where's That Rainbow?” was also given a try for the People album, but Barbra remade it in 1965 for My Name is Barbra, Two.


“Barbra Streisand’s phenomenal disk success is sure to continue uninterrupted with this fourth album entry from Columbia. The lark’s propensity for coming up with out-of-the-ordinary material and enhancing it with emotion-charged delivery and a delicate sense of timing, was never more evident than on this new line-up of sophisticated gems highlighted by her current single blockbuster, ‘People,’ from ‘Funny Girl.’ Her powers of interpretation compel attentive listening as she delivers ‘Supper Time,’ ‘Fine & Dandy,’ ‘Love is a Bore,” and 8 more equally fine items. Top five chart status is guaranteed.”

Cash Box “Pop Picks” 1964 


Robert Mersey, Streisand, and Peter Matz in the studio making People

The Songs ...

Columbia Records ad for the People album

“Absent Minded Me” traveled several paths before ending up on Barbra Streisand’s People album. Julie London first recorded the song (published by Golden Bell Songs) for her 1962 album, Sophisticated Lady. Bob Merrill was the only writer credited on that album for the song.  Which is curious, because when Streisand recorded it two years later, the song was credited to Bob Merrill (lyrics) and Jule Styne (music), published by Chappell-Co.  (Sony released it, first, as the backside of 7-inch single #4-43127). If you compare the lyrics and melody of the 1962 and 1964 versions, they are the same.  One wonders if Merrill pulled the song out of his “trunk” to publicize Funny Girl, which was about to open on Broadway, and Styne insisted on receiving credit since he was the star-composer of the show. In the many stories told about developing Funny Girl, it has been written that “Absent Minded Me” was written for, then cut from the show. 


Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh wrote “When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do)”  for the 1962 musical Little Me, although it was not used in the show.


Barbra's Italian spoken section in “When In Rome” goes something like this:


E molto difficile resistere agli uomini di Italia

Per esempio, per esempio i biondi,

I biondi di Firenze, di Venezia

E i bruni di Palermo, di Milano...


Roughly translated, Streisand says she can't resist Italian guys, nor the blonds of Florence or Venice, nor the brown-haired men from Palermo or Milano ... do ya know what I mean?


Originally a duet in the Kay Swift/Paul James 1930 musical “Fine and Dandy,” Barbra recorded the title song as a solo version for the People album. 


Irving Berlin wrote “Supper Time” for the 1933 musical revue As Thousands Cheer. Ethel Waters sang it in the show – a song in which an African-American woman is preparing dinner, only to find out her husband has been lynched.


“Will He Like Me,” written by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, is from the Broadway musical She Loves Me, which is a musicalized version of The Shop Around the Corner, about two store clerks who are loving pen pals, but in real life detest each other.


“How Does The Wine Taste?” came from a 1962 musical called We Take The Town. The show, which closed during previews in Philadelphia, starred Robert Preston (as Pancho Villa) and was based on the film Viva Villa! Producer Stuart Ostrow confirmed Streisand auditioned for the role of “an aristocratic Mexican lady.” Robert Preston, however, “wanted a straight actress and turned me down,” Ostrow recalled. Streisand liked the song and recorded it for People.


“I’m All Smiles” was the first song Streisand recorded from the musical The Yearling, with music by Michael Leonard and lyrics by Herbert Martin. The Yearling was based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a boy and his pet fawn by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.  Streisand recorded several numbers from the show, which opened December 10th, 1965 at the Alvin Theatre and closed after only three performances. On future albums, Barbra also recorded “My Pa” (which was cut out-of-town), “Why Did I Choose You?” and “The Kind of Man a Woman Needs.”


Writing duo David Shire and Richard Maltby recorded a cast album of their college musical collaboration, a musical called Cyrano. “Autumn” was sung by Cyrano de Bergerac in the show.  


“My Lord and Master” came from The King and I, sung in the show by the slave Tuptim about the King.


Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen’s song “Love is a Bore” appeared in the 1964 World's Fair version of Sid and Marty Krofft's marionette extravaganza Les Poupees de Paris. The show was billed as a French “musical revue” for adults and was performed by 240 puppets on elaborate sets. Cahn and Van Heusen’s songs were prerecorded by famous performers like Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Liberace, then performed by the marionettes in the show. Pearl Bailey sang “Love is a Bore” which, lyrically, is the same as the version Streisand sang, complete with the opening verse. (RCA Records released a soundtrack album of Les Poupees de Paris in 1965.) Cahn and Van Heusen are on record saying that they tried out “Love is a Bore” for Streisand backstage at the Cocoanut Grove, which would have been back in 1963 – a year earlier than Les Poupees de Paris. So … which came first, Streisand or the marionettes?


“Don't Like Goodbyes” is Harold Arlen song with lyrics by Truman Capote from the Broadway musical House of Flowers.  Barbra has recorded several other songs from that score: the title song, “I Never Has Seen Snow,” and “A Sleepin’ Bee.”


People was a big hit for Barbra Streisand and Columbia Records.  After its release in September 1964, the album went to #1 on the October 31, 1964 Billboard Top LP’s chart and stayed at #1 for five weeks.  Barbra battled The Beatles (A Hard Day’s Night) and The Beach Boys (All Summer Long) as well as the legendary Dean Martin (Everybody Loves Somebody) for her position.

Streisand recording People album in the studio

Grammy Awards

People was awarded three Grammy Awards. Peter Matz won in the category Best Accompaniment Arrangement for Vocalist or Instrumentalist; Streisand won for Best Vocal Performance on “People.”  And Bob Cato and Don Bronstein won a Grammy for their unconventional album cover – featuring Streisand with her back to us.

People was nominated (but did not win) for Album of the Year and the song “People” was nominated for Record of the Year, although “Hello, Dolly!” won instead.

On April 13, 1965, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the awards were held, Barbra Streisand posed with Louis Armstrong, who won Best Male Vocalist for his big hit, “Hello, Dolly!”. (Did Streisand and Armstrong ever dream they would appear on screen together four years later in the film version of Dolly??)
Barbra Streisand and Louis Armstrong hold their Grammy Awards

CD Remastering ...

People has had four incarnations on Compact Disc. In 1994, Streisand's sound engineer, John Arrias, remastered and remixed many of her albums for CD, including People

2002 Remaster: Remastered from the original master tapes by Stephen Marcussen; Digitally edited by Stewart Whitmore for Marcussen Mastering, Hollywood, CA. The 2002 CD is red with a Columbia Records logo imprinted on it.

When I compare the Arrias 1994 remaster to Marcussen's 2002 remaster, the 2002 CD sounds "hot" to my ears – Ms. Streisand's high notes and the trumpets distort a bit.

Europe Bonus Track: In 2002, Sony BMG released the same Marcussen remaster of People in Europe – but with a bonus track that was not on the U.S. version: “I Am Woman [Single Version]”, which has never appeared on a Streisand album or in digital form ... except on this European CD. “I Am Woman” was previously released by Columbia as a vinyl single (# 4-42965).  The bonus track is listed as track 13 on the disc.

2015 Mastered for iTunes: People was one of several Streisand albums that Columbia improved for digital distribution on iTunes in 2015. According to JustMastering.com, “Mastered for iTunes” indicates the digital album has “a wider dynamic range … a slightly lower noise floor, and less distortion (which translates into more sonic detail in the music).” Again, to my ears, the iTunes version of People is lovely, minus the hot spots that the 2002 Remaster had.

Album Cover ...

The cover image of People was photographed while Barbra was in Chicago performing at Mister Kelly’s. Barbra posed at Michigan Avenue Beach near the famous Drake Hotel for photographer Don Bronstein. The pictures, below, are alternates from the same photo shoot. Imagine Barbra and Don Bronstein snapping photos at dawn after her show at Mr. Kelly's. Streisand offered different poses and wardrobe options to Bronstein. She even wore a mumu for some shots.


David Marienthal (son of George Marienthal, who created Mister Kelly’s) wrote a 2016 blog entry about Streisand that shed more light on this iconic moment:


“My cousin Susan Marienthal Hillman was there for that shoot,” he wrote, “accompanying her husband Don Bronstein, the photographer. It was for Columbia Records — he was on their staff and had done many covers for their records. Don took pictures of Barbra all over Rush Street and in front of Mister Kelly’s, and they got to know her. And then they wanted to go to Oak Street Beach; by then it was three or four in the morning, so Barbra changed her clothes in an underpass on the way! Susan said Barbra was delightful about doing a whole all-nighter. Marty, who was her manager even back then, came along, and they were there for hours until the sun started to come up, because, that’s what he wanted for the picture.”


Streisand recalled the experience herself in 2019 to the Chicago Tribune:  "When I first came here, I was enchanted by how beautiful the beach was. So one night after the show at Mister Kelly’s, I went with a photographer, who had been hired to shoot a magazine article about me, down to (Oak Street) beach. We took a bunch of shots there, and then we waited for the spectacular postcard-ready sunrise.”


Streisand told the Library of Congress that “the label wanted a good shot of my face. That was the typical way they packaged albums back then. But I thought that was sort of an uninteresting approach, and, frankly, I was too lazy to do another photo shoot! That’s when I remembered the photo from Chicago with my back to the camera…and it struck me as the perfect cover! It had a certain mystery and an understated way of capturing the mood. Some of the executives at the label vehemently disagreed with me. And that’s when the 'creative control' clause in my contract came in so handy, because I was able to get the cover I wanted! I must admit it was a sweet victory when Columbia's art department won the Grammy for Best Album Cover!”

Below:   Use the arrows to click through some of the alternate photographs of Barbra Streisand taken by Don Bronstein for the cover of this album. Also, some outtakes by Hank Parker from the back cover.  And, finally, some in-the-studio photographs, recording the album.

SOURCES USED FOR THIS PAGE:

  • Billboard Magazine. “Record Action Beginning on World’s Fair Tie-Ins.” Vol. 76, No. 14, April 4, 1964.
  • Fine and Dandy: The Life and Work of Kay Swift by Vicki Ohl. Yale University Press, October 1, 2008.
  • JustMastering.com. “What is Apple's ‘Mastered for iTunes’ format?” by Rob Stewart. Retrieved June 13, 2018. https://www.justmastering.com/article-masteredforitunes.php
  • MisterKellysChicago.com. “The Marienthal Family Reunites with Streisand” October 10, 2016 Blog by David Marienthal and Tory Foster. Retrieved June 12, 2018. https://www.misterkellyschicago.com/the-marienthal-family-reunites-with-streisand
  • A Producer's Broadway Journey by Stuart Ostrow. Praeger, 1999. (Note: We Take The Town info).
  • Sid and Marty Krofft: A Critical Study of Saturday Morning Children’s Television, 1969–1993 by Hal Erickson. McFarland, March 13, 2015.
  • You Fascinate Me So: The Life and Times of Cy Coleman by Andy Propst. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2015.

END / PEOPLE ALBUM / NEXT ALBUM ....

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