Songbird (1978)

Before Barbra Streisand began work on her next studio album for Columbia Records, there was the matter of her contract with them, which was up for renewal at the end of 1977.  She had just delivered two red-hot, successful albums for Columbia (A Star is Born and Superman), so her manager/boyfriend Jon Peters had some negotiating power.

Reportedly, the renewed contract with Columbia contained these concessions for Streisand: five albums delivered in the next five years; a “Greatest Hits” album; a budget of $250,000 per album; and a guaranteed payment of $1.5 million to Streisand for each album, plus about a 20 percent royalty on the albums’ retail prices (Streisand received almost $1.50 for every album she sold!).

Barbra’s new album for Columbia Records was Songbird. Like Superman, the album was produced by Gary Klein for The Entertainment Company. “I’m very low-key in the studio,” Klein said. “My whole philosophy of making records is to get the best people I can. I choose the best musicians for that particular artist and I try to bring out their talent. I don’t try to dictate, I try to stimulate.” 

Barbra Streisand began recording tracks for the Songbird album in November 1977 while she was in New York with Peters, who was producing the film The Eyes of Laura Mars. This was the first time since 1971 that she had recorded in New York City.

“We’ll do about 12 or 13 sides,” Gary Klein told the L.A. Times in February 1978. “We’re not sure which ones we’ll finally use. This should be a fairly typical Streisand album. There won’t be any radical changes in her style or in the kind of material she sings.”

Nick DeCaro, who worked on three songs on the album, explained how the studio musicians worked with Streisand. “Everybody knows they’re going to make a lot of money when they play on a Streisand date and have to go into overtime. They might get a little crazed if they’ve got their part down and she’s still going for this performance … but it’s always tempered by the fact that she’s a fabulous singer and they’re making good money.  Barbra has more respect among musicians than ‘people in the know’ think.”

Barbra Streisand recorded this album November 13, 1977 in New York; then in six more sessions in Los Angeles on February 6-8, 13, 15, 16, 1978.

“Tomorrow” was the working title for the album for a while.  The song was by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin for the Broadway musical Annie. 14-year-old Andrea McArdle played Annie at the time.

Streisand went backstage to meet McArdle after one of the shows – and to ask her permission to record the song she had originated. “Of course I didn't think anything of it when Barbra Streisand came backstage during the original production to ask me if she could record [Tomorrow],” she recalled, “but then 10 years later, I thought, 'That's really pretty cool.’”

Charnin and Streisand knew each other for years — she even auditioned for but wasn’t cast in a Charnin show called Hot Spot in 1962. He contributed several songs to Streisand albums over the years, including “The Best Thing You’ve Ever Done” and the lyrics to Arlen’s “That’s A Fine Kind O’ Freedom.” In 1965 Charnin wrote the lyrics to a Harold Arlen melody called “Summer In Brooklyn.” The song was intended for a Streisand television special to be titled Barbra Streisand’s Brooklyn, but that project never came to pass.

“A Man I Loved” was written by Nick Oosterveen and George Michalski. It was Barbra's boyfriend and manager, Jon Peters, who discovered the writing duo. After hearing their songs, Peters sent a limousine to pick them up and signed them to a management deal with CBS Records.  Then Oosterveen and Michalski spent an afternoon at Streisand’s Malibu home playing their songs for her.  Streisand chose “A Man I Loved.”  When she recorded it, Oosterveen and Michalski provided backing vocals during the session.

“Deep in the Night” was from a 1971-1972 Broadway musical called Inner City. Based on Eve Merriam’s book, The Inner City Mother Goose, the show featured a cast of nine singing about the tough life in Manhattan. Linda Hopkins, who won the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, sang the song on Broadway.

Elkie Brooks, with her husky voice, recorded “Honey, Can I Put On Your Clothes” on her 1977 album, Two Days Away. The great songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller noted that Streisand had them change the original lyric from “cause they feel so good / And they smell like you” to “And they feel like you.”