For various reasons, some of the songs Barbra Streisand has recorded over the years have never been released or included on commercially available Streisand albums. Knowing that Barbra is a high-caliber artist and an admitted perfectionist, some of the songs she's recorded over the years may remain unreleased based on her own high standards—the arrangements or vocals simply may fall short of the high bar she sets for herself.
Streisand herself wrote, “For me, the studio is a combination musical playground and laboratory…a private sanctuary, where the possibility of catching lightning in a bottle always exists. Whenever that kind of magic happens, it’s extremely satisfying. Sometimes though, when the arrangement doesn’t quite gel or the song no longer fits the tone of the album it was meant for, the tapes go into the vault for safekeeping.”
Barbra has dipped into her vault before — 1991's Just For The Record contained many previously unreleased tracks, demos, and live recordings. And in 2012, more unreleased tracks were included on Streisand's Release Me album, followed by its sequel album in 2021, Release Me 2.
Various sources were used to compile this list including Spada's 1995 biography; interviews with Streisand and colleagues; Considine's 1985 biography; bootleg recordings traded by fans; Karen Swenson's book, Barbra: The Second Decade; and Allison Waldman's 2005 publication, Between the Grooves. In some cases, Streisand’s associates have confirmed information directly to me.
My sources aren't very accurate after 1992. Searching the ASCAP and BMI databases have provided some of the info listed here.
Much of this information has been incorporated into the individual album pages on this website's Discography section.
December 29, 1955
Nola Recording Studios, New York
Barbra was 13 years old when she recorded this song and “You'll Never Know” at Nola Recording Studios with her mother.
“You'll Never Know” was the first song on Barbra's 1991 retrospective Just For The Recor. “Zing!” remains unreleased. A short snippet of it was used on an Australian interview show in the 90s and has been traded among fans.
“This scratchy acetate was the kind that would wear out after a couple of dozen plays,” Barbra wrote in 1991. “Mine sat on a shelf for twenty years before I put it on tape.”
Barbra’s friend had an Ampex tape recorder and made several tapes of Streisand singing in her apartment, on the radio, and on stage.
Read all about those recordings here.
To date, these tapes have not been made public. Barry Dennen passed away in 2017.
Fine Recording
118 West 57th Street, New York
In 1961 Barbra recorded a 10-inch 45 rpm acetate demo at Fine Recording.
On one side was “Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair”, and the flip side, “Come to the Supermarket (in Old Peking),” with what sounds like a trio backing her.
Streisand recorded nine songs on a 12-inch acetate as an audition for RCA Records in March 1962. She signed with Columbia Records in October 1962.
The songs recorded for RCA were: A Sleepin’ Bee, Have I Stayed Too Long At the Fair, When the Sun Comes Out, A Taste of Honey, At the Codfish Ball, Lover Come Back to Me, Bewitched, I Had Myself a True Love, and Soon It's Gonna Rain.
As an audition for a recording contract with Columbia Records, Streisand recorded another acetate demo. Her manager, Marty Erlichman, explained that Columbia’s president, Goddard Lieberson, “wanted to put her into a studio and record her. He wanted to hear how she sounded professionally taped. Part of the deal I made with him is that we'd get to keep those tapes. And we weren't going to sit forever for his decision. We'd record on a Friday, and he'd get back to us on Monday. So we went up there — me, Barbra, and her accompanist, Peter Daniels.”
With Columbia producer John Hammond, Streisand recorded these songs in early 1962: A Sleepin’ Bee, I Had Myself a True Love, When the Sun Comes Out, Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair, and Come to the Supermarket in Old Peking.
The Second Barbra Streisand Album
February 8, 1963
Columbia Records, Studio A, New York
This song, from Cole Porter’s 1940 musical, Panama Hattie, was not released.
Recorded mid-May 1963.
In the book Benny Goodman Wrappin' It Up, author D. Russell Connor wrote that, while compiling Just For the Record, Streisand's “personal manager/attorney sought tape copies of her three outstanding renditions from” the Basin Street East engagement. “After consultation with the Goodman Estate, the author declined to provide them.”
According to Connor's notes, there are three Streisand songs on the Benny Goodman recording. Goodman announces Barbra on the tape, saying this is Barbra's “debut” at Basin Street East.
Barbra’s Songs: When the Sun Comes Out, My Honey's Lovin’ Arms, Cry Me A River
December 20, 1963
Columbia Records
Studio A, New York
Barbra recorded four sides from the Funny Girl Broadway musical as singles for Columbia Records to release. Only “I Am Woman” and “People” were sent to record stores.
“Who Are You Now?” and “Cornet Man” remain in the vaults.
My Name is Barbra ... Two
September 13, 1965
Columbia Records
Studio A, New York
Barbra's second attempt recording this Cole Porter song.
Color Me Barbra
December 14, 1965
Columbia Records, Studio A, New York
E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen wrote this “list song” that Streisand performed in her early club act. This was her first try recording a studio version.
Color Me Barbra
January 7, 1966
Columbia Records, Studio A, New York
Je m’appelle Barbra
January 13, 1966
Columbia Records, Studio A, New York
Left off the album, this is Barbra’s French-lyric version of “Once Upon A Summertime.”
French lyrics by: Eddie Marnay
June 12, 1966
U.S. Embassy
London, England
Barbra’s portion of the program was taped by Columbia Records. It was also broadcast by BBC Radio.
September 14, 1966
Columbia Records, Studio C, New York
Streisand recorded French versions:
Music: M. Legrand
French lyrics: Eddie Marnay
(“Love and Learn”)
Music: Gilbert Bécaud
French lyrics: Pierre Delanoë
(“What Now, My Love”)
Music & French Lyrics: Jean Lenoir
(“Speak to Me of Love”)
Music & French lyrics: Charles Trénet
(“I Wish You Love”)
October 14, 1966
Columbia Records, Studio A, New York
Streisand recorded French versions of “Clopin” and “Autumn Leaves.”
(B. Coquatrix, P. Dudan & K. Goell)
(Music: Joseph Kosma
French lyrics: Jacques Prévert
Simply Streisand
March 15, 1967
Columbia Records, Studio C, New York
Streisand recorded this Landesman/Wolf tune, and, when recording it for her 2009 album, Love is the Answer, went back to listen to this unreleased track, which she said was “pretty lousy.”
April 1967
Columbia Records and Streisand decided not to release the soundtrack album to her 1967 television special.
Presumably, studio versions of Streisand's songs from the special would have comprised the bulk of the album: I Don't Care, Alice Blue Gown, Liebestraum, Mother Machree, Everybody Loves My Baby, I'm Always Chasing Rainbows*, My Buddy/How About Me, A Good Man is Hard to Find/Some of These Days, and Put Your Arms Around Me Honey.
* The studio version of Rainbows appeared on Just For The Record.
Discovered a few years ago, Streisand apparently recorded some of the Funny Girl movie songs in other languages.
Actual recording date unknown. I'm pretty sure this is the old 1940's song — Music and Lyrics by Walter Donaldson and Mort Greene. Streisand sings some of this song through a megaphone. It's an ode to the Silver State, sounding almost like it belongs in The Belle of 14th Street, Barbra’s vaudevillian T.V. special.
July 9, 1967
Columbia Records recorded Streisand’s live concert at the Bowl. They used her “folk monologue” from this evening in place of the one on Barbra’s Happening in Central Park album.
What About Today?
May 14, 1969
Columbia Records
Studio C, New York
Wally Gold produced and Peter Matz conducted. The composer of this song is unknown.
March 19, 1970
Columbia Records
Studio C, New York
Streisand recorded the single, promotional version of “On A Clear Day” at this session, with a different arrangement by Peter Matz.
Unreleased are two “Clear Day” songs with Matz arrangements: What Did I Have That I Don't Have and He Isn't You.
Richard Perry produced all these tracks for Streisand’s Stoney End album in Los Angeles.
Barbra Joan Streisand
March 3, 1971
Columbia Records
Studio A, New York
Richard Perry produced. This is a lovely Nillson tune from the animated movie, The Point!
June 6, 1973
Sunset Sound Studio, Los Angeles
Better was written by Ed Kleban, the lyric writer on Marvin Hamlisch's A Chorus Line.
Streisand recorded Better three times —
The song appeared in the 2001 Broadway show, A Class Act, which featured an actor playing Kleban and focused on his frustrated career. Better opened Act Two, and the fact that Streisand recorded but didn't release it figured into the plot of the show.
Do Me Wrong, But Do Me was a sexy song written by Alan O'Day (Angie Baby for Helen Reddy). O'Day had a hit with his own recording of Undercover Angel.
Johnny Mathis recorded Do Me Wrong, But Do Me, too, in 1976. Columbia released it as a single, arranged by Gene Page and produced by Jack Gold
April 7, 1973
Los Angeles
Marvin Hamlisch played the piano and Streisand took requests from the audience — all to raise money for the legal defense of Pentagon Papers informant Daniel Ellsberg. Columbia Records recorded the entire event.
May 9-10, 1973
RCA Recording Studio, Los Angeles
Claus Ogerman and Streisand recorded an orchestrated version of his original composition, “I Loved You.”
A piano-only version is on the final album.
The Way We Were (studio)
December 14, 1973
United Recorders, Los Angeles
Cher included this song on her 1974 album, Dark Lady, and it's pretty catchy.
February 18, 1974
Burbank Studios, Los Angeles
* demo only
This cute tune played under the opening credits of Streisand’s comedy film, For Pete's Sake. It has never been released on an album or as a single, though.
Lazy Afternoon
June 12, 1975
Record Plant, Los Angeles
This song, written by Holmes, has a different melody and lyric than the same-titled song on the Star is Born soundtrack.
A sample of the lyrics:
“Isn't it a shame / we want so much / blame it on the hunger that we have...”
Holmes also recorded an orchestrated version of A Child Is Born for the album — they ended up using the simple, piano version on the final album.
On the DVD commentary track of A Star Is Born, Barbra mentions recording some "gospel songs" at the home of Leon Russell and his wife while they were working on the movie.
In her 2004 movie commentary, Streisand stressed she wanted to release these recordings on a future album of unreleased songs.
February 24, 1977
United Western Recorders, Los Angeles
Streisand recorded new, studio versions of her Star Is Born songs for potential release by Columbia Records.
Klein produced:
* included on Barbra's 1981 album Memories
** included on Barbra's 2012 album Release Me
March 23, 1977: “Shadow in the City” (J. Ian)
April 12-13, 1977: “I Love Making Love to You” (Germinaro / Sands / Weisman)
Evie Sands, who originally wrote and recorded I Love Making Love to You, heard Karen Carpenter's version of the song when she recorded it in 1979. Sands recalled in the bio Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter, “I imagined [Karen's] take on it would be similar to mine or closer to the mellow Barbra Streisand version. It turned out to be a perfect blend of both.”
April 20, 1977: “Music Man”
November 13, 1977
Media Sound, New York
Til I Get It Right (Larry Henley, Red Lane)
Nightmoves (Michael Franks, Michael Small)
This Masquerade (Leon Russell) *
Til I Get It Right —originally sung by Tammy Wynette—had a gospel-like sound.
* recording dates unknown
New Paragraph
Songbird
February 1978
Sound Labs, Los Angeles
Gary Klein: producer
July 16-19, 1979
Sound Labs, Los Angeles
Thelma Houston recorded "Understand Your Man" in 1980. Another version, with Koppelman and Wolfert producing (they were Streisand's producers on Wet) was released in 1983 by Marilyn McCoo. Try listening to it on YouTube.
“Something's Missing” was recorded by Donna Summer, Paul Jabara, and a solo Karen Carpenter.
It's possible all three songs were axed because they did not fit into the "wet" theme.
Spring 1981
Two and a half of these "audition" songs were included on Just For the Record. The entire demo recording has these songs:
April 1983
A&M Studios, Los Angeles
Streisand recorded new, studio versions of her Yentl songs for potential release by Columbia Records. Columbia put two studio versions on the Yentl soundtrack album — No Matter What Happens and The Way He Makes Me Feel.
The Grusin-arranged pop version of Papa, Can You Hear Me remains unreleased.
A Piece of Sky is another story — Ramone produced a demo (which sounds like a musician jam session, really). Streisand never laid down vocals, though. So, this pop version of the finale song never really congealed into anything usable.
Olympic Studios, London
Barbra and Michel Legrand recorded different versions of the Yentl songs for the movie. Standouts include:
May 21, 24, 1984
Los Angeles
Maurice White probably produced “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?”
Streisand re-recorded
How Do You Keep the Music Playing with a different arrangement and producer for The Movie Album in 2003. In her liner notes, she wrote: “I'd actually recorded this song once before in the 1980s, but wasn't quite satisfied with the arrangement, so I never released it.”
July-August 1985
A&M Studios, Lion's Share, Village Recorders, Los Angeles
Barbra revisited Unusual Way twenty years later in concert (with an arrangement by Bill Ross).
The King and I Medley, produced and arranged by Bob Esty and Paul Jabara, was a full 8-minutes long. It began with the songs Shall We Dance and Hello Young Lovers, then sequed into I Have Dreamed and We Kiss in A Shadow, which was included on the final album.
Show Me was completed with a jazz-waltz tempo.
Can't Help was also recorded with a jazzy arrangement with trumpet, as seen on Putting It Together: The Making of The Broadway Album television special.
And, yes, it's confirmed that Barbra recorded a self-duet version of “I Know Him So Well” — it’s fantastic!
April 14, 15, 21, 1988
MGM/Lorimar Studios, Los Angeles
Rupert Holmes: arranger & conductor
Keeper of the Flame is probably a Martin Page song and may have even been written for Barbra during their time working on “Time Machine” for Emotion.
Page released the song in 1995 on his own solo album.
Give Me Tonight is a groove-ballad by Jeff Pesetto, Phil Galdston & John Van Tongeren. Jay Landers brought the song to Barbra to record, but it was never released.
A Collection: Greatest Hits & More
June 1989
Michael Masser: producer
Streisand recorded Masser's song, Halfway Through the Night, during the same session in which We're Not Making Love Anymore and Someone That I Used To Love were recorded.
The Prince of Tides Soundtrack
June 11, 1991
Sony Studios
Paich's orchestration of For All We Know didn't make it onto the soundtrack album — Johnny Mandel's did. They recorded Mandel's version a month after Paich's. It'd be fascinating to hear the two!
November 1992
David Foster: producer
Streisand tried recording both Unusual Way and Being Good again, but didn't use them.
For “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” she revealed in 2009 that “I wasn’t thrilled with the arrangement” done in 1992 by David Foster — lots of electronic keyboards. Streisand felt the original chords that she and Foster rehearsed were better than some of the Jeremy Lubbock chords that Foster incorporated into the demo recording.
Barbra also attempted I've Got A Crush On You as a solo version — until she was contacted to sing it as a duet with Frank Sinatra on his album. The solo version has a different arrangement and included the second refrain: “This isn’t just a flirtation; We’re proving that there’s predestination.”
Streisand and Johnny Mathis recorded several arrangements of their duet, “I Have A Love / One Hand, One Heart” —including one version backed by an orchestra. The final track was a synthesized piano version.
Spring 1996
Alternate theme song to The Mirror Has Two Faces, written by Streisand, Hamlisch, and the Bergmans (before BRYAN ADAMS came on board); actually played during credits at July 1996 preview screening.
September 27-28, 2000
Madison Square Garden, New York
Columbia recorded Barbra's “final concerts” for posterity, as a possible release.
Love is the Answer
November 2008
Capitol Studios, Los Angeles
Streisand wrote in her liner notes: “We recorded Michel Legrand's fine melody with a big string orchestra, but we all loved the purity of this Bill Evans inspired piano track, played here by Bill Charlap.”
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