Walls 2018 album

Streisand / Discography

Walls (2018)

Walls CD cover

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Below: Gallery of versions of this album .... Click arrows to navigate.
  • ABOUT THE ALBUM
    • Released November 2, 2018
    • Executive Producers: Barbra Streisand & Jay Landers
    • Recorded & Mixed by: Jochem Van Der Saag
    • Orchestra Recorded by: Shawn Murphy, Obie O'Brien, JC Monterossa ("Lady Liberty"), Steve Churchyard ("Don't Lie To Me" & "The Rain Will Fal")
    • Engineering: Tyler Gordon, Adrian Bradford, Dmytro Gordon, Keith Gretlein ("Don't Lie To Me" & "The Rain Will Fall")
    • Recording Studios: Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage, Culver City, CA; Blue Studio, Malibu, CA; Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA; The Gentlemen's Club Studio, Nashville, TN; Grandma's House, Malibu, CA; Henson Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Multiview Studios, Hollywood, CA; Sound Design, Santa Barbara, CA; Sound Emporium, Nashville, TN; WallyWorld Studio, Los Angeles, CA
    • Mastered by: Vlado Meller
    • Art Direction: Barbra Streisand
    • Design: Jeri Heiden, Smog Design, Inc.
    • Photography: Russell James
    • Barbra Streisand Representation: Martin Erlichman
    • Personal Assistant to Mr. Erlichman: Tracy Quinn


    Thank you ...


    “Every new album I record is a creative journey. I'm deeply grateful to my amazing collaborators who helped me realize the dreams I had for this project.


    “Thank you to Walter Afanasieff for your incredible music gifts, Jochem van der Saag for your amazing ears, lightning-fast technical skills, and gracious hospitality, Desmond Child for your passion and perfectionism, John Shanks for your evocative contemporary sounds, and Jonas Myrin for your inventive melodic contributions. Thanks also to my friends, the wonderful lyricist Carole Bayer Sayer and Bill Ross for his tasteful arrangements.


    “With deep gratitude to my personal assistant of 45 years, Renata Buser.


    “With appreciation to my Barwood team: Executive Assistant Pamela Lyster, Production Coordiator Grace Handy, archivist Kim Skalecki, my longtime hairdresser Soonie Paik and manicurist Lorri Keefer-Smith.


    “Once again, thank you to my A&R man and Executive Producer Jay Landers for all your ideas and commitment to excellence ... and to Marty Erlichman for everything.”

  • CATALOG NUMBERS
    • 19075895482 (CD)
    • C217765 (LP)
  • CHARTS
    • Debut Chart Date: 11/17/2018
    • No. Weeks on Billboard 200 Albums Chart: 2
    • Peak Chart Position: #12

    Note:


    • Debuted 11/17/18 at #4 on Billboard's Digital Album Sales Chart (The week's top-downloaded albums across all genres, ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music).
    • Debuted 11/17/18 at #2 on Billboard's Top Album Sales Chart (The week's top-selling albums across all genres, ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music). It moved to #21 on the 11/24/18 chart; then to #51 on the 12/1/18 chart.

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

Tracks

  • What’s On My Mind [5:16]

    Written by: Barbra Streisand / Carole Bayer Sager / Jonas Myrin / Jay Landers


    Produced by: Walter Afanasieff & Barbra Streisand

    Arranged by: Walter Afanasieff


    Walter Afanasieff: Keyboards & Synths

    Acoustic Guitar: Leo Amuedo

  • Don't Lie To Me [3:58]

    Written by: Barbra Streisand / John Shanks / Jonas Myrin / Jay Landers


    Produced by: John Shanks

    Strings Arranged by: David Campbell

    Associate Producer/Co-Arranger: Jonas Myrin


    John Shanks: Guitars, Keyboards, Programming, Bass, Background vocals


    Blake Slatkin: Keyboards, Programming


    Annie Basko, Lucy Woodward, Jonas Myrin: Background vocals

  • Imagine / What A Wonderful World [5:20]

    Written by: John Lennon/Yoko Ono (Imagine) ... Bob Thiele / George David Weiss (World)


    Produced by: Walter Afanasieff & Barbra Streisand

    Arranged by: Walter Afanasieff

    Orchestra Arranged by: Walter Afanasieff & William Ross


    Walter Afanasieff: Keyboards & Synths


    Nathan East: Bass Guitar

  • Walls [3:55]

    Written by: Walter Afanasieff / Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman


    Produced by: Walter Afanasieff & Barbra Streisand

    Arranged by: Walter Afanasieff

    Orchestra Arranged by: Walter Afanasieff & Jorge Calandrelli


    Walter Afanasieff: Keyboards & Synths

  • Lady Liberty [3:52]

    Written by: Desmond Child


    Produced by: Desmond Child & Barbra Streisand

    Arranged by: Clay Perry


    Clay Perry & Desmond Child: Keyboards, Programming

  • What The World Needs Now [4:37]

    Written by: Burt Bacharach / Hal David


    Produced by: Walter Afanasieff & Barbra Streisand

    Arranged by: Walter Afanasieff

    Orchestra Arranged by: Walter Afanasieff & William Ross


    Michael McDonald: Guest Vocal

    Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds: Guest Vocal


    Walter Afanasieff: Keyboards & Synths

    Nathan East: Bass Guitar

    Tim Pierce: Electric Guitar

    Mabvuto Carpenter, Missi Hale, Tiffany Palmer: Background Vocals

  • Better Angels [4:08]

    Written by: Carole Bayer Sager / Jonas Myrin / Jay Landers


    Produced by: David Foster

    Arranged by: David Foster & William Ross

    Associate Producer/Co-Arranger: Jonas Myrin


    Tariqh Akoni: Acoustic Guitar

    Tim Davis: Choir Director

  • Love's Never Wrong [4:06]

    Written by: Steve Dorff / Marty Panzer / Jay Landers

    Produced by: Walter Afanasieff & Barbra Streisand

    Arranged by: Walter Afanasieff

    Orchestra Arranged by: Walter Afanasieff & William Ross


    Walter Afanasieff: Keyboards & Synths

  • The Rain Will Fall [4:43]

    Written by: Barbra Streisand / Jonas Myrin / Charlie Midnight / Jay Landers


    Produced by: John Shanks


    Strings Arranged by: David Campbell


    Associate Producer/Co-Arranger: Jonas Myrin


    John Shanks: Guitars, Keyboards, Programming, Bass, Background Vocals


    Keith Gretlein: Additional Programming


    Miss Hale: Background Vocals

  • Take Care Of This House [4:10]

    Written by: Leonard Bernstein / Alan Jay Lerner


    Produced by: Barbra Streisand


    Arranged by: Ian Fraser


    Adapted by: William Ross

  • Happy Days Are Here Again [3:54]

    Written by: Milton Ager / Jack Yellen


    Produced by: Barbra Streisand


    Arranged by: William Ross & Barbra Streisand

About the Album

Another photo of Streisand for WALLS album.

“I was in a car and I was listening to the news, as usual,” Barbra Streisand explained. “And it was something Trump was saying that I knew was a lie, something about climate change or something, and I thought, Oh, my God, I can’t listen to these lies anymore. And I started to just write down, scribble on my pad: ‘Up is down,’ ‘Wrong is right,’ and ‘The mud is sliding, the heat is rising.’ I had to express myself in some form, and they became songs, you know?”


As Streisand described it, the album Walls came about from a deep desire for her to communicate her feelings. “After the election I became mortified and terrified,” she said. “And so, I had to use my creative energy to … I had to put it somewhere. And thank God I have music in my life. I have a forum; I have a way to express my feelings.”


Walls, Barbra said, is “a conglomeration — a compilation of songs about what I think a lot of people are thinking and feeling today.”


According to Columbia Records upon the release of the album, the collection of songs was “filled with beautiful melodies and thought-provoking lyrics. In addition to the three original tunes which the Oscar-winning songwriter contributed to, the songs on Walls explore topics near to the celebrated artist's heart.”


On Walls, Streisand also covered five theater and pop classics: the medley of “Imagine” and “What A Wonderful World”; the Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic, “What the World Needs Now”; a lesser-known theater song by Bernstein and Lerner from their musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (“Take Care of This House”); and a melancholy remake of the standard she’s been singing all these years, “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

Streisand enters the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage. Photo by: Jay Landers
Jochem van der Saag, John Shanks, Barbra, Jay Landers, and Jonas Myrin
Sheet music for the song

Another insight into Barbra’s creative process was the album cover. “A lot of times I do the covers before I know what’s in them,” she stated. “I had this shot in mind for the cover, which is actually taken right here on my property in front of my walls. Walls are designed to protect us sometimes. But they also divide us. There are physical walls and there are also emotional walls that we build around our hearts and our minds.”


Columbia Records released a single from the album on September 27th — “Don’t Lie To Me.”


“I don’t know how people are going to take it,” Streisand said about the song. “It just came from my gut. It came from my brain. It came from my heart, my soul. It came from my anger, and it came from my sadness.”


“I don’t care whether it sells or not. Last night I played the song to my masseuse and she didn’t even know I wrote it, and she said, ‘What’s that song? It’s so catchy!’ So that’s a good sign.”

“Walls is unchecked, indignant and raw, and though it ends with a note of despondency, it is a triumph.”

Alexandra Pollard, The Independent

The Songs

WHAT’S ON MY MIND


“As the year started to unfold, I started to think more about recording an album that reflected what was going on in the country, because that was what was on my mind,” explained Streisand. “I started to write down my thoughts, and that's how ‘What's On My Mind’ began the album; it sets up the album. That song is about our diversity being our strength. It's a lot about immigration, but you try to make something that isn't hitting the subject over the head. You want to create a universal language in the lyric that people can relate to.”


Streisand revealed that “I thought I would call the album What’s On My Mind, because I was going to tell you what’s on my mind,” she said. Instead, the song opens the album. “It’s about when I’m lying there at night thinking about things,” said Streisand. “I have so many thoughts and feelings about what’s happening to our country.”



WALLS


Barbra Streisand explained the development of the song “Walls,” and how it became the title of the album, too.


“Well, we have a president who wants to build walls, and that got me thinking—walls can be structural, and walls can be emotional; walls between people,” Barbra said. “So I asked my dear friends Marilyn and Alan Bergman to write a song for this album, and it came out as ‘Walls,’ which says we would have that better day if all those walls came tumbling down. I hope we find a way to tear down walls and build more bridges instead.”


“I thought my album would be called What's On My Mind, but when I saw this lyric – and then I had an idea for the cover, me against this wall. The wall of society, the walls of this presidency, the walls that obstruct justice. Yet there's a light coming in and hope for the future. We have to grow as a nation, we just have to grow out of this and see the light; that's all I can say.”

DON’T LIE TO ME


Barbra Streisand explained why lies drive her crazy: “I was lied to as a child. That’s why I’m so passionate about lies and people who lie. As an actress, or a singer, what you depend upon is truth. Truth communicates. But truth eventually wins out, don’t you think?”


Websites kept track of the lies President Trump told, and in July 2020 — into his fourth year as president — the media had logged over 20,000 lies. “I thought to myself, how does someone who lies that much sleep at night?” Streisand said. “I mean, where is the guilt? You know, well, he’s not Jewish.  But he must have a guilty conscience somewhere, but he doesn’t.”


She also clarified that, in “Don’t Lie To Me” — “I’m not singing to him; I’m singing about him. And, actually, if you listen to the lyrics at first, you don’t know who I’m singing to. It could be a relationship song. An argument. A breakup in a marriage. Why do you lie to me? I’ve never responded to lies. Lies get me crazy. So, that’s a big motivation for me writing that song.”


The dance mix of “Don't Lie to Me” (by Dave Aude) even charted well on the Billboard Dance chart! After debuting October 20, 2018, it peaked at #8, although it fell back to #18 on the January 26, 2019 chart.

 

 

LADY LIBERTY


Songwriter Desmond Child (Bon Jovi's “Livin' On A Prayer” and Cher's “Just Like Jesse James”) wrote specifically with Streisand in mind. “It's been one of my life's ambitions to have a song of mine recorded by Barbra Streisand,” he confessed. “I was asked to write a song for this record by Jay Landers who is her musical supervisor. I spent a day with him listening to all of her songs. And then I procrastinated for about three weeks, and then he texted me and said you have two days to turn the song in. I wrote it in an hour. We turned it around so fast, and she loved it. The most impressive thing about her is her energy and her intellect, along with her passion, which sets her above everybody because she has everything going for her on all cylinders.”


Child and Streisand rehearsed the song for one day before recording it. “Yes,” he said, “and she wore me out. When she got to the studio a couple of days later, she was so prepared. She was living the song. She just did a couple of takes and she was done.”


“I felt so patriotic,” Streisand said about ‘Lady Liberty’. “I love America. It was wonderful to try to sing that song. That had a lot of high notes.”

IMAGINE


“I never would have touched it before because it was John Lennon’s song. But it’s pure. It’s about love and togetherness. And it’s what this country needs now,” Streisand stated.


“We put it together with ‘What a Wonderful World’ and, musically, Walter Afanasieff did such a good job melding them together. We had to get permission from Yoko Ono to do that even, and she did, which was wonderful of her.”


LOVE’S NEVER WRONG


Songwriter Steve Dorff contributed the beautiful ballad “Love's Never Wrong.”  Streisand related to it “Because love is the most powerful force for good in the universe and it transcends race and religion and sexual orientation,” she said. “I was struck by the inclusive message of its lyrics. For me, it was almost like singing a song from The Normal Heart; my philosophy there, and the theme of that movie for me, was about everyone's right to love whomever they want to.”


THE RAIN WILL FALL


The album’s executive producer, Jay Landers, explained that this song began “as a lyric idea that came to Barbra in a dream.”  Landers, Streisand, Charlie Midnight, and Jonas Myrin gathered the next day to devise the lyrics; a week later Adam Watts and Cory Clark produced a demo for Streisand to hear. “She then added additional lyrics, alternate melody lines and an additional bridge,” said Landers.


Recording the song was especially gratifying.  Landers explained that Streisand recorded her vocals late one night. “She rehearsed for a few minutes to the track, just to find the right feel, and then she said, ‘OK, I think I’ve got it … let’s do one for real now!’” Streisand went into the vocal booth and recorded an amazing vocal.


Afterwards, David Campbell came in and added his orchestra arrangement at Capitol Records Studio in Hollywood.

Below:     Click through some of the alternate photographs of Barbra Streisand for this album, and some behind the scenes shots.  Use the  arrows to navigate.


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