Streisand: Her Life (116 page)

O
n July 19, 2001, Barbra began recording her second Christmas-themed album. Her first,
A Christmas Album
, had sold 5 million copies since its release in 1967, adding 100,000 per year and re-appearing every year on the
Billboard
holiday albums chart. Columbia quite naturally wanted her to do another one, but Barbra had demurred until late 2000.

“I was actually a bit dissatisfied with my original Christmas album, which I made when I was pregnant with Jason,” Barbra told Edna Gunderson of
USA Today
. “I was sick and had laryngitis, but we had an orchestra booked in London and I had to sing for three days. I never felt it was good enough, and I always thought I must do another one when I’m not hoarse.”

Barbra phoned Jay Landers, her co-producer on many of her albums, to ask for suggestions of songs she might sing. Landers quickly saw that Barbra didn’t want to do a Christmas album like so many other performers had done—familiar songs, most of them upbeat. “But there are only so many ways you can say ‘Merry Christmas’ in song, so it took quite a while to find music that resonated for her. A lot of people, including myself, suggested things like ‘Winter Wonderland,’ but it became clear quickly that she wanted a lot more substance.”

Barbra listened to songs for months, usually in her car. She found herself drawn to ballads. She remembered a song, “One God,” that she had heard on a Johnny Mathis album she had bought in a supermarket for $1.95 in 1958. She thought of the beautiful song “I Remember,” written by Stephen Sondheim in 1966 for an Anthony Perkins television drama, “Evening Primrose,” about a poet who escapes from the world by hiding and living in a New York department store. The song compares the natural world outside with the artificial one within the store (“I remember trees/Bare as coat racks/Spread like broken umbrellas”). It wasn’t written as a Christmas song, but Barbra asked Sondheim to write an intro that would cast it that way. As he had been before with “Send in the Clowns,” “Putting it Together,” and “I’m Still Here,” the composer was happy to oblige, and thus turned the song into a haunting remembrance of holidays past.

The familiar songs Barbra did choose all have a wistful quality about them. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas;” “It Must Have Been the Mistletoe;” and Frank Loesser’s lovely “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve.” New or rarely heard songs included Ann Hampton Callaway’s “Christmas Lullaby;” Johnny Mandel and the Bergmans’ “A Christmas Love Song;” and David Foster and Linda Thompson’s “Grown Up Christmas List.” Barbra did decide to go with one highly traditional song, “Ave Maria.” She had sung it on her first Christmas album but that was Gounod’s version. She also like Schubert’s version, and so she sang it again.

The album was recorded in six separate studios, including one in Vancouver, B.C., when Barbra and Jim were visiting there. Some of the songs were recorded at “Grandma’s House,” a cottage on her compound with a view of the ocean that is equipped for recording. Barbra was accompanied by a ninety-piece orchestra on almost all of the songs. Recording was concluded on September 7, 2001. Four days later, of course, terrorists attacked America. Dean Pitchford, who had co-written “Closer” for the album, lost a sister when the World Trade Center was hit. Pitchford called Jay Landers to tell him the news, and added, “For the first time in my life no words come to me. The last words I wrote were for ‘Closer,’ and they in a way became my sister’s epitaph.”

Like most others in the world Barbra was appalled by the attack. She added a note to her fans in the album packaging: “I had finished recording all the songs for this album when September 11th, 2001 happened. The United States, indeed, our world, would never be the same. Thousands of lives were lost, and millions of lives were changed on that tragic morning. In the days after, we witnessed many acts of heroism—men and women risking their lives to come to the aid of others. We saw their faces on television—people of all colors, all faiths, all the nationalities that make up America. We listened to their voices, resilient and proud... To all who grieve for those who have perished, may you celebrate their precious lives with gratitude for the time you had together, knowing they will live in your memory forever.”

Columbia released “Christmas Memories” on October 30. It proved very popular, reaching Number Three on the
Billboard
holiday chart and Number Fifteen on the Hot 200 chart. It was certified platinum on December 3.

Barbra has sung many duets over the years, some little heard like “Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!” with its composer Harold Arlen and “Cryin’ Time” with Ray Charles; others enormous hits (“Guilty” with Barry Gibb, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” with Neil Diamond, and “No More Tears (Enough is Enough)” with Donna Summer). On her album
Duets
, released on November 26, 2002, the nineteen tracks included collaborations with Bryan Adams, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Celine Dion, Johnny Mathis, Kris Kristofferson, Don Johnson, Kim Carnes, Vince Gill, Judy Garland—and herself (“One Less Bell to Answer/A House is Not a Home,” recorded in 1971 for the
Barbra Joan Streisand
album.)

She enlisted veteran Barry Manilow and hot newcomer Josh Groban for two songs recorded expressly for this album. For Manilow, who had begun his career as an accompanist for Bette Midler when she sang in New York’s Continental Baths, this was his first opportunity to sing with Barbra in any venue. The song they chose, “I Won’t Be the One to Let Go,” was written by Manilow and Richard Marx. “You can’t imagine what it’s like to hear a song you’ve written sung by that voice. It’s amazing!” Manilow gushed. In the fan magazine BarryGRAM, he added, “Duets are tricky. [They have] to be written so that the performers can relate to each other and they’ve got to have melodies that can hold up individually. The trick to a good duet, in my opinion, is relating honestly to your duet partner. [Barbra and I] sound like we like each other and mean what we’re singing because we worked on it together, in the same room, for days and days before we went into the studio. I think that there’s an obvious connection between the two of us (we actually come from the same neighborhood in Brooklyn) and I think you will be able to feel that when you hear the song. It’s a wonderful duet and I’m very proud of the song.”

As for “All I Know of Love,” Groban said he was “so nervous because at the time I did the duet with her, I was twenty-one years old. You just try to soak it up like a sponge. She was so nice, she didn’t have to do the song with me and she did. It was wonderful. We got to sit and talk and go over the mix together and really sing a lot together. She’s been a friend ever since.” Barbra, he added, “is a perfectionist. Her phrasing is so impeccable. She’ll go over a line a hundred times just to make sure it’s the right way. She rehearses everything so much, and that’s why she’s always so perfect.”

Barbra had recorded “All I Know of Love” several years earlier, before Groban became famous singing operatic songs (frequently in Italian). David Foster and Linda Thompson wrote the song as a duet for Barbra and Andrea Bocelli, but he wasn’t available when the time to record for
Duets
came. Foster played her a recording of “a different kid who was Italian,” Barbra said, and Groban. “I picked Josh, and we did the duet together.”(It might have helped Groban’s cause that the Los Angeles native resembles a young Jason Gould.)

One discordant note arose when Groban’s label, Warner Bros., insisted that Barbra not use Josh’s name or image in its advertising and publicity for the album. Groban had a new solo album coming out at the same time, and Warners didn’t want consumers to get the two efforts confused. But singing a duet with Barbra Streisand only burnished Groban’s fame and popularity.

Duets
peaked at just No. 38 on the
Billboard
chart, but was certified Gold. Perhaps that fact that there were only two new tracks worked against the disk’s sales. Ten months earlier, though, Columbia had released
The Essential Barbra Streisand
, a two disk package featuring forty songs, just two of them previously unreleased. That album rose to No.15 on the chart, and was certified Platinum. Its sales were likely helped by its January release, when there was little competition from new releases, as opposed to the November
Duets
debut in the midst of many late fall releases.

Barbra’s mother, Diana Rosen Streisand Kind, died March 27, 2002 in a Los Angeles hospital, at the age of 93. Her death resulted from complications from an accident she suffered in her home in November, said Barbra’s publicist, Dick Guttman. A paid obituary ran in several newspapers on April 7:

KIND-Diana Streisand (1908-2002). Beloved mother of Sheldon Streisand, Barbra Streisand, & Roslyn Kind, died on March 27th in Los Angeles. She was 93 years old. In addition to her children, she leaves her dear grandchildren, Erica Needle, and Jason Gould, great-grandchildren, Haley and Max Needle, and a brother, Irving Rosen. A private memorial service is scheduled, the details of which have changed and will not be disclosed. In accordance with her last wishes, she will be laid to rest with her beloved first husband, Emanuel Streisand. Mrs. Kind worked in the New York City school system for many years and was involved in many charitable causes. She was highly regarded and loved by everyone who knew her. The daughter of a cantor, Diana had a beautiful singing voice, a legacy passed on to Barbra and Roslyn. May the music still go on.