Barry Dennen was Barbra Streisand's friend and mentor who served as a collaborator when she was putting her act together in New York nightclubs around 1960.
After they appeared together in an off-Broadway play called The Insect Comedy, Barbra reached out to Dennen for a favor: she had an audition with Eddie Blum, the casting director for Rodgers and Hammerstein, who wanted to hear a recording of her singing. Dennen had an Apex reel-to-reel tape recorder, so Streisand asked if he would record her.
“She had a voice the microphone loved—and everybody else loved it, too,” Dennen wrote. “I was really the man who insisted that she sing, who gave her the support and encouragement and help that she needed, and I put together and directed her first nightclub act for her.”
Dennen recorded Streisand many times during this period, including her live performances at the Lion and the Bon Soir nightclubs.
In 2009, Dennen auctioned the tapes he still possessed, so fans finally learned what actually existed of these early Streisand performances.
HOME RECORDINGS
- A Taste of Honey
- Two Brothers
These songs were probably recorded in 1960 at Barry Dennen's home at West 9th Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
“Two Brothers” is probably the Irving Gordon folk-Civil War song, written in 1951.
Barbra was accompanied by guitar on these songs.
REHEARSAL AT THE BON SOIR
- Chez Moi (Jimmy Daniels)
Jimmy Daniels was the host of the Bon Soir who introduced Streisand to the audience. Daniels, a handsome café singer in his day, sometimes sang a number or two at the Bon Soir microphone.
For the 2009 auction, Dennen wrote: “I was setting up the microphones to record her first appearance at the Bon Soir and I turned the tape on at the rehearsal. I liked this song and wanted a recording of it. You can clearly hear Barbra, waiting her turn to rehearse, humming a counter melody.”
STREISAND AT THE BON SOIR
This recording was made at the club on September 17, 1960.
- Spoken Intro—Jimmy Daniels
- Keepin' Out of Mischief Now
- A Sleepin' Bee
- I Want to Be Bad *
- When Sunny Gets Blue
- Lover Come Back to Me
- Nobody's Heart Belongs to Me
- Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
* Words & Music by: B.G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson
DETROIT RADIO SHOWS
Streisand appeared on two local radio shows while playing the Caucus Club in Detroit, Michigan in 1961. She was on The Jack Harris Show (2/24/61 and 4/14/61) as well as Guest House, Detroit (2/28/61). These are recordings of Streisand’s songs from those radio shows.
- A Taste of Honey
- Cry Me A River
- Sleepin’ Bee
- Lover Come Back to Me
- When the Sun Comes Out
- Soon It's Gonna Rain
- Moanin’ *
- Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
* Dennen probably meant “Moanin’ Low,” a song that Streisand sang in her early career, then finally recorded in 1975.
The auction of Dennen’s tapes at MomentsInTime.com had a starting bid of $1 million dollars – an exorbitant amount. “I’m a little trepidatious,” Dennen told the New York Post. “I don’t know what the fallout will be. I don’t like upsetting Barbra, and I don’t want her fans angry at me.”
The truth is that the tapes had always upset Barbra ever since she asked Barry Dennen for them back in 1965 and he refused to hand them over. “They are the only thing I have left of our collaboration,” he told her at the time. Over the years, Dennen would play some of the songs for Streisand fans at conventions he was invited to. When Marty Erlichman tried to negotiate with Dennen to get the tapes for Barbra’s retrospective, Just For the Record, Dennen failed to come to an agreeable compromise.
The only comment about the auction of the tapes came from a Streisand spokesman who said, “Our lawyers are dealing with this.”
Ultimately, the tapes never sold. Barry Dennen passed away September 26, 2017.