Six months after Barbra’s first pop/rock album, Stoney End, Columbia Records released another mainstream album by Barbra titled Barbra Joan Streisand. Richard Perry produced again, and Barbra Joan Streisand combined standards with contemporary songs.
A handful of arrangers contributed to the album, including Gene Page, known for his string-heavy arrangements. Page arranged albums for Motown before working on most of Barry White’s records in the 1970s. He said Barbra “was really great to work with — cool, relaxed and with a wonderful sense of humor.”
Richard (Dick) Hazard was television composer, orchestrator, conductor and songwriter who wrote the charts for “I Never Meant To Hurt You” and “The Summer Knows.” Years later, he would compose the music (with Ira Newborn) for Barbra’s film All Night Long.
The all-girl rock group Fanny arranged and played on two songs: “Where You Lead” and “Space Captain.” Richard Perry produced their debut album on Reprise Records in 1970. One of the members, Jean Millington, recalled: “We were bad-ass, we just needed to learn how to record. Which we did as fast as we could and in short order, as Richard Perry basically taught us – and he was tremendously skilled, learning constantly, and was as voracious as we were. We were all into it. It was hard work, but fun. And, actually, he was an excellent teacher.”
The group, known for their tight harmonies (they all sang on their records), was comprised of sisters June Millington and Jean Millington on guitar and bass guitar; Nickey Barclay on keyboards; and Alice de Buhr on drums.
David Bowie was a huge fan of Fanny and spoke to Rolling Stone in 1999 about them. “They were extraordinary: They wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers, they were just colossal and wonderful, and nobody's ever mentioned them. They're as important as anybody else who's ever been, ever; it just wasn't their time.”
Richard Perry used them as studio musicians on Barbra’s Stoney End album, but for Barbra Joan Streisand he got them involved with arranging and playing for Barbra.
“We met at the [Whisky a Go Go],” June Millington remembered. “[Barbra] didn’t put on any airs. She came [to the studio], saying she was nervous because she'd never sung live with a band before, and I believed her. In fact, I sat across from her, knee-to-knee, and went over the vocal with her. If it were an act, it worked well, 'cause we were by then all ready to go and she nailed it from take one. (I think they took take 5 but it doesn't matter, she nailed it from the jump).”
Fanny told Cash Box Magazine that working on the Streisand album “was fun. She's quite young, both in age and in her head. And it was the first time she'd worked live with a rock group.”
Nick DeCaro, a musician, arranger, producer and songwriter, had a keen ear and arranged the first two songs on the album.
Kenny Welch and his wife Mitzie were a music composer/lyricist duo, who wrote, composed and arranged for Carol Burnette and others. Kenny created the arrangement of “One Less Bell To Answer / A House Is Not A Home” for Barbra when she appeared on Burt Bacharach’s television special in March 1971.
