The Barbra Streisand Album (1963)

Barbra signed a recording contract with Columbia Records on October 1, 1962. Fifteen days later, Columbia booked a studio and orchestra and Barbra recorded her first singles (see Happy Days Are Here Again and My Coloring Book).  The 7-inch singles were released but were not well-publicized and failed to make an impact.  Marty Erlichman wanted (and had negotiated) for Barbra to record and release two LPs within the first year of her contract with the record company. 

So, in early November 1962, Columbia sent a remote recording crew to New York’s Bon Soir nightclub to capture three nights of Streisand’s live act. They planned to release these recordings as Streisand’s first album for Columbia – Live at the Bon Soir! Variety reported about the live recording session and added, “Miss Streisand’s stint is well worth preserving and the LP should serve as an excellent launching pad for her new career as a Columbia discer.”

But Columbia’s president, Goddard Lieberson, didn’t think the Bon Soir tapes quite captured the new singer. So, he asked producer Mike Berniker to record Streisand in the studio where they could perfect her sound.

“When I was looking for someone to arrange and conduct the album,” Barbra wrote in 1991, “I called Harold Arlen who recommended Peter Matz. This was the beginning of a long and creative relationship.” 

Arlen worked with Matz on the 1954 musical House of Flowers.

“We rehearsed at my apartment on West End Avenue,” Matz told a Streisand biographer. “Barbra used to come over every day with her lunch in a brown paper bag. It was a delight to work with her. She didn’t know how to read music, but she could follow it up and down on paper. With her instincts she didn’t have to read.  People credit me for those early arrangements, but really, most of the ideas and the songs came from Barbra and Peter [Daniels].”

Marty had negotiated an important clause in Barbra’s contract:  creative control. Erlichman told Billboard in 1983: “When you break the mold, you have to make sure you have creative control,” he said. “Only if her records sold would she make any money, and she had the final say about what went on her albums, so she was taking all the responsibility for that. We gambled on the future.”

Producer Mike Berniker expounded on Streisand’s artistry: “She's directed by intuition. She has a feeling of rightness. And her convictions are motivated by the best possible kind of taste buds. But she is guided intuitively in her choice of material and in her feeling for it.”

Before entering the recording studio, Streisand rehearsed song standards and Broadway tunes that she had been performing in her nightclub act. 

Columbia budgeted Streisand’s first album at $18,000 – a conservative sum, which meant that Peter Matz had to use small combos of musicians rather than a full orchestra. “One session had a rhythm section and four trombones; another had a small string section,” Matz recalled.  “Columbia wouldn’t pay for more. They really didn’t know what they had with Barbra.”

They also recorded the album quickly – three sessions on January 23, 24 and 25, 1963 at Columbia’s Studio A on 7th Avenue in New York. Engineer Frank Laico explained that Barbra’s sessions “were done on three tracks: one for the vocals and two for the band.”

There was only one track recorded for the album that remained unreleased.  On January 23, Streisand sang "Bewitched." She ended up recording it again for her Third Album.

Streisand had sung "Happy Days" on the Garry Moore Show in 1962 and included it in her early club performances. In 2018, Streisand confessed to The Hollywood Reporter that she was initially unhappy with “Happy Days Are Here Again” for the Barbra Streisand Album.  She said, “when I heard the playback, I didn’t like it. It was too traumatic. I wanted it to be more symphonically traumatic like Mahler, with beauty in the chords. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and money to redo it. I changed it immediately for my live performances.”

When it came time to title the album, Streisand declared, “I can’t stand those other made-up titles.” She chose The Barbra Streisand Album as the title, after rejecting one of Columbia’s suggestions:  Sweet and Saucy Streisand. ("Sounds like a barbeque sauce, ya know?")

John Berg designed the cover of The Barbra Streisand Album with input from Barbra. They chose a photograph taken by Hank Parker during one of Barbra’s Bon Soir shows (Berg won the Grammy for his work). Streisand also chose Baskerville Italic typeface for the album’s title. The typeface became her trademark, and she used it on 19 other album covers! 

Harold Arlen wrote the liner notes for The Barbra Streisand Album. They appeared on the back cover of the 1963 LP and inside the insert of the CD.

When Columbia released The Barbra Streisand Album February 25, 1963, Barbra toured all over the country, singing in nightclubs to promote herself and the album.  She made several high-profile television appearances, too, singing on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dinah Shore Show, The Keefe Braselle Show, and others.

By the end of July 1963, The Barbra Streisand Album had peaked in the top 10 on Billboard’s Top LP’s chart and Cash Box’s Top 50 Stereo and Top (Monaural) Albums charts.

Photo above: Left-to-right are Quincy Jones, Jack Jones, Steve Lawrence, Barbra, Eydie Gormé, Tony Bennett, and Count Basie.

At the 1964 National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences’ Grammy Awards (recognizing accomplishments made by musicians in 1963), The Barbra Streisand Album was nominated and awarded [in bold]:

• Album Of The Year—The Barbra Streisand Album
• Best Female Vocal Performance—The Barbra Streisand Album
• Best Album Cover, Other Than Classical—The Barbra Streisand Album, John Berg, art director 
• Record Of The Year Nomination: “Happy Days Are Here Again” {Award went to Henry Mancini for "The Days of Wine and Roses"}
• Harold Arlen was nominated for his liner notes.

The Barbra Streisand Album was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2006. The GRAMMY Hall of Fame Award was established by The Recording Academy's National Trustees in 1973 to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old.