Simply Streisand was the first album released after Barbra and her manager Marty Erlichman renegotiated her contract with Columbia Records' Clive Davis—the administrative vice president and general manager, appointed in 1965 by president Goddard Lieberson.
“Back then,” Clive Davis wrote in his bio The Soundtrack of My Life, “an established label like Columbia had a carefully defined set of parameters regarding the kinds of contracts it could offer [...] The label's standard royalty rate was 5 percent. Based on the success they had already demonstrated, [Andy] Williams and Streisand were both asking for more than a million dollars.” Davis explained that the deal he made with Streisand was for fifteen albums over a five-year period for reportedly just under a million-dollar guarantee.
That being said, Streisand continued her creative control while creating her albums for Columbia Records, picking songs she loved and working with arrangers she enjoyed.
“You know it’s very interesting,” she told Sirius XM radio, “the record company said ‘Nobody’s ever heard of these songs’ on your first two albums. So, I guess to placate them, I figured, OK, I’ll do standards. And guess what? It didn’t sell very well. Maybe the label didn’t promote it all that well, or maybe I didn’t or the stars just didn’t line up.”
Simply Streisand was Barbra’s ninth studio album. It was her first time working with Jack Gold, Columbia’s West Coast A&R chief, and Howard A. Roberts – Gold and Roberts share producing credit on Simply Streisand. Roberts produced records at Columbia for Tony Bennett and Diahann Carroll. He was also musical director for Harry Belafonte.
Streisand was able to record all the songs for the album in March 1967, before she began work on her third CBS television special, The Belle of 14th Street.
