Barbra’s lushly romantic pop album was released in the Fall of 1988. Till I Loved You was a concept album: it followed the stages of a relationship from the beginning (“The Places You Find Love”) to the end (“Some Good Things Never Last”), and then wrapped up the theme with a positive song about the future (“One More Time Around”).
The opening song, “The Places You Find Love” was produced by Quincy Jones. The same song appeared on Quincy Jones’1989 album Back on the Block. On Quincy’s album, Siedah Garrett sang the first verse and chorus, followed by Chaka Khan singing the second verse. Jones utilized the same arrangement and background singers for his album but also incorporated some African chanting during the bridge and climax of the song.
Siedah Garrett recalled working on this song: “Barbra Streisand won’t sing ‘baby,’” Garrett revealed. “I did a demo for her on a song called ‘The Places You Find Love’ and in my ad lib at the end of the song I might have said ‘baby’ once or twice and when Barbra was recording the song for one of her albums Clifton [Magness] said she would never ever sing the word ‘baby’ and she scratched it off the lyric sheet.”
Streisand’s backup singer from the Timeless concerts — Peggi Blu — was a member of the chorus on “Places You Find Love.” Also interesting to note is that Glen Ballard, Jerry Hey, Quincy Jones & Clif Magness won a 1991 Grammy award for their arrangement—on Jones’ album—of “The Places You Find Love”.
This was the only time Barbra and Quincy Jones have worked together.
Barbra was dating Don Johnson and recorded a duet with him for Till I Loved You. The song was from Goya...A Life In Song, a project developed by CBS Records, Freddie Gershon and Allan Carr for opera star Placido Domingo as the legendary artist, Francisco Goya. The duet, officially titled “Till I Loved You (The Love Theme from Goya),” was written by composer/lyricist Maury Yeston (“Grand Hotel,” “Nine,” “Titanic”).
The Goya project was meant to go to Broadway. “It was going to be a show, but we decided to do a record, because of Placido’s time commitments,” Yeston told Show Music. Columbia Records released a promotional record album of the entire show, as well as a Spanish version.
In 2006, Don Johnson talked to TV host Jonathan Ross about recording the duet with Streisand. “It was amazing,” Johnson said. “First of all she’s probably the diva of all time, in terms of voices … I was under contract to Columbia [Records] at the time—her studio. Of course, at the time I was the ‘biggy-wow-wow’ in television and film and with Miami Vice. And I’d just put out a record that had made the top five. This is how I met Barbra—Columbia came to me and said, ‘Would you like to do a duet with Barbra?’ At first I said it’s a different kind of music. Then I went, ‘What are you, crazy? You’ve got to do a duet with Barbra Streisand!’
Streisand and Johnson sang together in the same studio for the recording. “There was studio glass between us so that she could watch me sing—because it was a duet,” Johnson said. “It was a little nerve-racking, as I recall. She’s a perfectionist; she’s impeccable about everything, impeccable about every note. I want to be that way; it’s just that I don’t have the equipment that she has to do it.”
Thirteen years after dating and recording with her, Don Johnson was complementary about Streisand: “She is a wonderful, wonderful person. She’s one of the most intelligent persons I’ve ever been around in my life, and she’s very funny and has a humongous heart. She’s a really terrific person.”
