Sometimes it seems like the Beatles came to destroy what pop music (and pop culture) had been and replace it with something new. We’ve probably said that a time or two here ourselves, but it’s not entirely true. Exhibit A: In 1964, the last year in which a Broadway soundtrack hit #1 on the Billboard album chart, the biggest American singing star was a Broadway actress who had already scored three top-5 albums. She was embarking on a storied career that would see her tally #1 albums in five different decades.
In 1962, at age 20, Barbra Streisand made her Broadway debut. Her first solo recording, The Barbra Streisand Album, won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1963. She was the lead in Funny Girl, another Broadway smash with a hit soundtrack that opened in 1964. One of the songs from that production became Streisand’s first top-10 single in the spring, and it would serve as the title song for her new album that fall: People. The album was an instant smash, knocking the Beatles and A Hard Day’s Night from the #1 slot in October 1964 and staying on top for five weeks.
Although “People” remains one of the songs most associated with Streisand (with its famous line “people who need people are the luckiest people in the world”), the rest of the songs on the People album, several of which are Broadway songs, aren’t heard much anymore. Streisand would release four more Top-5 albums over the next two years and share a Best Actress Oscar in 1968 for the film version of Funny Girl. She wouldn’t get back to the top 10 on the singles chart until early 1971 with the great “Stoney End.” We’ll hear from her again in this series when we get to the soundtracks of The Way We Were and A Star Is Born.
In 1965, Streisand sang “People” on her first TV special, My Name Is Barbra. It’s easy to see (and hear) why she was a star — attractive stage presence, obvious confidence, and the chops to sing live with an orchestra.
Read about more of The #1 Albums.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario