Streisand's "Love Is the Answer'

Some 40-plus years after my sister Felice brought home an album by an unknown female singer, Felice and I are still listening to that singer. Other than Tony Bennett, I can think of no other active singer of the American Songbook who's had such a long and successful career.

Of course, I mean Barbra Streisand. If you haven't been around quite so long, I can only tell you that Streisand's entry into popular music was an event unlike any that had come before. The young Barbra had this unique way of acting with her voice. Perhaps this was most evident on one of her earliest hits, Cry Me A River— an ex-lover revenge song. The original hit version was recorded in 1955 by the ultra cool, very beautiful Julie London, who sang it with an automated this-number-is-no-longer-in-service voice. Streisand did it like she was going to jump out of the speaker and throttle the creep for dumping her.

From Joni Mitchell to disco

If you've never heard Streisand's recordings from the 60's"“ the first three albums simply called the First, Second and Third albums"“ I suggest that you find them somewhere and listen. Every track on those originals is worth listening to.

Just as your tastes have changed over the years, so did hers. In the '70's Streisand recorded music by some of the leading singer/songwriters of that time: Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder. When disco arrived she recorded some big hits with Barry Gibb of the BeeGees.

In the early '90s Streisand returned to her roots and sang a couple of albums full of Broadway tunes, many of them by Stephen Sondheim. Then she started doing concerts again"“ even a "'farewell' concert.

Is 67 the new 50?

Now, at 67, Streisand has come out with Love is the Answer, an album of self-reflective songs made by a great singer in the autumn of her years. Frank Sinatra made a similar album— September of My Years— in 1965, when he was only 50. So perhaps 67 is the new 50.

While the album's title implies upbeat material, the songs themselves suggest that love is often the wrong answer, perhaps mirroring the discrepancy between Barbra's own lofty hopes and the dismal reality of her love life through the years. Now, apparently happily married to the baby-boomer hunk James Brolin, Streisand sings of loves lost with a warm voice but just a trace of detachment.

Love is the Answer was produced by Diana Krall, the most popular figure in mainstream jazz. Its unusual "deluxe" version contains two CDs of identical songs, but on one CD Streisand is backed by Krall's quartet (Krall doesn't sing) and on the other by a large orchestra, with arrangements by veteran Johnny Mandel (who arranged one of Sinatra's albums), among others. I urge you to pay a little extra for the deluxe version, since it contains all of the quartet versions, whereas the regular CD consists mostly of the large orchestral versions. The singing is the same on both.

Life, with all its ups and downs

The material is all top-drawer, including:

Here's To Life. A song made famous by Shirley Horn, about the joy of life, with all of its ups and downs.

Make Someone Happy. A nod to Streisand's composer on Funny Girl, Jule Styne.

Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most. A song so difficult to sing that it's as rarely performed as it is beautiful"“

Love seemed sure around the new year,
Now it's April, love is just a ghost;
Spring arrived on time, only what became of you, dear?
Spring can really hang you up the most.

A Time for Love. The poetry of Paul Francis Webster married to the music of Johnny Mandel. This is a song that can only be sung and felt with a touch of gray in one's voice:

As time goes drifting by
The willow bends and so do I
But oh my friend, whatever sky above
I've known a time for spring,
A time for fall
But best of all,
A time for love.

An old chestnut comes alive

One song harkens back to a different era: The Jerome Kern-Otto Harbach classic, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, has been recorded many times since its debut in 1933 (perhaps most famously as a doo-wop number by The Platters). Streisand lets go here, reminding us of her ability to make an old song come alive, just as she did decades ago with Happy Days Are Here Again.

Streisand sings a trio of songs Sinatra recorded: In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, If You Go Away and Here's That Rainy Day. In these songs she tones down her normal high-energy style and searches for that saloon style that Sinatra made famous. On these tunes, the intimacy of the small quartet provides the more appropriate background.

Breaking up

Fittingly, the high point of the album is a song by her friends and long-time collaborators, the lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, with music by Johnny Mandel. Where Do You Start is song about dividing up the things when a marriage or relationship ends:

Which books are yours?
Which tapes and dreams belong to you and which are mine?
Our lives are tangled like the branches of a vine
That intertwine.
So many habits that we'll have to break
And yesterdays we'll have to take apart.

Here, Streisand shows what singing a great song can be "“ she puts you in the room with the sorrow that's unique to the dying strains of a romantic relationship.

The "bonus track" is a duo with Bill Charlap on piano: You Must Believe in Spring. This is a little-known Michel LeGrand tune, with lyrics by the Bergmans, that was made famous by the legendary jazz pianist, Bill Evans:

So in a world of snow,
Of things that come and go,
Where what you think you know,
You can't be certain of,
You must believe in spring and love

And, finally, in Barbra Streisand's incredible voice.