Recording
Recording sessions took place 23 to 25 January 1963 at Columbia's Studio A in New York City with a budget of $18,000. Material mostly chosen from Broadway standards, many of which were fairly obscure. "I'll Tell the Man in the Street" was originally performed by Dennis King in the 1938 production of I Married An Angel, and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" was taken from the 1933 Disney cartoon Three Little Pigs. Not one of his well-known numbers, "Come to the Supermarket (in Old Peking)" appeared in a 1958 television special with music by Cole Porter, while "A Sleepin' Bee" came from the 1954 musical House of Flowers.
"Soon It's Gonna Rain" and "Much More" were both introduced in the 1960 off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, and the 1930 film Chasing Rainbows provided "Happy Days Are Here Again," done in a notable version by Streisand. "Cry Me A River" was of course the signature song of Julie London, while "A Taste of Honey" had coincidentally just been recorded an ocean away by those other icons of the 1960s for their 1963 debut album.
"Happy Days Are Here Again" was released as Columbia single 42631 with "When the Sun Comes Out" on the b-side, but it did not chart. At the 1964 Grammy Awards, The Barbra Streisand Album won awards in the categories of Album of the Year, Best Female Vocal Performance, and Best Album Cover - Other Than Classical, the latter presented to art director John Berg. In January 2006, the album was a Grammy Hall of Fame selection.
The only song recorded but not included on this album was “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” Streisand and Mike Berniker recorded it on two separate dates (including a later session on 29 January). It was later included "The Third Album" instead with a Peter Daniels arrangement.
Read more about this topic: The Barbra Streisand Album
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)