Customer Reviews

Simply Streisand

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simply Streisand is a fine Barbra Streisand CD with lots of great music and singing for her fans to enjoy! I disagree with reviewers who write that this album is just a fair effort; I think Barbra is in excellent form throughout this CD and it shows every step of the way. The quality of the sound is excellent and the artwork is very nicely done as well.

Barbra starts the album off with a sublime rendition of "My Funny Valentine." "My Funny Valentine" features Barbra in excellent form and her voice, clear as a bell, is also warm and very vibrant. The harp enhances the musical arrangement and the strings are used very well, too. Overall, "My Funny Valentine" gives us a strong start to this CD and it's also a personal favorite of mine. "The Nearness Of You" features Barbra's ability to handle complicated tempo and key changes as she performs her own rendition to put her own mark on this classic ballad. "The Nearness Of You" is easily a major highlight of this album.

"When Sunny Gets Blue" is a number many singers performed but Barbra's interpretation is definitely one of the better ones. Barbra is squarely front and center as the strings and the percussion really make the music great! The music fits in with Barbra's vocals perfectly to such an extent that this ballad is actually hauntingly beautiful. Great! "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" shines just as bright and Barbra delivers this with panache, heart and soul. Barbra delves deep into this song in order to perform it just right--and the result is very classy.

"More Than You Know" is another fantastic ballad that Barbra delivers with great sensitivity; and when she breaks into the main part of the lyrics this number truly takes off like a jet! "More Thank You Know" is very well done in Barbra Streisand's capable hands. In addition, "All The Things You Are" is a very pretty melody that Barbra aces easily; the elegant musical arrangement impresses me a lot. The drums, percussion and strings are brilliantly used and they complement Barbra's vocals perfectly. "All The Things You Are" is definitely another major highlight of this album.

"The Boy Next Door" puts Barbra straight into the spotlight--and that's OK by me! "The Boy Next Door" is a charming number first sung by Judy Garland in the MGM movie Meet Me In St. Louis; and I'm sure if Judy heard this she must have been very proud of Barbra's rendition of this number! The album also ends very well with Barbra Streisand performing "Stout-Hearted Man;" "Stout-Hearted Man" gets a sensitive interpretation from Streisand and the strings work so well with the percussion. "Stout-Hearted Men" has Barbra singing of the type of man she wants to be her one true love and it makes a fitting ending for this CD.

Barbra Streisand recorded many albums but I think this would be one of the better ones she released. I highly recommend this CD for Barbra's fans and people just discovering Barbra Streisand's talents will not be disappointed either.

This is my favorite Streisand cd. I usually give this cd as a gift, and everyone who get's it instantly loves this. This is Streisand at her best.

Great singer, great songs, great music. How can you go wrong?

I keep coming back to this album from `67. Barbra at 25 had a maturity and style that went far beyond her years. Too bad she "transformed" herself into a would-be "hippy queen" in the `70s, abandoning her superior musical instincts for a (now dated) pop sound. This earlier work stands as a timeless classic. Outstanding on an exceptional album are Barbra's recordings of "The Nearness of You" (She sang this song over the opening of the "Happening In Central Park" TV special: mesmerizing), "Make The Man Love Me" (from failed Broadway musical, "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"), and "Lover Man" (a rare and fantastic jazz-inflected track). Don't hesitate to add this to your Streisand collection.

During most of the 60's, to the chagrin of Columbia records, Barbra challenged the way standards were sung, she sang cry me a river with rage rather than sadness, she sang broadway tunes that suited her voice, but werent songs that could ever be hits. This album is almost an example of the kind of work Columbia probably originally intended for Streisand. Middle of the road songs with generic slightly jazzy arrangements, nothing histronic and nothing dramatic. The result is a very pleasing album but none of the tracks will really knock your socks off. Its excellent background music, which is rare for Streisand most of the time her tracks make it impossible to ignore her. Probably a perfect album for a fan of jazzy music who isnt necesarily a fan of Barbra

I would actually give this album four-and-a-half stars. This record is generally thought of a disappointment since it was Streisand's first record to miss the Top Ten, although it still charted at a very respectable #12 and went Gold years later. Truth is, however, that the record is extremely entertaining, just a little more ordinary than the nine albums that proceeded it. Some of the material (such as "My Funny Valentine" and "The Boy Next Door") are a little over-obvious (and had been performed by countless other crooners by this time), but Streisand does all of the songs justice. She shines on Broadway tunes "I'll Know" and "Loverman" and brings a incomparable tenderness to "The Nearness of You" and "More Than You Know." The only real fault with this disc is that, even though it is all well performed and arranged, it really doesn't contain anything that Barbra hadn't done better before. But while it may not have broken any new ground, SIMPLY STREISAND is still an excellent addition to Streisand's sixties catalogue and a strong contender for her most underrated album.

I have been a fan of Barbra Streisand's since 1967 when I saw "Funny Girl" on the big screen. I began collecting her records/cd's from that moment on and Simply Streisand is one of my favorites. In my opinion she has had many albums of great success. In thinking about it, I would say that "Simply Streisand" is the stand-out album of the 60's, "The Way We Were", would be my choice for the 70's, "The Broadway Album" from the 80's and Higher Ground from the 90's. "The Nearness of You" cut from "Simply Streisand" is probably my favorite on that album and possibly my favorite bar none... Anyone wanting to explore the artist in a less tradional way, take a listen to "Lazy Afternoon" or "Till I Loved You" certainly not her most successful albums but revealing and interesting.

Whilst I have always found it difficult to praise THE BROADWAY ALBUM as perfect, SIMPLY STREISAND is Perfect! The Broadway songs here may not be as ambitious in their production, but that is why they work so much better. Broadway songs are written for characters and story/plot development. What makes theatre songs so good is their melodic confessional truth, humour and romance. Streisand understood this in the 1960s and so song for song, this is truly delightful. It is romantic, comforting and timeless.

One of the greatest songs of the 20th century is here, MY FUNNY VALENTINE, and the arrangement is spot on: behind the star. LOVER MAN has all the nervous intensity the song requires through Barbra's interpretation. MAKE THE MAN LOVE ME shines out here and so does MORE THAN YOU'LL KNOW and I'LL KNOW. If only someone would whisper in Barbra's ear and tell her to record the classic Gershwin, Rodgers and HART, not Hammerstien, Porter, and Comden, Green and Styne songs that she did not include on the sixties albums.

THE NEARNESS OF YOU and WHEN SUNNY GET'S BLUE tells us not only do sparse arrangements covay the sincerity of the song's emotion well, they do so because the best thing about Broadway songs are the Lyrics surrounded by the melody: where the voice of the star has the perfect setting as dramatic context. Streisand's voice and her approach to a song IS drama because she's an actress who conveys her own vocal psychodrama, and oh brother do I love that. Broadway songs do not need a million strings and a billion studio tricks in the ditigal mixing. Sinatra and Tony Bennett have proven that, and she is better than both of them in MY opionion and I respect their contribution to popular music.

If you buy this CD you will hear the Broadway album she ought to make. At this time in 2002 with the history of Barbra's songs I can't help but dream of her recoding her next Broadway album that should be entitled Broadway Revistited. Or better still selecting songs from Sondheim's Follies score. I'd pay anthing for that! And I say that because if you listen to STOUT-HEARTED MEN you'll hear an ironic Streisand and for Follies one needs age, irony and tanacity and Barbra has all of that. Easily one of the top ten Streisand albums.

If love is your heart's fancy, buy this because it has some of the greatest American composers songs sung by the greatest American popular songstress of her generation, not counting the Queen of Soul who is remarkable.

I feel that this particular CD really encapsulates the early Streisands many moods.......I love it. Never tire of it. A classic! HIGHLY recommended! Lisa G in CT

Excellent! This woman has such a beautiful voice! Enjoy listening to her many times over.

The legendary Streisand singing romantic standards as only she can do. Every song is a gem.