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Columbia 69601 (CD) Original Release: September 21, 1999
Executive Producers: Barbra Streisand and Jay Landers
Track Producers: Barbra Streisand, Walter Afanasieff, David Foster, Richard Marx, Tony Brown, and Arif Mardin
Orchestral Arrangements and Conducting: Doug Besterman, Jorge Calandrelli, Marvin Hamlisch,
Jeremy Lubbock, Arif Mardin, William Ross
Arrangers: Walter Afanasieff, David Foster, Richard Marx, Bruce Roberts
Recording Engineers & Mixers: Felipe Elgueta, Frank Filipetti, Humberto
Gatica, David Gleeson, David Reitzas, Al Schmitt, Frank Wolf
Cover Photo: Alberto Tolot
Liner Notes: Barbra Streisand
"Happiness makes you want to sing. You know all those corny things they say in every love song you've ever heard? Well, they're true! Love is what life is all about. Love is the answer. I hope this album inspires your own loving spirit... and may you be blessed with something as special as a love like ours." - Barbra
[4:45]
[4:36] )
(M. Manchester / T. Snow)
[4:32]
Footnotes
their three-year relationship and particularly their July 1, 1998 wedding at which Barbra first sang "I've Dreamed Of You" and "Just One Lifetime." The newlyweds' first dance was to "Isn't It A Pity?"
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"If You Ever Leave Me" released as CD single in Holland (9/13) and in other countries, including U.K. (10/18), Australia (11/1), and Germany (11/2). The Dutch two-track card sleeve disc (COL 667801-1) contains "If You Ever Leave Me" and "Just Because" (3:25) from the album sessions, which was written, arranged, and produced by Mervyn Warren and Jeremy Lubbock. Barbra's loving vocals feed the contemporary pop arrangement of this fine song, certainly on par with those chosen for the album. The four-track Dutch maxi-single in slimline case (COL 667801-2) contains the above two songs, plus "Let's Start Right Now" and previously released "At The Same Time." In the U.K., the main configuration is a three-track CD single (COL 668124-2), containing the same songs above minus "At The Same Time" and stickered to mention ITV's Clive James Meets Barbra Streisand special. Some online retailers and U.S. shops, like Borders
and Virgin, have stocked limited quantities of one the import singles. They are also
available through some online sellers. See Much More. There is no U.S. release.
| The "If You Ever Leave Me" music video began airing regularly on CMT (Country Music Television) and GAC (Great American Country) in October 1999. Barbra appears lovely and radiant, sharing the spotlight with Gill, whose presence is comforting and pleasing. He may tower over her in stature, but she clearly feels more comfortable, animated and playful in an unusually dark indoor setting. Barbra mimes some guitar strumming and keyboard striking in this cleverly edited and entertaining music video. The best thing about it is the wonderful song itself. View some excellent images from the video, more info on the duet, and a transcript of Barbra and Vince discussing their duet in the Teaser Story, originally broadcast via satellite and the Web on 9/15/99. Cool photo too! |
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Barbra recorded interviews for NBC's network morning show, Today, and NBC's syndicated Access Hollywood, which aired during the week of Sept. 20. Some foreign TV interviews were also conducted, among them one for Australia's Today and an hour-long session for British TV. The Rosie O'Donnell Show promoted the album's release and aired Barbra's return guest appearance in November in a very special program called The Barbra Interview, taped at Barbra's Malibu home. See the For All We Know center's
Recommended Streisand TV Features, Recommended Streisand Features in Magazines & Newspapers, and other articles for continuous updates and detailed reports and photos regarding Barbra's media appearances to promote the album.
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(approx. 89,000 units)
In spring 2000, copies of the CD in "second edition" packaging began appearing in Australian, Dutch, and Scottish stores. The most obvious of Barbra's authorized changes is the transposition of the original
back tray insert photo of she and Jim on the grass with the silhouette image of Jim raising Barbra off the
ground from the insert booklet. This actually benefits the package, unifying the art design in the sunset beach theme. In Scotland, a single orange sticker with white lettering adorns the case
front to tune of "12 Beautiful Love Songs." Inside, some minor revisions to the booklet are worth noting. Jim's
very bright timer-shot photo of he and his wife on a boat has been replaced
with an uncropped version of the "I've Dreamed Of You" single cover
Selected Annotated Track Listing
The following information was originally published on The BSMG prior to the album's release.
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Ms. Callaway performs the remarkable new song in her concerts. And Lovland is so proud that Barbra has recorded his music, he has been mentioning it in his "Heartstrings" intro on his current Secret Garden concert tour. The song certainly holds a special place in Barbra's heart, being released as a U.S. single on June 22 (Columbia #38K 79211), months ahead of her new album, as a sample of the loving music she has recorded this past year. On June 10, The Rosie O'Donnell Show surprised many viewers (except those Streisand fans with advance word) with a world premiere sneak preview of Barbra's "I've Dreamed of You," playing three different song excerpts, distributing advance copies of the single to her audience, and reminding everyone of the June 22 release date. A one-track promo CD (#CSK 42424) was serviced to radio stations during the week of June 14, and airplay has been noted on several adult contemporary stations. The single debuted at #29 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Sales chart dated July 10, based on first release week sales, remained at #29 the second week (7/17 chart), and rose to #24 the third week (7/24).
George and Ira Gershwin's classic "Isn't It A Pity?" has become part of A Love Like Ours after first becoming Barbra and Jim's favorite song and eventually welcoming the newlyweds to their post-wedding celebration under the supervision of Marvin Hamlisch, who announced them as "Mr. and Mrs. Brolin." So, it's really the third Streisand-Brolin wedding song on the album. Originally included in the Gershwins' 1932 Broadway musical, Pardon My English and previously recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Feinstein, Johnny Mathis, Mel Torme, and others:
It's a funny thing
I look at you
I get a thrill
I never knew
Isn't it a pity
We never met before
Here we are at last
It's like a dream
The two of us
A perfect team
Isn't it a pity
We never met before
An album track discovered in late July is "The Island," with music by Ivan Lins and Vitor Martins and lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman, which features Kenny G performing with Barbra. Patti Austin debuted the song on her 1981 album, Every Home Should Have One. The beautifully sensual, cool jazz number has since been recorded by Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Mathis, Julie Andrews, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Maureen McGovern (The Music Never Ends tribute to the Bergmans, 1997). Some original lyrics:
On our little island
Not a soul can see us
Show me how to love you
Teach me how to please you
Lay your dreams beside me
Only stars will listen
To our cries and whispers
You were made to love me
And I was made to love you
Keep your arms around me
Lose yourself inside me
Make it last forever
The title song, "Love Like Ours" (yes, without the "A"), was composed by Dave Grusin, with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, originally back in 1986. Broadway composer Cy Coleman debuted the current version of the song during a Carnegie Hall concert tribute to the Bergmans in early February 1999. The Bergmans have done it again, as the lyric excerpt below attests.
Amazing how serene it is
The shade of evergreen it is
Exactly what we mean it is
And knew it could be
When love like ours arrives
We guard it with our lives
Whatever goes astray
What rainy day comes around
A love like ours
Will keep us safe and sound
On April 1 The Official Richard Marx Web Site and his companion newsletter reported that Marx's duet for Barbra Streisand and Vince Gill is entitled "If You Ever Leave Me," which songwriter Marx discusses in the newsletter. Prior to this, in its February 24 edition (Grammy Awards morning), Nashville's The Tennessean newspaper broke the initial news, reporting that multiple-Grammy winning country music star Vince Gill had just recorded a duet with Barbra for her forthcoming album. L.A. sources said that the two worked with producer David Foster on an unnamed Richard Marx-penned song at Foster's Malibu studio on Monday, February 22 from 11 a.m. until 2 the next morning. Reportedly, they took a break to attend a "star-studded dinner party." Gill rehearsed his Grammy Awards show performance on Tuesday. The next evening, he sang his hit song "If You Ever Have Forever In Mind" with full orchestra and picked up two awards. Read the complete article in The Tennessean. "I don't know much about it yet," Gill told The Hollywood Reporter (2/25) with a laugh. "I went and recorded something with her Monday night. She has a new project that she's working on, and where that phone call came from, I have no idea. I don't know if Barbra's ever heard my records, or if David Foster and Richard Marx told her about me or her husband James, I have no clue." In early April Barbra's newest duet partner told Country Weekly magazine that he was "knocked out" by the chance to work with Barbra. "How the phone call to work with her came about, I have no idea," Vince repeated. "But to be in the studio singing with her was incredible. To be in her presence and hear her voice in real time right there in the room is unbelievable." During the week of August 23, U.S. radio stations received a one-song promo single for airplay (Columbia #CSK 42713). The BSMG feels this track has "hit song" written all over it - heavenly romantic voices, wonderful chorus and bridge, produced and arranged by David Foster and Richard Marx. Barbra referred to the pair as a "city girl and a country boy."
Gill views the duet as a neat blend of their two respective pop and country music worlds. Predictably, someone other than The BSMG has RealAudio-encoded not just an excerpt of the song, but the entire song from the disc and provided the lyrics for
"If You Ever Leave Me." For a smaller serving of the song, visit The BSMG Jukebox or page up to the track listing. Here are the chorus lyrics:
If you ever leave me, will you take me with you
If you're ever lonely, I wanna be lonely too
My home's beside you, no matter where you may go
My love's inside you, even more than you know
In late April, the BSMG's Nashville contacts began enthusiastically talking online and off about the terrific song, "We Must Be Loving Right," which Barbra recorded in early March. Written by Clay Blaker and Roger Brown, the classical and jazz-influenced song was previously recorded by George Strait and included on his Easy Come Easy Go CD. In fact, Barbra commissioned celebrated producer and MCA Nashville president Tony Brown to produce her version in L.A. virtually exactly as he had done for Strait, complete with steel guitars. But this is not a "country" record. To the contrary, Independent Songwriter magazine reviewed Clay Blaker's original recording this way: "Sensual and romantic. This is a belly-rubber song where you need to hold your lover close and just forget about the world. We need this music on radio, so the world knows what real music sounds like...Heaven." Sounds like prime Streisand material to me. An excerpt from one of the original verses: Some folks got nothing but troubles/So little joy in their lives/Wherever we go happiness follows/We must be loving right. Blaker, 48, from the San Antonio, Texas area, mentions Barbra and the song in his May newsletter. He later discussed his pride over Barbra's recording in the July 4 San Antonio Express-News. "When they said the name, I almost fell out of my chair. Barbra Streisand, she's an icon. This takes the cake. I don't see how I can ever top this as a songwriter." In explaining how Barbra decided to record the song, Blaker says, "It was a fluke, man, just an incredible stroke of luck," which connects to James Brolin being a major country music fan and having George Strait's Easy Come Easy Go in his car. "The story I was told, by Streisand's representative, was she heard the song in James Brolin's car, and she loved it and it kind of became their song. I heard her version in Nashville in March. It came out of the speakers, and I had tears in my eyes it sounded so good, so incredible. You can't imagine what it felt like."
"Just One Lifetime" premiered at Barbra & James Brolin's July 1, 1998 wedding, the bride singing to the groom. The following story of Melissa Manchester and Tom Snow's song comes from Ms. Manchester's Web site. When she heard that Barbra was searching for a handful of great love songs to record on a "wedding album" for James, Melissa felt that "Just One Lifetime," which she had recorded on her Mathematics album, would resonate with this time in Barbra's life (i.e. falling in love, a pending marriage, and feeling emotionally safe with her husband-to-be), so she sent along a new demo of the song to Barbra. "She loved the chorus," Melissa explains, "but she couldn't follow the verses, musically or emotionally, so she asked if they could be reworked. Tom Snow and I ended up creating an entirely new song, one that really mirrors Barbra's emotional state now. It is an entirely different song than the one I recorded in 1985. Originally, I got a phone call from Barbra's associate saying she wanted to record the song on her album in November -- could I please send lead sheets, etc. -- and I was so thunderstruck by this news that I kept asking him to repeat it. By the fifth time, when he reassured me, 'Yes, she's really going to record it,' I thanked him and hung up. Luckily nobody was home, because I was screaming 'Thank you, God!' at the top of my lungs for 10 minutes, until I finally hyperventilated and had to lie down. A week or two later, there began a flurry of phone calls from the same gentleman, who was being very cryptic about his mission. He kept asking for tapes of the song in different keys, minor lyric changes, one version of the song edited and one without the edit...Finally, I heard that Barbra made this her wedding anthem -- it was beyond belief!" Melissa is quick to offer the story of how the song was originally conceived: "When we were newly married, Kevin and I were sitting in bed one morning, and he said to me 'Just one lifetime won't be enough time to love you,' and I said, 'Hold that thought -- there's a song there somewhere,' and I ran to phone Tom Snow with the great idea."
As reported in the July Barbra File fan newsletter, "If I Didn't Love You," a midtempo romantic pop song with some catchy hooks, is among those recorded for the new album. From what I hear, this track by songwriters Bruce Roberts and Junior Miles could be very radio friendly. Lyrics from the final verse:
You are the only reason
I'm not afraid to fall
Cause if I didn't love you
If I didn't love you
I wouldn't love at all
"Wait", with music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman, was copyrighted in 1997 but goes back even further. It's the first Legrand-Bergman-Bergman song Barbra has recorded since 1988's "On My Way To You" and, previously, the amazing Yentl score. This track is the Bergmans' third song on the new album.
Another new BSMG discovery for the album is Barbra's reworking of "The Music That Makes Me Dance" written by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) and performed a thousand times by Barbra during her pre-Broadway, Broadway, and London runs as Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice in the stage musical Funny Girl. After not performing the song since the mid-60s when she rearranged the song for London and some U.S. concert performances, and 35 years after its one and only album recording on the Funny Girl - Original Broadway Cast Recording (it was not included in the movie) and the My Name Is Barbra TV special, Barbra Streisand has recorded a fresh new, yet very theatrical, rendition of the show-stopping Act II song, which features Kenny G playing the original tenor sax part and enjoying a brief solo. Many vocalists have performed and recorded the song through the years, even more often than Barbra's signature song from the same musical, "People." What a marvelous finale for A Love Like Ours!
Copyright © 1996-2007 Mark Iskowitz. All rights reserved.)