Barbra Streisand's astonishing career as a singer dates back to June 1960 when she performed regularly at New York's The Lion after winning the bar's talent contest. Music became her primary focus, and early triumphs in nightclubs, on records, television, and Broadway eventually led her to Hollywood. Continuing to record music (60 albums and counting, with The Movie Album's release in 2003) while making movies and staging occasional concerts (final shows in September 2000), Barbra found many occasions to discuss music. Countless media interviews and public appearances in the past 40+ years provided these forums and serve to document her feelings about music, some of which have changed over the years. From the early '60s through Barbra's latest statements regarding music, The BSMG is pleased to provide this special feature "work-in-progress" retrospective. Ms. Streisand's words are in maroon. Check out the audio clips too!
In addition, The Broadway Album: A Labor of Love features Barbra's detailed commentary on her landmark Grammy-winning 1985 album.
Calling all Barbra collectors! Join the BSMG research team! Do you enjoy reading your old publications, viewing videotapes, or listening to audio recordings with Barbra's interviews? If so, we need YOU. Help expand "The Music That Makes Me Dance" by dusting off that old magazine article or tape recording and E-mailing me some additional quotations from Barbra regarding music. Kindly format your submissions like the quotes on this page. If your source is a biography, kindly provide the book's title and author. This is a voluntary effort, and the BSMG reserves the right to accept and edit content. E-mail research@bjsmusic.com.
Her Voice
I never had any formal training. I mean, I once thought maybe I should have a singing lesson, so I went to a woman on 54th Street, I remember, and said "Now, how would you tell me how to sing?" And I was singing the song "Sleepin' Bee," and she said, "You have to say 'beh,'" and I said "Beh?" First of all, it looks funny, second of all, it sounds funny - that's not a singing lesson. I approach singing from an acting point of view. What am I singing about? It's sort of a play with music, you know, and therefore I have to be quite natural. I don't understand any affectation of ... I sang because I had the need to sing, you know. I hit a note because my willpower said I wanna hit that note so I hit the note, but I didn't understand it technically. And now it's funny, you know, if I meet somebody somewhere, and they say to me "I'm a singing teacher and I teach the Streisand Method" or something, and I go "What is that? You know, tell me what you think I do."
I can hear the purity still in my voice and yet inspired by a presence higher than - a being higher than me and my belief in God that elevates my voice to an F now that I never thought I could hit. Why? 'Cause of my faith or because again my willpower? I needed to hit the note. I didn't even think about it.
(Barbra Streisand: My Life, Nine Network, Australia TV, 5/20/98)I remember going to the movies, I remember being five or seven years old and singing in the hallways in Brooklyn, 'cause it had a nice echo sound in there. And we would sing with the Hit Parade, so I loved singing. As kids we would harmonize on the stoops in Brooklyn. My mother got me an audition with MGM. Isn't that funny that I'm playing the MGM Grand? She got me an audition with MGM 'cause I think I once auditioned for Star Time Kids or something and didn't get accepted. Went to this booth for the MGM audition, and I thought I'd become famous just by singing, and the guy just said thank you, that was it, you know. What? 'Cause everyone used to say, "Oh, she's the girl on the block with--" I was identified by no father and a good voice. That was my identity.
(Clive James Meets Barbra Streisand, 10/16/99)I kind of forgot how to sing. I sing from my will. My voice is an extension of me. It does what I want it to do. People ask me, "How do you hold notes so long?" I tell them it's because I want to. But that makes it sound too easy. So much goes into it, and you say you'll never do it again. But I have a need to perform and the need is so great it's painful.
(Look, 7/25/67)I think my voice sounds the best when I sing into a Sony tape recorder about two feet away from the mike. ...I do it all the time when I'm singing songs for the first time. It's the best sound. The most pure. The most unmechanical. It's not blown up by the supermikes the recording studios use.
(Newsday, 1/21/73)When I started to make a sort of name for myself, people kept asking me, "How do you hold the notes so long? How do you do that?" And I got absolutely paranoid. I started thinking, "How do I hold the note?" And all of a sudden I couldn't hold the notes anymore. I started to intellectualize a natural process. Also, at that time I was going with Elliott Gould. He was in London doing a show, On The Town, and I was in America. I felt guilty that I didn't come with him. So I think I was getting laryngitis from psychological reasons.
Listen to the rest of Barbra's story.
(BBC Radio, England, 3/75)Sometimes I listen to myself and say, "Oh, God, is that me?" It sounds awful. Like a nasal voice. Other times I'll hear it and I'll think, Jesus, is that my voice? Sounds pretty damn good to me. A pretty sound, like an instrument. Sometimes I'll just love it, sometimes I'll hate it. If I'm just singing in the car or I'm singing with the kids, I have a terrible voice. You would never think that I was a famous singer. I sing that way only when I am concentrating. I don't even think it's that special.
Singing is easier (than acting). A song is only three minutes long. If you have a good voice, a good instrument, you're halfway home. Three quarters of the way home. Acting is indefinable. It's different. It's also less impressive, unless you have a good crying scene or a very dramatic moment. When you sing a song, the sheer musicality of the experience can move people; they don't even have to hear the lyric.
When singers get around me, they ask me about my voice and what I do for it. I say, "Do nothing, pay no attention to your voice, then it shall be yours." They have humidifiers going and I don't know what they do. I feel it's very destructive when people pay too much attention to their voices. They coddle themselves. They take care of themselves too well. I never think about my voice, I never work out, I never exercise my voice. I just use it when I want to.
(Playboy, 10/77)Maybe then [at the beginning of her singing career] I was showing off too much. Now, I don't have to show off. Sometimes I feel almost immodest if I hold it too long. I think to myself, "I better get off, they'll think I'm holding it too long." I've never had any trouble holding a note. I have a very strong will, and I hold a note because I want to hold a note. And if I don't really want to hold a note, I can't hold a note.
(Chicago Tribune, 11/13/83)When I sing, the emotional connection is made involuntarily. When I sing, something happens, and I can't even tell you what is in that process, a certain musicality to the voice that is not even verbal. Speaking is sometimes harder to connect the heart and the throat. ...I don't know how to sing on the beat in pop music. I don't feel at home in that music. I'm more suited to ballads, show tunes, emotional songs.
(LA Times, 12/8/91)I really appreciate my voice now. I really didn't for many years. Somehow I took it for granted, you know?
(The Mirror Has Two Faces Press Conference, 10/29/96)Beginning Her Music Career
I'm a very young performer. ...It's very difficult for me to find songs. I have to contribute something special to the song. ...My repertoire is very, very limited. ...I work as an actress when I'm singing. ...I don't know where I am, who I am, I don't know what I am yet.
(New York World-Telegram and Sun, 5/24/61)
I always wanted to be an actress. I sort of wanted to be a symphony conductor when I was 14. I used to conduct classical music in my bedroom. I only started to sing because I couldn't get work as an actress, and I was known as the kid in the neighborhood who had a good voice, so I thought maybe I could get a job and pay the rent that way. So I started to sing, but I really wanted to be an actress. I got famous as a singer, but by then I was on Broadway.
(Empire magazine, England, 2/92)
I sang at a talent contest just to get money to survive, because I couldn't get any work [in 1960]. What happened was my unemployment ran out. I had worked as a switchboard operator and a clerk licking envelopes. The companies merged, and they had to let a lot of people go, so they let me go. But I had the best time, because I remember getting $45 a week on unemployment insurance. And I thought this was great. I lived great on $45 a week. You know, I had little envelopes - this was for rent, this was for food. I had an occasional taxi cab ride or something nice to buy. So I was very happy until they said to me, "Well, where are you looking for jobs as a telephone operator?" And I would say, like CBS when I was really going up for a job as an actress. And then they said, "We found out you didn't go as a telephone operator, so your penalty is you have to come five weeks in a row, sign for your check, but you never get it." And, I remember thinking, I'll never do that. I could never go waste my time on a line, sign for checks that I'll never get. So, I had to get another job. That was one of the reasons that I started to sing - because I just needed to eat!
to the rest of Barbra's story.
(BBC Radio 2, England, 3/92)Records
I can't bear to listen to my records until about 10 years after they're out, and then when I do, it's usually agonizing. All I hear are the flaws, the things I could have done better. An exception is Lazy Afternoon, which I made with Rupert Holmes. I love that album. But while I was working on The Broadway Album, I went back and listened to my first two records, and I just cringed listening to some of the performances. Although I had a purer reed-like sound in those days, I think my singing then was often overly dramatic and screechy.
(New York Times, 11/10/85)
Because I am a singer who believes in the moment, I do each take of a song differently. You can't do that with rock and roll because everyone says that you have to sing on the beat, and that's very hard for me.
(New York Times, 11/10/85)
I've been around 33 years. When I hear my own overture play, I say, "My God! You mean I sang all those songs?" People talk to me, and they say, "I remember the birth of my child was when you sang that song." And "I remember getting over a love affair when you sang that song." I used to never let that stuff in. Now it's kind of a wonderful thing, to appreciate my own career.
(Time, 5/16/94)
You know, to strive for excellence, to be responsible and in control of the product, that once it's done, I've listened to 16 mixes going and coming in the cars that I'm sick of it. If I walk into a store, and they're playing my music, I walk right out. For about 10 years, it takes me about 10 years to appreciate it, what it is I've done.
(Oprah, 11/11/96)
I am going to do an album of film songs. Whatever some people might say, I like to sing, I love it really, and I've always done it. Even if I've always preferred singing in private and recording in a studio, until my '94 tour during which I got back in touch with my audience for the first time in 20 years, I was terrified to deceive them, but it was great.
(Studio magazine - translation, France, 1/97)
Creative Control
I used to be embarrassed about it and defensive about it -- "Control? What do you mean control?" And now I say, "What are you kidding? Of course, I want utter and complete control over every product I do."
(The Mirror Has Two Faces Press Conference, 10/29/96)"You'll Never Know" (1955)
We had met a pianist in the Catskill Mountains...we went to New York, Nola Studios... I remember (I was 13 years old) saying to him [pianist], "Do you mind if we cut down your bit a bit, because it's like such a long time, I forgot what the song was about before I come back in." So I just had him play a normal verse or chorus and then came back in. So I knew what I wanted then when I was 13.
(BBC Radio 2, England, 3/92)The Barbra Streisand Album (1963)
- Sometimes when I hear that first record of mine, where I'm geshreying and getting so emotional, I think, Oh, my God, how did they ever like me? I'm embarrassed by it. ...That was my repertoire, those are the songs I did the most work on conceptually. "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf," "Soon It's Gonna Rain," and my favorite song, "A Sleepin' Bee," but I never changed the arrangement, so I never sang it again. In a sense, that was the purest me. I was yearning for just so much that you hear it in my voice. It's very young, very high, very thin, like a bird. I think my voice has actually gotten better, warmer, mellower. But I probably lost some of my high notes. I don't think I can sing as high. I don't even know what key I sing in.
(Playboy, 10/77)- The exciting thing about being a performer, the really creative thing is going onstage or stepping in front of a microphone in a nightclub and creating something just for the people who are there. You may be great or you may be lousy that night, but that's the exciting thing about creating it all over again each time. But when you go into a recording studio, you've got three hours . . . You can never do your best under those conditions. The way l'd like to record would be to have an indefinite closing time on the session.
(James Spada, Streisand: Her Life, 1995)- I am eclectic! I like all kinds of music. I once had a big fight on television with David Susskind when I was 18 and we appeared on the old PM East show with Mike Wallace. He said to me, "Why do you song these obscure songs? How come you don't sing like 'Night and Day' and all these great songs by composers?" It was very accusatory. I wanted my own identity. I wanted to be associated with songs that people really weren't familiar with. Why would I choose a song that they already associated with another performer?
(Newsday, 10/16/77)
- It's difficult to find songs that I like. I don't like mooshy love songs. "Sleepin' Bee" by Harold Arlen is my favorite. It's about love in its way.
(New Yorker, 5/19/62)
"Happy Days Are Here Again" (1963)
I love the song. It was an important step in my career, something that reached people. On that LP record, I don't like the ending. It's much too dramatic, too big, too much discord. It's a shame, it really kills me, one of these days I'm gonna do it over again. Like on my television show [My Name Is Barbra] it was right, we had changed the ending. It has to be dramatic but pretty, not dramatic ugly. Probably on a live album I'll do it again. This thing is there for posterity when you make a record. It goes on and on and on. It's a terrible thing and a good thing.
(BBC Radio 2, 3/66)"I'm All Smiles" (1964)
(People Open End Radio Interview, 9/64)"Second Hand Rose" (1965)
All this identification with it came after the fact. I did wear second hand clothes for a long time and all that, and I love to buy old things. So, I guess it has a whole identity with me as well as Fanny Brice who originally made it so popular. She did a whole batch of "rose" songs, including "Rose of Washington Square."
(BBC Radio 2, 3/66)"I'd Rather Be Blue Over You (Than Happy With Somebody Else)" (1968)
This song actually I was thinking about singing for my own repertoire about a year before putting it in the picture [Funny Girl], and I remembered it. It was such a nice song and had been sung originally by Fanny Brice. And I thought, "Oh great, a chance to do both," so it went into the picture.
(Funny Girl Open End Radio Interview, 9/68)Life Cycle of a Woman album (1973)
I'm already not going to make it. ...I must pick that up though. I did one session with three songs, and they're quite beautiful. I have more of them.
(Newsday, 10/16/77)Classical Barbra (1976)
Musically, I've felt compelled to try everything. The most difficult singing project was my classical album, because classical singing is such a disciplined art form. As in rock, the rhythms are very specific. I wanted to write "This is a work in progress" on the back of Classical Barbra, but my record company asked me not to. But even though I'm not satisfied with it, I'm still happy I made it.
(New York Times, 11/10/85)"Evergreen" (1976)
- What happened really was that my guitar teacher wrote some songs that she played for me. It made me feel terrible that I couldn't do it. Then I went into the bathroom and started to cry. Jon came in. It was this really lovely moment: he was comforting me and saying, "You can do it. You can do anything you set your mind to. Try to write a song." That's what inspired me to try to stretch myself to write a song. I wasn't sure how good "Evergreen" was - although Jon always loved it. I'm so doubtful and critical of my own work. I'll listen to it and think the melody is a little simplistic at the beginning, only it gets a little arty in the middle with the kind of chord changes that I like. I chose those beginning chords because they were easy to play on the guitar. But the opening thing was because they were easy chords to play, my fingers just slid up the strings. So then I'll go, Eehh, it sounds so good, I wonder if they'll know how simple it was to do. When people respond to it, that makes me feel wonderful.
(Playboy, 10/77)- I've written a few songs, but I've never really thought of myself as a songwriter per se. So it was thrilling when the song became as popular as it did, and then to receive an Oscar and a Grammy for "Best Song" was just something I'd have never dreamed of. It's also great when I hear that it was used for someone's wedding or anniversary party. It's nice to know that my music, especially something I wrote, could touch people in a very personal way.
(The Costco Connection, 3/02)Album of self-penned material
Maybe I will one of these days. I always wanted to learn how to read music, play the piano, because I hear sounds in my head. I say, "It sounds like a waterfall, or it sounds like a Beethoven or Bartokian chord." If I could only say, "It's an F-sharp major with a flatted fifth." I'd love to study music. I've always wanted to score a film.
(Newsday, 10/16/77)The Broadway Album (1985)
I loved The Broadway Album, really loved that. These were songs that I just loved and that had stories attached to them...really intelligent lyrics, gorgeous melodies, and it was really fun to have an artistic success. I didn't plan on it at all. It was a labor of love, you know, and then when it was a commercial hit, that was like icing on the cake, that was fabulous.
(Larry King Live, CNN, 2/6/92)Nuts (1987)
I'm usually drawn to music in films, but it didn't seem right in this movie. It was too gritty, too down to earth...so that's why the score is 13 minutes. We did put it out as a soundtrack, so this was very thrilling for me to have my own little tape - "Nuts scored by Barbra Streisand." ...I was able to write the score for this movie, because I saw very little music in it. I don't know how to read or write music. I hear it in my head. I have somebody write the notes down. I sing it, that's what I actually do. I'll sing somebody the melody, and then they write it down. Irving Berlin never wrote down music either. ...I never studied music, I just hear it. I actually wrote this melody on the guitar - the Nuts melody. Then, I have to hire an arranger to arrange it.
(Nuts DVD Audio Commentary, 7/03)There are some producers that don't know enough, and you know you're pulling the wool over their eyes, you're not doing your best. Somehow you just don't have the need to please them. Quincy has that aura - you just want to please him, you want to impress him, you want to thrill him.
(Listen Up - The Lives of Quincy Jones, 11/90)
"Places That Belong To You" (1991)
It's his [Prince of Tides Tom Wingo's] story. That's why I didn't sing the song at the end of the movie. I would have been paid a lot of money to sing the song, as much as I got paid to produce. But, I felt it wasn't right. It was his story, and what right would I have to come in and sing this song? My character is a secondary character.
(Boston Globe, 12/22/91)"I Finally Found Someone" (1996)
I wrote the love theme, the main love theme, then Marvin wrote a bridge to it, and that was going to be our song. Then David Foster had the idea that I should sing the duet with Bryan Adams. Bryan played our track and heard me humming and fell in love with this little theme that I wrote, and then he and his producer Mutt Lange wrote a counter melody based on the track that I sent him. And they wrote the lyrics. So that's how that happened. I don't think his record company wanted him to sing with me...because I'm more traditional, and I haven't had a hit since I don't know when.
(Los Angeles Times, 11/7/96)Higher Ground (1997)
I wanted to go back to the way I recorded in the 1960s. With my first few albums, I made an album in four days. I did three songs at a session. But now, they do all this stuff with synthesizers and layers and stuff and then you sing again. So, I just wanted to be spontaneous with an orchestra. My goal was to do three songs that first day, and we did it.
(Los Angeles Times, 11/20/97)"Leading With Your Heart" (1997)
Marvin, Alan, and Marilyn are my friends, and when they heard I was doing the album, they wrote a song for me, and they titled it after Virginia's [Clinton Kelley] autobiography, Leading With My Heart. But that line, about being caught by surprise, was added. The original lyric doesn't say that. The original line was something about a rose, very pretty alliteration, but it didn't relate to what I knew inside of me. You have to have that turning point in your life to take you from being afraid to a place where you can feel this love...and it's usually another person who does it.
(Los Angeles Times, 11/20/97)Christmas Memories (2001)
(Christmas Memories EPK)The Essential Barbra Streisand (2002)
Some were obvious, like "People" or "The Way We Were," and others were simply favorite songs of mine. The funny thing is I've never been all that aware of things like "the charts" or which records of mine did better than others. ...when I hear these tracks all in a row, they do remind me of certain times in my life, and it's so nice that other people feel the same way.
(The Costco Connection, 3/02)Singing on Stage
I had never been to a nightclub before I won a talent contest at a little place in the Village where I was making $50 a week (it was called The Lion) and all the London Broil I could eat (they had great London Broil). Then, I got a job around the corner at a bigger club called the Bon Soir, which I loved, except they didn't serve food. My clothes came from thrift shops, and I was very happy. Of course, back then I didn't have all these wonderful musicians. The Bon Soir only had a piano, a guitar, drums, and a bass.
(Timeless performance, 9/28/00)
I loved singing at the Bon Soir. I had to sing only eight songs. My first job outside New York City was in Detroit, and I have some wonderful memories.
(Us Weekly, 10/9/00)
We were kidding around, because it was my first engagement at the Bon Soir. And it was so silly; I didn't really want to be a singer or anything, and it's a sophisticated, posh little nightclub. So that annoys me, anything that's supposed to be posh and sophisticated, ya know? So I wanted to do something that was completely wrong, ya know? And so it was like me talking about how I would love to do a nursery rhyme or something, and "Big Bad Wolf" was Barry's [Barry Dennen] suggestion, and I looked at the lyrics that are in the thing, which are very ambivalent, ya know? Double entendre lyrics. But they're the 1937 musical - Walt Disney. It worked great. I used to close my act with that.
(Rogue magazine, 11/63)
I'm not really a singer at all. I never took a lesson in my life. Actually, I'm an actress. And the songs are all little plays that I present. In one evening, I'm half a dozen different people - a whole repertory theater, kind of. Singing, or whatever it is that I do, is harder than acting. I'm up there alone, I've got nobody to back me up or bounce my stuff off, like other actors. It's tough, but I love it, I guess.
(Look magazine, 11/19/63)
Before we opened Funny Girl, we had 41 last scenes. Every night was a change, and I loved every minute of it. We froze it opening night, and I was in prison. I used to give notes after every show - like the orchestra's off - because I could never let it become old. It had to be fresh and real every time, every moment.
(Time, 5/16/94)
It is boring to hear myself sing the same song over and over. And it's hard. You have to remember all the time that these people come to see you sing, they want to hear that song. But, for me, as a performer, it's very boring. I bore myself. I have to go on to other things. When I opened at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in 1969, I sang all new songs. Part of me knew that people are going to want to hear the same old songs. On the other hand, I thought, as a performer, an artist, I want to grow, to expand, do new things. I got absolutely attacked for it. That's when I decided I'm going to give up performing.
(Newsday, 10/16/77)
When I sing "Happy Birthday" to my kid, I sound lousy, absolutely lousy. There's just something that happens when I'm in a performance situation, making a record or performing on stage. I hear a sound in my head, and I just duplicate it.
(Chicago Tribune, 11/13/83)
In 1967, I asked Phil Ramone to make the vast stretches of Central Park sound like a great concert hall. He succeeded mightily -- using state-of-the-art tape delay techniques. Almost 30 years later, he produced my duet with Frank Sinatra, using state-of-the-art fiber-optic techniques. God only knows what he'll do with me 30 years from now.
(Billboard: "Phil Ramone: The Billboard Salute," 5/11/96)
I don't know that I'll be less good than the people expect, that I'll forget my words. You know, this happened to me. I was singing in front of 135,000 people [Central Park, June 1967], and I got a death threat from the PLO 'cause it was during the Arab Israeli war and I was making a movie with Omar Sharif, whose films were banned in Egypt. So I forgot my words in front of 135,000 people, I went blank. I figured I better start moving around in case there were snipers out there, you know. It did scare me, I must say.
(Larry King Live, CNN, 2/6/92)
When I did this "One Voice" concert it was the first time I thought I could perform in many, many years because they had teleprompters. And a funny thing happened that night -- I forgot that when I would sing "America the Beautiful," the audience would stand up. They stood in front of the teleprompters. So the whole song I'm moving the microphone trying to get a glimpse of these words. I did forget those, and we used the one from the night before, the dress rehearsal.
(Rosie O'Donnell Show special: The Barbra Interview, 11/16/99)
It's frightening, absolutely frightening. The last time I did a concert for McGovern, I was so frightened, you know, I carried all my lyrics in my hands, 15 songs, right in my hand, you know. And I was so shocked that the audience didn't walk out after Carole King and James Taylor that my voice went up an octave. I sang like a bird, you know, really high because I was so nervous.
(The Barbara Walters Special, ABC TV, 12/14/76)
Well, I must say that anytime that I've done a concert...hit the stage and gotten over my initial panic that they're all gonna boo me or walk out, or something, I feel an enormous amount of love. You cannot fool the public. I learned that in the theater; they sense a false note, they know the truth, so they are the greatest barometer of the truth. I have great respect for audiences.
I'm totally embarrassed and shy about singing in front of people. To sing in a room where my friends are - I'll tell you what happens: I feel them listening so hard, I feel my power, and it frightens me. Somehow, in a big place, when the lights are on you and it's total blackness out there, you're singing alone, it seems like it's the place to do it, to do the thing I do. But I could no more sing a song in a room with my friends than jump off a bridge.
(Playboy, 10/77)
I think it's a challenge. I think my fans, the public, want to see me perform. It's almost like something they feel I withhold from them. And in a way, maybe I was. I've also given up a certain part of my perfectionism. In other words, I cannot be perfect. ...I was ready to sing. I was ready to face this fear. The other thing is that I hate New Year's Eve. I've never liked it. This was perfect. I can avoid it, and yet be doing something that's good to do.
(20/20, ABC TV, 11/19/93)Donna Karan gave me a wonderful birthday party, and Liza Minnelli got up to sing, and I am sitting there thinking, "How does she do this? How does anyone get up in front of people and sing?" I could never get myself to sing at parties...with people looking at me. I can sing on stage because it is a black curtain out there. I can just see a few people and even that disturbs me. So I was fascinated just watching her. ...I didn't like accepting that fright. I am frightened by a lot of things, but I hope is good about me is that I go through the fear. I thought, "Why can't I do this?" Besides, so many fans wanted me to sing live. People were saying, "You owe it to them." It was starting to get to me.
(Los Angeles Times, 5/23/94)
When I was in Detroit, I thought, "I don't know how I'm going to get through the next 15 shows." It's pretty exhausting physically. It's a lot of breathing; you have to be in pretty good shape. And I don't work out vocally. I don't practice. It's the most boring thing you can imagine, doing scales. So I just said, "F-- it, I can't." I'm too tired the next day after a concert.
(Vanity Fair, 11/94)
I enjoy the privacy of the creative process when I make films and when I record. There's a certain kind of perfection that you attain when you're doing it privately. [But] being on the stage now is the acceptance of all imperfections. I'm singing about 30 songs, and my voice goes hoarse at times, and that's part of the growing-up process in which you accept the flaws and that it's not perfect. And to allow people to see me that way is my growth process.
(Time, 5/16/94)
As a performer...I am interested in pursuing excellence, but that doesn't mean I always achieve it. I hit and miss all the time, including in these shows...but I think one of the things that is important in life is to learn to accept your imperfections, which is something that I couldn't understand for years.
(Los Angeles Times, 5/23/94)
I do believe one has to really deserve the privilege of being on a stage raised above everyone else. It's like you have to have a real reason to be there. You have to have something to give, something to offer, something to contribute. That's a big burden, a big responsibility. But, it also is a way I can say things or sing things to the people.
(Rosie O'Donnell Show special: The Barbra Interview, 11/16/99)
I don't like performing live, it scares me, and yet I love singing with a live orchestra. When I make records, I like to sing the whole song through with a complete orchestra. Even making a video the other day, I like to make it in one take 'cause I'm used to being in the theater, where we just did a performance. No matter what happened, if something fell you just picked it up and went on with the show, you know. So, it's just a scary thing, I always think I'm gonna forget the words of the songs. I'm free - I like to ad lib with an audience and say what I feel, but when it comes to the lyrics of a song, I do get frightened.
(Clive James Meets Barbra Streisand, 10/16/99)
Live performing is not about perfection. It's about being in the moment, which I like. And it's wonderful to feel the people. But it was a real challenge for me to get past my stage fright. I still count the songs - like, "I have only 16 left in the first act" or "Now 12." ...I did get past the fear that paralyzes. I'm proud of that.
(Us Weekly, 10/9/00)
I was frightened of performing live and my challenge was to overcome the fear. Before I did the concert tour, I felt a lot of pressure about singing. I wanted to give back to my fans, people who had bought my records and wanted to see me live. But I finally did something about it, and I really appreciate my voice now. I didn't for many years. Somehow, I took it for granted. You can't do that.
(The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland, 11/23/96)
I love conceptualizing a new show. I love thinking out how to present it to an audience. I love designing my outfits and the look of the show. But I don't like doing it. If I could just conceive it and have someone else do it, that would be great! ...I won't miss walking around on a stage for two and half hours in high heels. ...I don't intend to put on a show like this anymore. That's why we taped it for television on New Year's Eve. Originally, when I agreed to do this show, Marty Erlichman, my manager for more than 30 years, was hoping that I would do it all over the world. The travel-bug side of me actually thought about that. In fact, when the show was announced, I said publicly that I might consider performing in places Jim and I wanted to visit. That's why we went to Australia earlier this year. I would have loved to have performed in Mexico, in Paris, Italy, Spain, Canada, Boston, Texas, Oregon...in the middle of the United States, the South...everywhere. Jim and I love to travel. But I just can't do it. ...New York is my home, regardless of where my house is. I was born in New York. My career started in New York. It just feels right to end my live performing in New York.
(Us Weekly, 10/9/00)
Other Voices, Other Music
Judy Garland, Ethel Merman. If you're talking about powerful and athletic, I think they had more powerful voices than I do. I think I had a higher voice, maybe a purer voice, but not necessarily a stronger voice. Garland had a fabulous voice, but she had more of a vibrato than I do. I think she was a great, great singer.
(Chicago Tribune, 11/13/83)I'm really inspired by talent, it doesn't threaten me. I wish I could sing like Aretha Franklin. Those fantastic high notes she hits. Joni Mitchell is extraordinary, a beautiful voice and poet, great voice, beautiful voice. What does more mean, anyway? Sing higher and lower? I love Lee Wiley, who I guess most people haven't heard of. And Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday. What's so weird is that I haven't felt part of the music business these past few years, until A Star is Born. Because all these people write their own songs and sell these millions of albums, I just felt so inadequate singing other people's songs. Not being able to write. That's an industry where everyone is so f***ing talented and everyone is so rich who makes it that there's no jealousy. When I think of the industry, I think of Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder, who writes all his songs, orchestrates them and sings like he does - he's a f***ing genius!
(Playboy, 10/77)The person I admired most growing up was Marlon Brando, but I never had any musical idols. My favorite singer was Johnny Mathis. I also listened to a lot of Joni James records.
(New York Times, 11/10/85)Favorites & Influences - The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Ray Charles, Joni James, Judy Garland
(Funny Girl Open End Radio Interview, 9/68)
Bryan Adams
I didn't know him personally, but I liked his raspy voice, which has very modern qualities, and I think our voices blended well.
(Studio magazine - translation, France, 1/97)We had to come up with a song [for The Mirror Has Two Faces]. I had written a love theme, and the Bergmans started a lyric based on the theme, although we didn't complete how the theme integrated with the bridge...It was very difficult musically, because when you play something orchestrally, you can do all sorts of wonderful keys, but when the voice has to sing it, it changes that pattern.
(The Mirror Has Two Faces Press Conference, 10/29/96)Most of the time I don't listen to any music. When I do, it's classical. My favorite piece is Mahler's Tenth Symphony, and I also love Bartok's Second Violin Concerto and Maria Callas singing Puccini.
(New York Times, 11/10/85)
When I have a massage, I'll listen to a Ralph Vaughan Williams piece, "The Lark Ascending." Or just New Age innocuous music. I never put my car radio on. I never play tapes. And I never listen to my own music.
(Vanity Fair, 11/94)
As songwriters and collaborators, Marilyn and Alan Bergman have written lyrics to so many songs that I love, so many songs that I've wanted to sing and have been acknowledged for, like "The Way We Were," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" The list goes on and on. Over the past 40 years, Marilyn and Alan have been among my best collaborators and closest friends, and that combination is rare and very special to me.
(BBC Radio 2 - Keep The Music Playing, 5/01)
It's moving to hear a great song by a really gifted writer and then to discover what you can add to the equation to try to make it your own. That being said, I've always loved "A Sleepin' Bee" by Harold Arlen. His melodies have always just spoken to me.
(The Costco Connection, 3/02)Michel Legrand has a beautiful voice, and he's such an incredible, musically advance musician. He's very funny...strange enough, so that I really adore him. I just love him.
(BBC Radio 2 - The Michel Legrand Story, 5/03)Songs are amazing things. They allow us to raise our voices in pain, in passion, in praise, and in protest. I'm very proud to live in a country that guarantees every citizen, including artists, the right to sing and say what we believe. Tonight, we're here to celebrate those artists nominated for Best Song. Over the years, the nominees have been as varied as the notes on the scale. From Harold Arlen to Eminem, from Irving Berlin to Bono, songwriters from all backgrounds and styles have made it to the magic night.
(75th Academy Awards, 3/23/03)
Researchers: Mark Iskowitz, Kim Hatherly, Barry Oberfirst, Lindsay Sher, Todd Sussman, Peter Mortimer
Copyright © 1996-2003 Mark Iskowitz. All rights reserved.
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