Barbra Streisand's career began in the early 60's. At that time she was a struggling night club singer and actress. After battling with Columbia Records for over a year, her manager was finally able to get her a small recording contract with the label. At around the same time, Barbra made her Broadway debut as Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It For You Whole Sale. The rave reviews from that show gave Barbra the time in the spotlight she needed to show the industry that she was more than just a comedic actress, but a very gifted and talented singer. Multiple television appearances soon followed along with a Platinum selling first album.
More albums quickly followed, almost 2 a year in fact, along with a television special entitled My Name Is Barbra and a two year acting contract on Broadway as Fannie Brice, the leading role in the then new musical Funny Girl. She won even more awards and fame from that role, later starring in the film adaptation a few years later. The song People, from that show became a #1 hit single for her, the first of many. Barbra would follow the film funy girl with two other musicals, Hello Dolly! and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.
The seventies were a turbulant time in America as the Vietnam War was still raging on and society was dramatically changing and becoming more diversified. Barbra was able to stay within the musical top ten during this time by adapting to the changing social tide regarding music. Her album Stoney End and its title track with its folksy Vietnam era style were a number hit.
Barbra also starred in a series of progressive, and in some cases radiacl, movie. Among these were The Owl And The Pussycat and Up the Sandbox. The Owl And The Pussycat was Barbra's first R-rated movie, which was a big deal back then as she was regarded as a wholesome household name. Barbra's character Doris was a prostitute and in the film's original format Barbra appeared topless and used the expression "Fuck off." At the last minute Barbra decided to have the nude scene removed, stills of which ended up in High Society magazine leading to an ugly law suit. Years later when The Owl And The Pussycat was released on home video, the "Fuck off" scene was edited out thus dropping the film's rating to PG and resulting in outrage by fans the world over. Intact versions of the film still exist on VHS in some locations, but are hard to come by. The current DVD release is edited.
Up the Sandbox was a feminist film that addressed many of issues facing woman of the time including a woman's role in society, the changing image of motherhood, and abortion. While the film failed at the box office, Barbra still considers it one of her finest films to date.
By the mid-seventies Barbra began mining even deeper musical gold with more moderna nd stylized adult contemporary pop. This is also the period in which she produced some of her most famous work. Barbra's first major splash in this newly reinvented genre was in 1974 with a pop version of the theme from the film The Way We Were which she had starred in the year before. Several other well charting singles followed in the years after The Way We Were, but it wasn't until 1976 that Barbra hit the charts big again. At that time she was starring ina remake of the Judy Garland film, A Star Is Born. Streisand's collaboration on the main theme Evergreen resulted in a platinum single. She quickly followed it with other gold and platinum singles including the Neil Diamond duet You Don't Bring Me Flowers, My Heart Belongs To Me, and Kiss Me In The Rain. Barbra also had two platinum disco singles: The Main Event/Fight in 1977 and No More Tears (Enough is Enough) with Donna Summer in 1979.
In 1980 Barbra partnered with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees fame and made one the best selling album of her career, Guilty. Guilty featured two duets with Gibb and a host of other singles, all penned by Barry and his brother Maurice, and quickly went multi-platinum.
With Guilty behind her Barbra turned to a project she had been trying to make a reality for 20 years: the film adaptation of the book Yentl. Though it was difficult, she finally persuaded the right producers to back her, and two years later emerged as the star, producer, and director of one of the most poignant and award winning musical films of the decade. She followed the success of Yentl with The Broadway Album in 1985, another project she had been trying to complete for 20 years. Although the producers at Columbia had initial doubts about the marketability of the album, they were soon proved wrong as the album went multi-platinum almost overnight, beating out then new artist Madonna for the Grammy for best Album.
By the end of the 80's things began to slow down, but Barbra still remained successful and on top. In 1987 she put on a charity concert entitled One Voice, despite her dislike of performing publically, to raise money to fight the war movement and bring about peaceful resolutions to world conflicts. Both celebrated and criticized or her actions, Barbra began taking a more active role in politics and began using her wealth and fame to help aid world peace causes.
In the early nineties she starred in and directed the film adaptation of the book The Prince of Tides which she won several awards for. In 1996 she had yet another #1 single with her duet with Bryan Adams, I Finally Found Someone. the following year she had another #1 single Tell Him, a duet with Celine Dion. In 1999, Barbra married actor and director James Brolin in a private but highly publicized wedding.
In 2004 Barbra made a return to movies after an 8 year hiatis, in the Ben Stiller comedy Meet the Fockers. Most recently Barbra reteamed with barry Gibb after 25 years and created a follw up album to Guilty entitled Guilty Pleasure. She has also devoted a lot of time and effort, along with her record label, in the remastering and restoration of her expanssive catalogue of music and films. Remastering on several of her best selling albums has been completed and are now available. All of her films, with the exception of A Star Is Born and Yentl are available on DVD.
Visit Barbra Streisand's official website for more information.
For detailed information about Barbra's musical carear visit the Barbra Streisand Music Guide.
For detailed information about Barbra's film and television carear visit the Barbra Streisand Archives.
