What ever happened to the great soft rock hits of times of old? When you turn on the “mix” stations or soft rock channels, you only hear few of the classic love songs of the past 20 years or so. When it comes to new material, you might be lucky to hear the usual suspects; Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Backstreet Boys?!?! Now that’s a lack of material! However, one thing that always strikes me about some labels is how they try to “mass market” or widen the range of an artists’ fan base by including a duet w/ another artist. Especially nowadays. Country and R n B are the first to come to mind. Almost every country artist you find now has a duet w/ someone. But there are times when two artists want to sing together for the love of song. Some even have the gift of chemistry together. Take Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. They were meant to sing together. Same with Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, they were great for singing with one another. Which brings me to the latest album from Barbra Streisand, DUETS. You can look at this release 2 different ways. A good marketing ploy to commercialize once again the hit duets she’s done. Or, as an excellent collection of some of the greatest singers of their day. Her career has been going on for over 40 years and counting. She’s still got that beautiful angelic voice of hers and it’s too bad she’s slowing down the number of new releases over the last few years. Even at her age, her voice is still absolutely gorgeous. The album covers the great duets from over the years featuring a “who’s who” list of artists. 17 previously released hits from the oldest recorded in 1963 with Judy Garland on her short lived The Judy Garland Show to 2 new tracks recorded just for this album. The first new track opens the disc and features the Richard Marx penned “I Won’t Be The One To Let Go” w/ Barry Manilow. A very well done song. Barry and Barbra have some of that great magic together here. The other features newcomer Josh Groban on “All I Know Of Love” and closes the disc. Wow! What a great voice this guy has! I can see why’s he’s selling a lot of discs. ‘Bout time we got a real singer on the charts among this new generation. The tracks in between cover a very eclectic list of performers. The huge 1980 hit “Guilty” with Barry Gibb of Bee Gee’s fame still sounds just as good as it did 22 years ago! Also features “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” w/ Neil Diamond and the hit single with Bryan Adams on, “I Finally Found Someone” from The Mirror Has Two Faces soundtrack. Next is a 1973 television broadcasted version of “Cryin’ Time” with Ray Charles. One of the gems that makes this a good collector’s item is the duet w/ Frank Sinatra. “I’ve Got A Crush On You” was only previously available on Sinatra’s DUETS album from 1993. One of the best pair-ups is w/ Celine Dion from Babs’ 1997 album, Higher Ground. At some point during the song, “Tell Him”, you almost can’t tell the difference between these two sirens. They blend that well together! Another hit from the late ‘70’s is the mega hit classic w/ the queen of disco, Donna Summer on “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”. Still gets the girls pumped up to this day! Next is the second duet with Barry Gibb, “What Kind Of Fool”. Not too bad, but pales in comparison to the other hit w/ him. Track 10 is the match up w/ the legendary Johnny Mathis on “I Have A Love/ One Hand, One Heart”. The slightly confusing one at first is the duet w/ herself from 1971’s Barbra Joan Streisand. Next is the 1976 hit w/ her costar Kris Kristofferson from her movie, A Star Is Born with “Lost Inside Of You”. One of the most overlooked hits of 1988 was her duet w/ her one time flame, Don Johnson of MIAMI VICE fame. Don actually has a great voice. His 1986 album, Heartbeat sold well over a million copes and had a # 3 hit single with the title track. His 1989 follow up, Let It Roll didn’t fair as well do to the quality of songs and the fact that the show was on it’s last season before cancellation. Don and Barbra sound quite good together. A very well written song and was the title track to her 1988 album, Till I Loved You. “Make No Mistake, He’s Mine” is a killer tune with one of the best female hit makers of the ‘80’s, Kim Carnes. Country crooner Vince Gill helps out w/ 1999’s “If You Ever Leave Me” also written by Richard Marx. Michael Crawford joins Barbra on “The Music From The Night” from her 1993 Back To Broadway album. Excellent vocals from both! The next 2 tracks are from Barbra’s early days. The first is “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” w/ Harold Arlen from 1966. The other is one of my faves! Her 1963 television broadcast with the immortal Judy Garland on, “Get Happy/ Happy Days Are Here Again” previously released from Streisand’s 1991 box set, Just For The Record… Two of the greatest vocalists of the 20th century on one recording! Priceless. The main gimmick for this disc is there are 4 different album covers. The pictures on the cover are of her in two different colors. Apparently, this is a limited edition release. Either way, it was selling quite well over the holidays. It just pains me that a great talent like hers is often over looked because of a newer generation. Modern radio seems to have long forgotten the greats that made music what it is today. That’s why they are legendary. They wrote the soundtrack to our lives. Sonny Thomas The H.M.D. Music Resource Guide 1.7.2003 |
