When my father passed away, I inherited his record collection, and after I got them all (a few hundred LPs) to my apartment, I set about to play each and every one of them. I never came close to listening to each one, but the few I did get to each seemed to have a tune or two (or three or four) that I came to love. One of those songs was this week's featured tune, though I have to admit having liked it (and the movie from whence it came) before having listened to it in the wake of my father's death. Still, knowing the song meant something to my father increased its stature, and that stature has not waned in the now twenty-seven years since he passed away.
Over the course of the last fifty some odd years, you'd be hard pressed to name too many entertainers who were as successful and as beloved as Barbra Streisand. You'd also be hard pressed to summarize her staggeringly varied career (singer, songwriter, actress, music producer, director, movie producer) in a paragraph, too. A short summary: one of the few individuals to have a career EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), she's been nominated for 43 Grammys and has won eight, she's been nominated for five Academy Awards and won twice (Best Actress, Best Original Song), starred in nineteen movies and directed three, and has sold over 150 million records. For her musical career, Streisand has released 36 albums, nine of which have gone to #1 (she's also had a soundtrack and a compilation--which is the album my Dad had--hit the top spot), and 117 singles of which five peaked at the top of the chart. Streisand is also well known for her politics (Democratic Party to her core), fighting for women's rights and LGBTQ rights, and her numerous philanthropic efforts.
Fun Fact: Streisand attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn (she graduated at age 16), and among her classmates were future music star Neil Diamond and future World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer (whom Streisand admitted she had a crush on).
"The Way We Were" was originally released as a single in conjunction with the movie of the same name, and its success lead to the quick release of the deftly titled LP, The Way We Were. Both the single (with a bullet!) and the album hit the number one spot on the Billboard charts. The single also went on to win the Academy Award for Best Song, as well as the Grammy for Song of the Year. Based on a Google Search, near as I can tell it is the only song to ever complete such a trifecta, though "Lose Yourself" by Eminem hit #1, won an Oscar, and won a Grammy for Rap Song of the Year.
As my regular readers (both of you) know, emaycee is a big fan of female vocalists and "The Way We Were" has a heaping helping of an incredible female vocalist. Frankly, at the beginning and ending of the song Streisand hums along with the melody and she probably could have done it for the entire three and a half minutes and it still would have been a great song. Add in the fact that it chronicles the sad fate of two star crossed lovers, and you have a ballad beyond compare. Just a stunning piece of music by a stunning talent--a hundred years from now it will still sound as fresh and passionate as it did upon its release in 1973....
Lyric Sheet: "Can it be that it was all so simple then?/Has time re-written every line?/If we had the chance to do it all again/Tell me, would we? Could we?...
Enjoy:
Republican = Traitor
Peace,
emaycee
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