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Back to Broadway (1993)

Catalog Number(s):

• CK 44189

Tracks

1. Some Enchanted Evening [3:54]
   (R. Rodgers / O. Hammerstein II)
2. Everybody Says Don't [2:37]
   (S. Sondheim)
3. The Music Of The Night (Duet with Michael Crawford) [5:37]
   (A. Lloyd Webber / C. Hart / R. Stilgoe)
4. Speak Low [4:10]
   (K. Weill / O. Nash)
5. As If We Never Said Goodbye [4:45]
   (A. Lloyd Webber / D. Black / C. Hampton / A. Powers)
6. Children Will Listen [4:09]
   (S. Sondheim)
7. I Have A Love/One Hand, One Heart (Duet with Johnny Mathis) [4:45]
   (L. Bernstein / S. Sondheim)
8. I've Never Been In Love Before [3:54]
   (F. Loesser)
9. Luck Be A Lady [3:32]
   (F. Loesser)
10. With One Look [3:35]
    (A. Lloyd Webber / D. Black / C. Hampton / A. Powers)
11. The Man I Love [3:43]
    (G. Gershwin / I. Gershwin)
12. Move On [5:27]
    (S. Sondheim)

Individual track credits:

(mouse and click on each song to reveal the credits...)

About the Album

• Released June 29, 1993
• Produced by David Foster, Andrew Lloyd Webber & Nigel Wright, Barbra Streisand
• Photography: Firooz Zahedi
• Art Direction: Nancy Donald
• Design: Cheri Grey
• Liner notes: Barbra Streisand
• Barbra's dedication: “This album is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend, Steve Ross ... who will live in my heart forever.”

(Above: Columbia Records serviced record stores with this 36-inch banner to promote the album.)

Back to Broadway was a milestone in Barbra Streisand's recording career. It followed on the heels of her $ 60 million dollar contract, signed in December 1992 with Sony Corporation. The contract gave Streisand deals for both film and recording projects. In the recording arena (the contract was negotiated by Marty Erlichman and Barbra's attorney Lee Phillips), Barbra's new contract with Sony allegedly paid her $5 million for every album, plus 42 percent-plus royalty on the wholesale price of each unit sold. The 1992 contract covered six albums plus two re-issues.

Back to Broadway was not only a sequel to her multi-platinum 1985 record, The Broadway Album, it was also Barbra's 50th album for Columbia Records. Back to Broadway, therefore, was prepared by the label for an all-out marketing blitz.

Barbra actually started working on Back to Broadway back in November 1992.

In November 1992, Streisand sang “I Have A Love / One Hand, One Heart” live with Johnny Mathis at the APLA program.

Also in November 1992, Streisand reportedly tackled both “Unusual Way” (by Maury Yeston, from Nine) and “Being Good” (by Jule Styne from Hallelujah, Baby!) in the recording studio for a second time. (Both songs were recorded for 1985's Broadway Album but Streisand decided not to use them then.) Once again, they did not make it onto Streisand's album of Broadway songs—although “Unusual Way” was sung live during Barbra's 2006 concert tour. Streisand probably recorded “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” for Back to Broadway with David Foster arranging—but did not use it. (That song, with a different arrangement, turned up on 2009's Love is the Answer album).

In January 1993, Barbra sang “Children Will Listen” at Bill Clinton's inauguration.

In March 1993, still three months away from the album's release, David Foster talked to the L.A. Times about his work on Back to Broadway with Streisand. “I work on the musical tracks and she works out her own vocals,” Foster said. “She sings them the way she wants to sing them, which is fine with me. Broadway material is not my forte, but it is hers. It's hard for me to say, ‘Barbra, sing it this way.’”

When asked what songs Streisand was recording, Foster was coy. “I don't want to say yet, but I can say she's doing some Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes, some Stephen Sondheim tunes and some older tunes that are favorites of hers from shows like Guys and Dolls and Annie Get Your Gun. She's doing a duet with Johnny Mathis on a medley from West Side Story. I'm producing eight or nine tracks and she's doing the rest. We're modernizing the music, but not too much.”

Foster also talked to columnist Marilyn Beck in March 1993. He told Beck that Streisand and he were “both perfectionists. It HAS to be great. And that makes for pretty long hours—sometimes, say, noon to midnight in the studio. We each put in about four hours a day on business before that. It makes for a pretty intense period.”

Streisand recorded two songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard: “With One Look” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye”. Streisand's album came out before Sunset opened in London with Patti Lupone.

Sunset's lyricist, Don Black rewrote some of “As If We Never Said Goodbye” for Streisand. “With Barbra Streisand,” he explained, “I had to change ‘With One Look.’ Those songs [from Sunset Boulevard] were written about a faded movie star. She wanted it more about a singer and I spent a wonderful day with her, changed a couple of bits and pieces. When you write musicals, musicals are written to be rewritten so you are used to people saying, ‘Can you write a different verse?’”

In April 1993, fans were disappointed to learn that a rumored duet between Madonna and Barbra Streisand would not happen due to scheduling problems. The pair were to have collaborated on “Anything You Can Do,” an Irving Berlin standard from Annie Get Your Gun.

Streisand appeared live at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York on May 13, 1993 to promote the new album. Columbia Records hosted a "listening party" for the release of Back to Broadway. With tickets priced from $50 to $500, the evening also benefited Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The theatre was sold out and packed with fans who came to hear the album months before it was actually released.

Barbra made a personal appearance that evening. She was greeted by screaming fans. She wore a sailor outfit (see below, photos by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.)

One fan who was there remembered, “She was gracious and funny, and rolled up [a program] and held it up to her eye, looking into the crowd saying... ‘yoo-hoo... Mr Ziegfeld?’ (á la Funny Girl). We all went wild!”

That evening, Barbra was presented a huge plaque from the President of Sony Records which honored her for recording her fiftieth album which had an advance sale of over 1 million.

Back to Broadway, released June 1993, debuted on the Top Album charts at number one.

In the US and UK, Columbia released 7” and CD singles from Back to Broadway:

• Columbia 6597387 featuring “Music of the Night” (duet with Michael Crawford) / backed with “Children Will Listen.” The US version (Columbia CSK-5429) contained two tracks: (1) a shorter edit of “Music of the Night”; and, (2) the album version of “Music of the Night.” READ MORE >>
• Columbia 659342-2 was a CD-single with three Andrew Lloyd Webber tracks: (1) “With One Look,” (2) “Memory,” (3) “All I Ask of You.”
• Columbia CSK-5288 was a CD-single with two tracks: (1) “Children Will Listen” w/ spoken introduction, (2) “Children Will Listen” (album version). READ MORE >>
• Columbia CSK- 5580 was a 1-track CD-single of “Speak Low.”

Billboard Charts

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine.

Here's the numbers for this Streisand album:

• Debut Chart Date: 7-17-93
• No. Weeks on Billboard 200 Albums Chart: 49
• Peak Chart Position: #1 for 1 week
• Gold: 8/31/93
• Platinum: 8/31/93
• 2x Multi-Platinum: 12/12/94

Gold: 500,000 units shipped

Platinum: 1 million units shipped.

Note: The record company must submit an album to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) where it undergoes a certification process to become eligible for an award. The process entails an independent sales audit, which calculates the quantity of singles or albums shipped for sale, net after returns. The audit surveys shipments to the entire music marketplace, including retail, record clubs, television sales, Internet orders and other ancillary markets. Based on the certification of these shipments, a title is awarded Gold, Platinum, Multi-Platinum or Diamond status. The data here comes directly from official sources, mainly the RIAA online database.

Grammy Nominations

• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Nomination: Back To Broadway album
• Best Pop Vocal Performance, Duo or Group Nomination: “The Music Of The Night” (duet with Michael Crawford)

Album Cover Outtakes

Firooz Zahedi shot the striking photograph that graces the cover of Back to Broadway. The outtakes from that session are just as gorgeous...

 

End.

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