Duets (2002)

Catalog Number(s):

4 covers for DUETS

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Tracks

  1. I Won't Be the One to Let Go (with Barry Manilow) *
  2. Guilty (with Barry Gibb)
  3. You Don't Bring Me Flowers (with Neil Diamond)
  4. I Finally Found Someone (with Bryan Adams)
  5. Crying Time (with Ray Charles)
  6. I've Got a Crush on You (with Frank Sinatra)
  7. Tell Him (with Celine Dion)
  8. No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) (with Donna Summer)
  9. What Kind of Fool (with Barry Gibb)
  10. I Have a Love/One Hand, One Heart (with Johnny Mathis)
  11. One Less Bell to Answer/A House Is Not a Home (with Barbra Streisand)
  12. Lost Inside of You (with Kris Kristofferson)
  13. Till I Loved You (with Don Johnson)
  14. Make No Mistake, He's Mine (with Kim Carnes)
  15. If You Ever Leave Me (with Vince Gill)
  16. The Music of the Night (with Michael Crawford)
  17. Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead (with Harold Arlen)
  18. Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again (with Judy Garland)
  19. All I Know of Love (with Josh Groban) *

* new songs

About the Album

Executive Producers Barbra Streisand and Jay Landers gave fans previously released tracks on 2002's Duets album. Two tracks were new: the duets with Barry Manilow and Josh Groban.

Manilow had never worked with Streisand before. “You can't imagine what it's like to hear a song you've written sung by that voice. It's amazing!” he said. Manilow contributed “I Won't Be the One To Let Go”, co-written with Richard Marx.

Barry Gram magazine

“Duets are tricky,” Barry Manilow wrote in the Winter 2002 BarryGRAM fan magazine. When asked about recording with other artists, Manilow elaborated: “[Duets have] to be written so that the performers can relate to each other and they've got to have melodies that can hold up individually. The trick to a good duet, in my opinion, is relating honestly to your duet partner. The song I wrote with the talented Richard Marx is called ‘I Won't Be the One To Let Go’. I've just recorded it with the brilliant Barbra Streisand ... we sound like we like each other and mean what we're singing because we worked on it together, in the same room, for days and days before we went into the studio. I think that there's an obvious connection between the two of us (we actually come from the same neighborhood in Brooklyn) and I think you will be able to feel that when you hear the song. It's a wonderful duet and I'm very proud of the song.”

Manilow single

“I Won't Be the One To Let Go” was released to radio stations as a CD-single(#CSK 59450). It contained two tracks: the radio version and the radio edit of the song.

Josh Groban appeared on Paul O'Grady's British talk show in 2007 and talked about working with Streisand on “All I Know of Love”. Groban said, “I was so nervous because at the time I did the duet with her ... I was 21 years old. You just try to soak it up like a sponge ... She was so nice, she didn't have to do the song with me and she did. It was wonderful ... We got to sit and talk and go over the mix together and really sing a lot together. She's been a friend ever since,” Groban explained.

As for Streisand's working method, Groban said, “She's a perfectionist. Her phrasing is so impeccable. She'll go over a line a hundred times just to make sure it's the right way. She rehearses everything so much, and that's why she's always so perfect.”

Streisand told radio host Delilah (during an interview in 2002) about her experience working with Josh Groban. “I recorded it a while ago before he got famous,” Barbra said. “He was a substitution for Andrea Bocelli. In other words, Linda and my friend David Foster, had written a song for me and Bocelli. So [Josh Groban] did the part that Bocelli was supposed to sing. [Foster] played two different voices for me—a different kid who was Italian—and I picked Josh, and we did the duet together.”

Sony Music created four differently-colored covers to make the album more "collectible".

Streisand wrote this lovely liner note for the CD:

Thanks to all my wonderful singing partners for sharing the gift of your time and talent with me.

... and to the memory of Peter Matz, who was such a rare person ... intelligent, funny, and extremely gifted. We shared so much of our early professional lives together. He will forever be in my heart.

With love,

Barbra

End.

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