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Till I Loved You (1988)

Catalog Number(s):

• OC 40880 (LP)
• CK 40880 (CD)

(Below: TILL I LOVED YOU's LP sleeve contained lyrics and credits to all the songs.)

 

Tracks

1. The Places You Find Love [5:09]
   (C. Magness / G. Ballard)
2. On My Way To You [3:44]
   (M. Bergman / A. Bergman / M. Legrand)
3. Till I Loved You (Duet with Don Johnson) [5:10]
   (M. Yeston)
4. Love Light [4:32]
   (B. Bacharach / C. Bayer Sager)
5. All I Ask Of You [4:02]
   (A. Lloyd Webber / C. Hart / R. Stilgoe)
6. You And Me For Always [3:49]
   (B. Bacharach / C. Bayer Sager)
7. Why Let It Go? [4:24]
   (M. Bergman / A. Bergman / A. Hawkshaw / B. Mason)
8. Two People [3:40]
   (B. Streisand / M. Bergman / A. Bergman)
9. What Were We Thinking Of [4:28]
   (S. Cutler / A. Armato)
10. Some Good Things Never Last [4:20]
    (M. Radice)
11. One More Time Around [3:43]
    (B. Bacharach / C. Bayer Sager / T. Kean)

Individual track credits:

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

About the Album

• Released October 25, 1988
• Produced by Quincy Jones, Barbra Streisand, Phil Ramone, Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Denny Diante
• Recorded at: B & J Studio
• Photographs by Randee St. Nicholas
• Barbra's Thanks: “Many Thanks to Phil Ramone for his time, integrity and caring, and to Marty Erlichman for his loyalty, devotion and untrained, but musical ear, and for Don—a very special thank you.”

Barbra’s lushly romantic pop album was released in the Fall of 1988. Till I Loved You was a concept album: it followed the stages of a relationship from the beginning (“The Places You Find Love”) to the end (“Some Good Things Never Last”), and then wrapped up the theme with a positive song about the future (“One More Time Around”).

The opening song, “The Places You Find Love” was produced by Quincy Jones. The same song appeared on Quincy Jones’1989 album Back on the Block. On Quincy’s album, Siedah Garrett sang the first verse and chorus, followed by Chaka Khan singing the second verse. Jones utilized the same arrangement and background singers for his album. Jones incorporated some African chanting during the bridge and climax of the song.

Siedah Garrett recalled working on this song: “Barbra Streisand won’t sing ‘baby,’” Garrett revealed. “I did a demo for her on a song called ‘The Places You Find Love’ and in my adlib at the end of the song I might have said ‘baby’ once or twice and when Barbra was recording the song for one of her albums Clifton [Magness] said she would never ever sing the word ‘baby’ and she scratched it off the lyric sheet.”

Streisand’s Timeless backup singer Peggi Blu was a member of the chorus on “Places You Find Love”. Also interesting to note is that Glen Ballard, Jerry Hey, Quincy Jones & Clif Magness won a 1991 Grammy award for their arrangement—on Jones’ album—of “The Places You Find Love”.

This was the only time Barbra and Quincy Jones have worked together.

Barbra was dating Don Johnson and recorded a duet with him for Till I Loved You. The song was from Goya...A Life In Song, a project developed by CBS Records, Freddie Gershon and Allan Carr for opera star Placido Domingo as the legendary artist, Francisco Goya. The duet, officially titled “Till I Loved You (The Love Theme from Goya),” was written by composer/lyricist Maury Yeston (“Grand Hotel,” “Nine,” “Titanic”).

The Goya project was meant to go to Broadway. “It was going to be a show, but we decided to do a record, because of Placido’s time commitments,” Yeston told Show Music. Columbia Records released a promotional record album of the entire show, as well as a Spanish version.

In 2006, Don Johnson talked to TV host Jonathan Ross about recording the duet with Streisand. “It was amazing,” Johnson said. “First of all she’s probably the diva of all time, in terms of voices … I was under contract to Columbia [Records] at the time—her studio. Of course, at the time I was the ‘biggy-wow-wow’ in television and film and with Miami Vice. And I’d just put out a record that had made the top five. This is how I met Barbra—Columbia came to me and said, ‘Would you like to do a duet with Barbra?’ At first I said it’s a different kind of music. Then I went, ‘What are you, crazy? You’ve got to do a duet with Barbra Streisand!’

Streisand and Johnson sang together in the same studio for the recording. “There was studio glass between us so that she could watch me sing—because it was a duet,” Johnson said. “It was a little nervewracking, as I recall. She’s a perfectionist; she’s impeccable about everything, impeccable about every note. I want to be that way; it’s just that I don’t have the equipment that she has to do it.”

13 years after dating and recording with her, Don Johnson was complementary about Streisand: “She is a wonderful, wonderful person. She’s one of the most intelligent persons I’ve ever been around in my life, and she’s very funny and has a humongous heart. She’s a really terrific person.”

Burt Bacharach produced and wrote three tracks on Till I Loved You (with his wife and lyricist Carole Bayer Sager). “[Barbra] has great range,” Bacharach stated. “Nobody sounds like her when she’s up that high, with that kind of clarity and purity. You can tell right away it’s her. You can’t say that about many singers.”

Phil Ramone produced the song “All I Ask of You”, which was originally a duet in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera.

“It’s an interesting concept—messing with Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff,” Ramone said. “It’s not easy. Barbra’s always approached music from both a lyrical point of view and a sensibility of, ‘why can’t I sing this? Why wouldn’t I sing this? Why wouldn’t I sing this to him?’ You know, it’s established for too long that it’s a duet. You can take a song and re-voice it or change keys. But this song is written as a duet. I don’t know, we just took a shot (laughs). We worked on it so it could be a meaningful song, as it is.”

Ramone confirmed that the lyricists, Charles Hart and Richard Stillgoe, worked on Barbra’s version of “All I Ask of You”.

“Oh yeah,” he said, “you always call [the lyricists]. It’s one of the classic things that Barbra’s capable of. She’s not afraid to make a change, make a lyrical point more poignant. Her friends, you know, are the Bergmans. Barbra’s the queen of listening and looking at lyrics. All of us who have been around great songs know what that means.”

“Some Good Things Never Last” was also recorded by Barry Manilow for his 1989 self-titled album. Mark Radice wrote the song for his girlfriend at the time, George-Ann Greth. Radice told Barbra Archives that EMI publishing, who represented him, “put out a special Valentine CD of what they considered to be their best ‘uncovered’ love ballads in their catalog. Barbra's producer Phil Ramone heard the song somehow and got it to her and that's how I met Phil.”

Streisand recorded “Some Good Things Never Last” twice, Radice revealed. Barbra “didn't like the first version and said ‘can we just get the guy who wrote the song to come out?’ So they flew me to L.A. and in three takes and 20 minutes she had the track she wanted. Then Phil [Ramone] built the track around my piano and her vocal, added strings, etc...”

You can see a video of Radice playing and singing his song on YouTube.

It's interesting to note that both Manilow and Radice sing the lyric, “I guess when reality steps in, it all depends”; whereas Streisand sings, “I guess when reality steps in, the dreaming ends”. Radice explained that both Streisand and Manilow asked for minor changes in the lyrics. “What am I gonna say, NO?” he asked, rhetorically.

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: 11-12-88
• No. Weeks on Billboard 200 Albums Chart: 26
• Peak Chart Position: #10
• Gold: 12/21/88
• Platinum: 12/21/88

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.

Cover Art Outtakes

Randee St. Nicholas (who also shot Barbra's Higher Ground album cover) captured some dynamic shots of Streisand against a gray backdrop for Till I Loved You.

St. Nicholas also photographed Streisand and Don Johnson together:

End.

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