Columbia 32801
Producer: Tommy LiPuma
Track listing: Being at War with Each Other / Something So Right / The Best Thing You’ve Ever Done / The Way We Were /All in Love Is Fair / What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? / Summer Me, Winter Me / Pieces of Dreams / I’ve Never Been a Woman Before / Medley: My Buddy/ How About Me
March 16, 1974
2 weeks
Following the success of People, Barbra Streisand had to wait nearly a decade until her next chart-topper. Streisand remained on a hot streak in the two years immediately after People, as her next four albums made the top five. Yet during the period from 1967 to 1974, 1971’s Stoney End was the only one out of dozen Streisand albums to crack the top 10.
Although The Way We Were was released in conjunction with the film of the same name (which starred the singer/actress and Robert Redford), it was not a soundtrack album. The soundtrack, which was also titled The Way We Were and included the title track, peaked at number 20.
Pianist/composer Marvin Hamlisch co-wrote the theme song with the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman. “I loved the film and it spoke to my strength as a songwriter, which is love songs,” says Hamlisch. “And, I was thrilled to work with the Bergmans.” Although Streisand didn’t receive a songwriting credit, she too had suggestions. It was her idea to replace the original opening lyric, “Daydreams,” with the word “Memories,” which was originally only included in the final verse. “She was very helpful,” Hamlisch adds. “She knew what was good for her and her voice. It was a wonderful collaboration.”
With the single and film complete, it was hastily decided that a Streisand album, in addition to the film soundtrack, should be released in conjunction with the film. Blue Thumb Records co-founder Tommy LiPuma was called in to put together the album.
“Basically what we did was take ‘The Way We Were’ and several things that had not been released on an album, like ‘Summer Me, Winter Me’ and a few other Alan and Marilyn Bergman tunes,” LiPuma says. He also recorded three new tracks with Streisand — cover versions of Carole King’s “Being at War with Each Other,” Paul Simon’s “Something So Right,” and Stevie Wonder’s “All in Love Is Fair.”
Says LiPuma, “The challenge for me was to get the tracks that I wasn’t involved in and remix them to make everything sound uniform.” Yet that was not an easy task. “A million multi-tracks came over to me and there were no ledgers, so I had no idea which vocal was used,” he says. LiPuma had to listen to the two-track recordings and compare them to the multi-tracks to figure out what was the final vocal. “It was a nightmare putting the thing together,” he says, “because there were numerous performances. I had to listen to all of them to find the right take.”
The new recordings with Streisand, however, were a breeze. “She’s such a pro,” LiPuma says. “All of the things that I did were live performances with the orchestra. She just got up and knocked them over.” The new material was recorded in a single day. “Ultimately, I spent more time on the things that I didn’t produce than I did on the new material,” LiPuma says.
On February 2, 1974, “The Way We Were” became Streisand’s first Number One single. Six weeks later, she scored her second Number One album when The Way We Were hit the peak in its fifth week on the Top LP’s & Tapes chart. The song also went on to win a Grammy and an Oscar for songwriters Hamlisch and Alan and Marilyn Bergman.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of March 16, 1974
1. The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand
2. Court and Spark, Joni Mitchell
3. Planet Waves, Bob Dylan
4. Greatest Hits, John Denver
5. Hot Cakes, Carly Simon