Barbra Streisand's 25 greatest songs

Streisand had a significant adult contemporary hit with her rendition of the classic number from “West Side Story”. Previously performed as a duet, Streisand seizes control of the song from the very start, and belts out a solo that highlights all of her considerable vocal gifts. Thirty years on, her version has unseated both the original Broadway recording and the film variation as the definitive performance of the song. She later recorded a duet with Josh Groban.

Streisand at the height of her popularity and powers. Her masterpiece collaboration with songwriter Marvin Hamlisch is a melancholy ballad of remembrance that crescendos to a defiant finale; it’s not the pain and heartbreak that she’ll hold onto, but the laughter and the good times. And yet the minor-key composition of the song tells a different tale; what’s “too painful to remember” is precisely what’s fueling the song. The film, co-starring Robert Redford, was a huge hit, but the song won the Oscar glory.

Written by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, this is a ludicrously sentimental love song that gave Streisand her first major hit (topping out at number five on the Billboard Hot 100). It was always intended to be featured in the musical “Funny Girl”, but the producers were not fans and fought to keep it out of the show. Streisand knew better and busted it out during a preview; the audience went nuts, and the song was in.

An addition to the film version of “Funny Girl”, this Fanny Brice hit was a triumph for Streisand in the context of the movie, but it wound up being a much bigger success for Diana Ross in 1972 when it was included in her Billie Holiday biopic, “Lady Sings the Blues”. The song has been covered many times over by artists as varied as Etta James and Lea Michele, but it’s hard to top Streisand’s version – unless you’re Diana Ross playing Billie Holiday.

“Lawd, You Made the Night Too Long” is a standard that’s been performed by Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and The Boswell Sisters, and it was evidently ripe for parody in 1940 when Milton Berle wrote “Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long”. It’s a goof in which the singer upbraids their tailor for having misjudged the length of their trousers, and it’s a blast in Streisand’s hands. She can definitely have fun, but this kind of zaniness augured well for Streisand’s screwball turn in Peter Bogdanovich’s “What’s Up, Doc?”

The late, great Laura Nyro composed this jazzy little ditty in 1968 for “The Mod Squad” star Peggy Lipton, but it didn’t breakthrough to the mainstream until Streisand covered it in 1970. She’s backed by a tremendous band led by Randy Newman on piano, and it was this group that helped Streisand prove her bona fides as a pop star. She could swing and keep it buoyant. Other artists took a crack at this number, but only Nyro could match Streisand’s rendition.

Stevie Wonder’s tortured ballad from his Grammy-winning masterpiece “Innervisions” (1973) proved a perfect fit for Ms. Streisand, who makes the song her own with unique phrasing and clear personal investment. For an artist primarily associated with show tunes, Babs pours a shocking amount of soul into this performance; it makes you wish she would’ve stretched like this more often.

The hit ballad from Streisand’s middling remake of “A Star Is Born”. Paul Williams was one of the most sought-after songwriters during the 1970s, and he delivered a beauty for Streisand (he liked it so much, he included it on his 1977 LP “Classics”). The movie was the culmination of Streisand’s tempestuous relationship with producer Jon Peters, and it’s a wildly self-indulgent work. Fortunately, Streisand was at the top of her game in the recording studio; her songs rescued this otherwise unsightly endeavor.

A mildly successful song off of the LP of the same title, “Songbird” is a perfectly nice ballad that finds Streisand on familiar vocal ground. It was a huge hit on the adult contemporary chart, but it was completely out of step with the pop music sensibility of the day. Streisand’s career is curious in this way; she had made great strides into the pop/rock world earlier in the ‘70s, but, aside from “Guilty” (her blockbuster collaboration with Barry Gibb), she seemed all too eager to go back to familiar territory.

The theme to Irwin Kershner’s underrated thriller “Eyes of Laura Mars” has the rock-and-roll charge that “Songbird” lacks, which is why it’s the more memorable song from that period. Jon Peters produced the film, so it was a huge boon to the marketing of the movie to land a single from one of the most popular recording artists alive. This is a particular favorite of Streisand’s diehard fans.

An accidental smash hit. Neil Diamond wrote and recorded this song in 1977 for his LP “I’m Glad You’re Here with Me Tonight”, and Streisand covered it the following year. Then a heartbroken deejay spliced the two renditions together, triggering a media sensation that necessitated a proper duet between Streisand and Diamond. They complied, and the rest is history. There have been many covers over the years, but none better than Ice-T and Tupac Shakur giving it their all on “Saturday Night Live” in 1996.

It seems like every major recording artist was obligated to lay down a disco track in the late 1970s, and Streisand did her pop cultural duty with this booty-shaking duet with Donna Summer. It’s not a great song, but the pairing of these pop divas proved sufficient to get club-goers on the dance floor, and to power the single to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Amazingly, there was no diva drama behind the scenes; the two remained good friends until Summer's death in 2012.

One of Streisand’s biggest hits was written by the hit-making duo of Barry and Robin Gibb, and it was impossible to turn on the radio without hearing it in the early 1980s. The song sounds like it belongs on the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, which is a high compliment given its seismic impact on the culture. She hasn’t had a platinum single since, which is more reflective of her shifting creative priorities than a willingness to remain relevant as a recording artist.

Streisand’s directorial debut, “Yentl” brought her a different kind of critical acclaim, earning a number of Academy Award nominations and a win for Best Adaptation Score. It’s an earnest, beautifully composed melody from the great Michel Legrand, and it’s the kind of thing that leaves itself wide open to parody. But that just makes you want to defend it all the more. Streisand can get maudlin and self-serious, but you can’t hear this song and not feel her passion for the story.

Barbra Streisand should’ve recorded way more with Jim Steinman in the 1980s. His songwriting style fell out of fashion somewhere around the release of “Streets of Fire” in 1984, but if he could propel Bonnie Tyler to a number one hit with “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, imagine what he could’ve done with Streisand. “Left in the Dark” is a crazy, overblown power ballad in the Steinman mold, and Streisand nails it. The genre isn’t that far off from her Broadway roots. She could’ve revitalized her career on material like this.

The obligatory single that accompanied Streisand’s third directorial effort, “The Mirror Has Two Faces” is fine. A duet with Bryan Adams, who was something of a movie soundtrack good luck charm during the ‘90s (see “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and “The Three Musketeers”), it’s got just enough of the old Marvin Hamlisch magic to be worthy of Streisand’s time and talent.

There was drama at the 1997 Academy Awards when Streisand took a bathroom break during Celine Dion’s performance of “I Finally Found Someone”, but they worked hard to squash that media-concocted beef with this Linda Thompson-composed single composed for white people of a certain age. The only downside to the song is that Streisand exposes Dion as more of a vocal acrobat than a belter. Streisand takes over early and outclasses her diva partner.

Streisand takes on a moldy standard, and gives it a little life with the help of Michael Buble. This is the most recent single released by Streisand, and it hit in 2014 (as a highlight of her “Partners” LP); it seems like she’s beginning to hit that Sinatra stage where a great entertainer trots out the old favorites and coasts on their reputation. If this is the case, it’s well deserved. She’s still a pleasure to listen to, and hasn’t lost her gift for phrasing.

This is a skillfully warbled rendition of the most tuneful song from Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music”. Released as a single from Streisand’s “The Broadway Album”, it’s gorgeously arranged and impeccably performed. You think you never need to hear another rendition of this song, and then Streisand comes along and finds a unique interpretation.

The title track from her Barry Gibb LP, Streisand and Gibb go toe-to-toe and the latter gets buried by one of the greatest vocal talents of the twentieth century. Even though Streisand had one of her biggest hits with Gibb, she really didn’t sound at home with his songwriting style. The album overall isn’t one of her best, but she’s deep in the groove on this song.

Streisand working within the disco genre in support of her dreadful big-screen reunion with her “What’s Up, Doc?” co-star Ryan O’Neal. Unlike her performance in the film, she’s game and having fun with the song, which never got a major promotional push for reasons relating to the quality of the movie. The song was still a hit on Streisand’s name alone, and it’s nice to hear her cutting loose.

Written by Alan Gordon, this song had a shot at making the “A Star Is Born” soundtrack, but was rejected for dubious reasons. It was a major hit for Streisand, connecting with mainstream audiences and her adult contemporary base, but, again, the problem with Streisand’s ‘70s output is that she seemed a decade late with her sound and sensibility. But she was born a warbler. 

The song that helped get Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected president gave young Ms. Streisand (only twenty years old at the time) her very first commercially released single. She initially performed the raucous, uptempo ditty in the form of a parody for “The Garry Moore Show”, but, removed from that context, her rendition is lush and expressive – nothing funny about it.

An interesting companion piece to “Papa, Can You Hear Me” that was recorded seven years earlier with “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” composer Rupert Holmes. It wasn’t a smash hit for Streisand (it only made it to number eleven on the adult contemporary chart), but it’s a lovely tribute to her dad, who raised her after her biological father died suddenly when she was still an infant. 

Nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar alongside “Papa, Can You Hear Me”, this “Yentl” ballad is a Michel Legrand classic. Alas, Streisand split the vote with her two nominations, thus allowing “Flashdance… What a Feeling” to take home the gold trophy. This was by far the biggest hit from the “Yentl” soundtrack, hitting number one on the adult contemporary chart (which Streisand has seemingly dominated for the last six decades), and performed well on Billboard’s Hot 100.