I'm not a big Barbra Streisand fan. Most of her recordings lean heavy into the faux emotion of Broadway and cabaret with little or no swing or soul. But when Streisand aces a song, the sound of her voice is so instrumental, like a viola or cello, that the notes land on your heart. It can't be helped. For me, she has always been much more impressive visually than on vinyl.
So imagine my surprise when I came across a TV special of Streisand in Central Park in 1967 that I'm about to show you. She was all of 25 years old at the time, a superstar and the envy of her generation, before rock and soul stars came to dominate the musical landscape and shoved soundtrack pop out of the way.
As I recall, the park then wasn't the sterling, cultivated work of natural beauty it is today. Back then, the flora wasn't well attended to and the look and feel were a bit shaggy and coarse. Of course, Central Park's condition would really take a nosedive in the 1970s, during New York's fiscal crisis. So in retrospect, 1967 wasn't so bad.
Streisand's concert took place on the evening of Saturday, June 17, 1967 and was broadcast on CBS in 1968. The concert would become the basis of her first live album. Between 125,000 and 150,000 people crowded into Sheep Meadow and were in awe, when they weren't applauding and cheering. She sang 28 songs in all for 2 1/2 hours, with a brief intermission, backed by an orchestra directed by Mort Lindsey. A number of the songs were dropped for the TV special and album. [Photo above of Barbra Streisand courtesy of YouTube]
Her first dress was by Irene Sharaff, who designed the costumes for Broadway's Funny Girl. She copied an original burgundy Mariano Fortuny Streisand had in her collection, but in pink. Fortuny was a designer who lived in Venice in the early 1900s. The second gown, in red, was by Donald Brooks. [Photo above of Barbra Streisand courtesy of YouTube]
But the evening wasn't without drama. Streisand ran into an awful problem: She forgot the words to When the Sun Comes Out, the final song before the intermission.
"There were no teleprompters to rescue me back then," she writes in her new memoir, My Name Is Barbra (Viking). "I went blank, and I was not charming or funny about it. It was my worst nightmare come true, and it was happening in front of 150,000 people. It really threw me ... I felt an absolute lack of control ... and it was terrifying. I didn’t perform in a live concert setting again for 27 years."
The TV special edited out When the Sun Comes Out. Watching her in action, she's clearly nervous when not singing, resulting in runaway narcissism, painfully unfunny and long-winded remarks, and gleeful self-aggrandizement. Yet Streisand the singer in 1967 was an artistic marvel—her poise, her maturity, her discipline and her self confidence not to mention her tone, all of which were rare for female artists in their 20s then.
The Central Park gig was also one of the first large outdoor concerts headlined by a single pop artist who had to hold the attention of a massive audience, and she managed to do it all with her voice, despite every performer's most feared moment on stage—when your memory fails you. Watch and see what you think:
Here's Barbra Streisand: A Happening in Central Park...
For more on the concert and a full playlist of songs, go here.
