Barbra Streisand has the number one album in Australia for the third time and for the first time in two years with ‘Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway’.
Australia has given the 74-year old legend Barbra Streisand her third album after fans were previewed with a strategically orchestrated exposure to the story. That story began to impact with the carefully programmed series of videos uploaded to Barbra’s YouTube site detailing the story behind each of the songs.
Denis Handlin, Chairman & CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Australia tells Noise11.com, “Barbra Streisand has one of the greatest voices of all time. She has been an incomparable recording artist on Columbia Records for more than 50 years and her latest album “Encore – Movie Partners sing Broadway” proves she is still at the top of her game. We are very proud of Barbra and the Number 1 Aria Chart Debut this week in Australia”.
The ‘Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway’ story started two months ago with ‘At The Ballet’ (from A Chorus Line), the song featuring Anne Hathaway and Daisy Ridley. “I wanted to work with some women on this album and I thought, well, give them a little character, have them act scenes. So I had to have good actresses who can sing,” Barbra told us in the early stages of the album release.
As the album grew, so did the cast. Australia’s Hugh Jackman got “the call”. “Any moment now was the first song I chose for this album,” Barbra said. “As an actress, I like to sing something to act. This song was written for a couple who were not communicating. It was written for a play called ‘Smile’ . Marvin Hamlisch wrote the music and he was my dear friend. I heard the song and thought this is a way for me to use actors who act and sing with Broadway material. The first person I thought of was Hugh Jackman”.
“When I got the email about it I literally stared at my phone”, Hugh said. “My wife, who is the biggest Barbra Streisand fan thought something was wrong. I said ‘read this’. She read it and she screamed”.
Barbra Streisand is the only artist in the world to have a number one album for six decades in a row in the USA.
Her first US number one album was with her fourth album ‘People’.
US No 1 Albums
1964 – People
1974 – The Way We Were
1980 – Guilty
1985 – The Broadway Album
1993 – Back To Broadway
1997 – Higher Ground
2009 – Love Is The Answer
2014 – Partners
‘Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway’ is her third number one in Australia after having achieved her first with Australian collaborator Barry Gibb on ‘Guilty’.
Australian No 1 Albums
1980 – Guilty
2014 – Partners
2016 – Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway
Australia gave Barbra Streisand her first hit album outside the USA in 1963 with her debut album ‘The Barbra Streisand Album’. The album out-charted the USA peaking at no 6 in Australia and no 8 in the USA. They were the only two countries the album was a success.
Australia and America kept Barbra to themselves for her first five albums. 1965’s ‘My Name Is Barbra, Two’ impacted into the UK at no 6 then 1966’s ‘Color Me Barbra’ expanded the fan base to Germany and Norway. For a lot of the world, Barbra Streisand was known mainly for her movies until “Guilty” broke her in a major way worldwide as a recording star and the album went on to be one of the biggest albums of her career.
Australian Top 10 Albums
1963 – The Barbra Streisand Album (no 6)
1965 – My Name In Barbra, Two (no 5)
1966 – Color Me Barbra (no 5)
1974 – The Way We Were (no 10)
1979 – Wet (no 7)
1980 – Guilty (no 1)
1985 – The Broadway (no 8)
1993 – Back To Broadway (no 3)
2014 – Partners (no 1)
2016 – Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway (no 1)
Even Canada was late to recognize Barbra Streisand as a singer until her 11th album ‘What About Today?’ in 1969. That album, featuring three Beatles songs, is considered her first contemporary recording.
‘Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway’ is the 35th Barbra Streisand album.
Track Listing
At The Ballet – with Anne Hathaway & Daisy Ridley (from A Chorus Line)
Loving You – with Patrick Wilson (from Passion)
Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me) – with Anthony Newley (from The Road of The Greasepaint, The Smell Of The Crowd)
Any Moment Now – with Hugh Jackman (from Smile)
I Didn’t Know What Time It Was (from Too Many Girls)
The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened – with Alec Baldwin (from Road Show)
Not A Day Goes By (from Merrily We Roll Along)
Anything You Can Do – with Melissa McCarthy (from Annie Get Your Gun)
Fifty Percent (from Ballroom)
I’ll Be Seeing You/I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face – with Chris Pine (from Right This Way / My Fair Lady)
Losing My Mind (from Follies)
Pure Imagination – with Seth MacFarlane (from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory)
Take Me To the World – with Antonio Banderas (from Evening Primrose)
Climb Ev’ry Mountain – with Jamie Foxx (from The Sound Of Music)
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