Track Listing

1. Cry Me a River
2. My Honey's Lovin' Arms
3. I'll Tell the Man in the Street
4. Taste of Honey
5. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
6. Soon It's Gonna Rain
7. Happy Days Are Here Again
8. Keepin' Out of Mischief Now
9. Much More
10. Come to the Supermarket in Old Peking
11. Sleepin' Bee

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #146272 in Music
• Released on: 1993-10-19
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com essential recording
Barbra Streisand seemed an "overnight" superstar when she released this debut LP in 1963; two weeks after its release, Streisand was America's best-selling female singer. Within several months, Funny Girl would debut on Broadway... and the rest, as they say, is history. The truth, however, is that Streisand was already a singing sensation in Greenwich Village clubs like Bon Soir and the Blue Angel. Most of the material on this Grammy winner (for Album of the Year) comes from that club act--part of her deal with Columbia was total control over song choices--and it reveals a singer who wasn't about to kowtow to the rock & roll craze; instead, the early Streisand concentrated on standards... and, well, just about anything. The selections range from "A Taste of Honey" to the beautiful "Soon It's Gonna Rain" from The Fantasticks to a song from Disney's Three Little Pigs. It took guts to open with "Cry Me a River," a song already owned by another torch singer (Julie London)--but if the LP proved anything, it was that this Brooklyn gal sure could sing, a fact driven home by her mournful-yet-glorious take on "Happy Days Are Here Again," which soon became a pop standard classic recording of its own. --Bill Holdship

Customer Reviews

Amazing debut
Nothing here needs to be said about Barbra's voice everyone knows its one of the most astounding instruments in the world. Whats unique about this CD is that a: its her debut and b: its one of the few times in her career when Barbra didnt attempt to micromanage every aspect of the recording process. As she would later do with Guilty, Barbra simply sings the songs and allows the music to work with her instead of dominating the music. Its thrilling and refreshing all at once. There are a few kooky cuts like Peking, and Wolf, but even those are merely part of the Streisand mystique. Besides her absolutely melting versions of songs like "soon its gonna rain" and "sleepin bee" more than forgive a little kookiness here and there. this album is a piece of musical history not to be ignored

The First Album Actually Was The Second
The cover actually is the cover to Barbra Streisand's first album, recorded at the Bon Soir. The photo was taken there. But the album inside was actually the second album, recorded in the studio, and released as the first album. Overnight the entertainment world changed. Everyone knew the greatest star of the second half of the century had arrived. She has a voice and style unlike any other, highly original and impeccable choice of music and she clearly was a perfectionist (actually she's said since she'd love to record the album again and get it right). A brilliant tour de force, gorgeous and moving and funny and startling, bristling with a talent so bright and so shining you'd think she never could top this premiere effort. The fact she has topped it again and again and again and again is an astounding as this astounding achievement.

Stellar debut
I find it sad, reading the reviews on line of Barbra's albums that many of her fans find it necessary to divide themselves into camps: "60's Barbra fans" "Pop Barbra" "Rock Barbra" etc. I can listen to this and then jump to The Broadway Album (not a huge leap), spin some tracks off Emotion or Till I Loved You or Guilty. The voice is the thing with Streisand. This insane voice, which at this early stage was so powerful and pure, with that magnificent Broadway soprano on top. People complain of this album at the whimsical "Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" but what I think this shows - along with Come to the Supermaket and Adelaid's Lament off The Broadway Album is that Barbra is the finest ever (bar none) singer of comedy songs. That she pulls off the juxtaposition with the melting "A Sleeping Bee" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain" and the tortured "Cry Me A River" is testament to her artistry. Truly a fully formed singing actress at the age of 20. Breathtaking. The last in the royal line of great singers of the 20th Century - Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Dean Martin (yes, I do include him on this list - just listen to his SLEEP WARM album!), Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, and a few others from before but none since Barbra can seriously be added to the list.