Barbra Streisand - The Essential Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand's bravado made her one of the 1960s' overnight sensations. This 40-cut compendium traces her recording career from early tracks that frequently relay her subtlety to often impressive accommodations with soft rock and still later vibrato-fests that find her taxing the limits of performer's ego and listeners' ears. The narrative is one of direct, sometimes showy, emotion giving way to empty displays of technique. By 1983's icky anthem "A Piece of Sky," Streisand has plowed under the light touches of "Lover, Come Back to Me" and the triumphal Central Park version of "Happy Days Are Here Again." Where she produced schlock masterworks when teamed with Neil Diamond ("You Don't Bring Me Flowers") and Donna Summer ("Enough Is Enough") in the '70s, a diva summit with Celine Dion led to the car wreck of 1997's "Tell Him." Essential wraps up with previously unreleased takes of "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "You'll Never Walk Alone." --Rickey Wright Amazon.com

Barbra Streisand: Truely Essential

Listening to Barbra Streisand's voice it's no mystery why she has sold millions of cd's according to the Recording Industry (RIAA) and Nielsen SoundScan. Included in this set is her last Top Ten Hit on "The Billboard Hot 100", "I Finally Found Someone" a duet with Bryan Adams (from her movie "The Mirror Has Two Faces") She's won multiple Grammy's and an Academy Award for her music, multiple Emmy's for her various television work (and her February 14, 2001 Fox/TV concert special had 8.7 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research) She won an Academy Award for her role in the movie "Funny Girl" (tied with Katharine Hepburn) and received a Tony for her Broadway work. She's also well known for her political work, including her support of Hillary Clinton for President, Hillary Clinton went on to receive more votes than any other Presidential primary candidate in history. August 6, 2008

What a Voice!!!

For anyone out there who's a Barbra Streisand fan, this 2-set CD is a must-have! I may not necessarily agree w/ Barbra's political views, but I certainly love her voice and acting abilities.

I believe Barbra Streisand is a musical icon, and all should know who she is. This album is a masterpiece of all her greats, and I was especially happy to know that two of the Yentl songs were on this album. What a great movie that was!

You'll love this CD-set! Enjoy!

Debbie March 30, 2008

Beautiful voice

I love this album. It is one of my favorites. The disco type song "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" with Donna Summer is a great 70s one. "The Way We Were" is a great slow song from 70s. Check out "Woman in Love" which is my favorite song by her. It is really just an amazing love song. "Memory" which is from the musical CATS she really sings well. A lot of other songs on here that are really good. She has such a great voice any song she sings sounds great. Sample them all. A great purchase. January 31, 2008

Dont miss this...

The ESSENTIAL is the part not to miss... If you are a Barbra Streisand fan, and/or music collector, this one CD has it all! You can't miss with her standards, and more contemporary hits all on two outstanding CD's.
It's like butta ! November 28, 2007

not enough hits

Even as a fan of Barbra, I think there are only on few songs on these two cd's that I look forward to hearing. Those are really good, but the others are just mediocre, songs I have never heard before. But the price is right. November 2, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...