WIWS Banner

The Second Disc

Expanded and Remastered Music News

  • Home
  • News
    • Classic Rock
    • Rock
    • Pop
    • Jazz
    • Popular Standards/Vocal
    • R&B/Soul
    • Country
    • Folk
    • Cast Recordings
    • Soundtracks
    • Everything Else
      • Classical/Opera
      • Disco/Dance
      • Funk
      • Gospel
      • Rap/Hip-Hop
  • Features
    • Release Round-Up
    • Giveaways!
    • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Classic Rock
    • Rock
    • Pop
    • Jazz
    • Popular Standards/Vocal
    • R&B/Soul
    • Country
    • Folk
    • Cast Recordings
    • Soundtracks
    • Everything Else
      • Classical/Opera
      • Disco/Dance
      • Funk
      • Gospel
      • Rap/Hip-Hop
  • Release Calendar
    • Coming Soon
    • Now Available
  • About
  • Second Disc Records
    • Full Catalog
  • Contact

/ News

Right as the Rain: Barbra Streisand's "Live at the Bon Soir" Arrives in November

September 23, 2022 By Joe Marchese 11 Comments

Barbra Streisand Live at the Bon Soir

BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

Barbra Streisand first took the stage of New York's tiny Bon Soir on September 9, 1960.  The eighteen-year-old singer appeared third on a bill after house band The Three Flames and comic duo Tony and Eddie, and before closing act Phyllis Diller.  The groundbreaking comedienne later recalled her first encounter with Streisand: "We shared a dressing room at the Bon Soir...It was the size of a peapod and usually you could smell fear in there. But she wasn't a bit nervous - at least not that I noticed. I admit, I was unimpressed when I first met her. She was so young. She said hello, and that was it. She told me her shoes were antique and they cost her 35 cents. But then she went out and did her numbers and when she hit about the third note, every hair on my body stood up. It was unbelievable. She opened with 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,' and I thought, 'Oh, my God, what a fabulous choice.'  She also sang Harold Arlen's 'A Sleepin' Bee,' which really showed off that voice. It was scary. I knew she was going places."

Diller's instinct was correct; within two years, Streisand had taken Broadway by storm as Miss Marmelstein in Jerome Weidman and Harold Rome's musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale and earned a contract with Columbia Records.  Following her initial September 9-November 20, 1960 engagement at The Bon Soir, she would return for three more stints at the club.  Her fourth and final run there (October 23-November 18, 1962) took place while she was performing nightly in Wholesale; she was, naturally, the headliner.  She would hail a cab following the Broadway performance and travel downtown to the Bon Soir stage where Bye Bye Birdie's original Conrad Birdie, Dick Gautier; Dane and Mason; and The Three Flames preceded her on the bill.  Columbia recorded three shows (November 4, 5, and 6 per Legacy's press release; November 5, 6, and 7 has long been understood) for a live album which would be her first LP for the label.  Variety reported, "Miss Streisand's stint is well worth preserving and the LP should serve as an excellent launching pad for her new career as a Columbia discer."

Ultimately, the decision was made to shelve the Bon Soir tapes in favor of a studio album recorded in January 1963.  (Every song on The Barbra Streisand Album had been sung at the Bon Soir.)  A few songs from the live shows trickled out on Streisand's 1991 box set Just for The Record... and now, over three decades after that seminal anthology, Columbia Records will celebrate 60 years of Streisand's remarkable affiliation with the label with the first official release of Live at the Bon Soir.  It's due on November 4 in multiple formats including:

  • Standard CD and digital release from Columbia/Legacy;
  • Hybrid stereo SACD (playable on all CD players) from Impex Records; and
  • 180-gram black vinyl LP from Impex Records.

Live at the Bon Soir features the near-two dozen songs recorded on those nights in November 1962 as newly mixed from the original multitrack tapes.  Streisand was supported by the quartet of Tiger Haynes on guitar, Avril Pollard on bass, John Cressi on drums, and Peter Daniels on piano.  (Haynes and Pollard were part of the Bon Soir "house band," The Three Flames.)  When Streisand revisited her repertoire in the studio, orchestrator Peter Matz beefed up the arrangements with brass and strings, but Columbia's budget meant that he would still be arranging for relatively small combos rather than a full orchestra. The Bon Soir recordings reveal Streisand's artistry at its most intimate, with the four musicians gracefully supporting but never overpowering her singular voice and style.

Her transformative powers were obvious as she reinterpreted an eclectic set of songs, making them her own.  They were of varying vintages, from recent (Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's "Much More" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain" from The Fantasticks (1960), Cole Porter's "Come to the Supermarket in Old Peking" (1958) from the television musical Aladdin) to decades-old (Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Lover, Come Back to Me" (1928), Milton Ager and Jack Yellen's "Happy Days Are Here Again" (1929), Rodgers and Hart's "Bewitched" (1940) and "Nobody's Heart" (1943)).  But all were rendered in a commanding, confident, and personal style informed by an actor's instinct and brought to life in a rapturous tone.  Streisand balanced showtunes with pop ("A Taste of Honey," "Cry Me a River"), art songs (Leonard Bernstein's "My Name Is Barbara" and "I Hate Music"), and art-songs-as-showtunes (Harold Arlen and Truman Capote's beguiling "A Sleepin' Bee" from their musical House of Flowers).  The likes of Frank Churchill and Ann Ronell's 1933 "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" and Fats Waller and Andy Razaf's "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now" showcased the young vocalist's playful side.  No one had heard a singer like this.

The 2022 mixes have been supervised by Barbra and engineer Jochem van der Saag and sourced from the original master tapes engineered by Roy Halee (Simon and Garfunkel) and Ad "Pappy" Theroux.  Jay Landers provides liner notes for all formats including track-by-track descriptions and Streisand also offers her commentary.  She writes, in part, "I had never even been in a nightclub until I sang in one. I sang two songs in a talent contest at a little club called The Lion and won, which led to being hired at a more sophisticated supper club around the corner called the Bon Soir, with an actual stage and a spotlight. The buzz that began at the Bon Soir led to a contract with Columbia Records in 1962, the start of a long association that continues to this day. The initial plan for my first album was to record it at the club, and these early tapes have been sleeping in my vault for six decades. I'm delighted to finally bring them out into the light and share what could have been my debut album, Live at the Bon Soir."

The Impex vinyl edition will be housed in a tip-on gatefold jacket and includes a 12-page booklet while the hybrid stereo SACD is housed in a hardcover book-style package with 32 pages of notes, photographs, and more.

"Cry Me a River" from Live at the Bon Soir is currently streaming at YouTube and other streaming services.  The full album arrives from Columbia/Legacy and Impex Records on November 4. You'll find pre-order links and the complete track listing below!

Barbra Streisand, Live at the Bon Soir: Greenwich Village, November 1962 (Columbia/Legacy, 2022)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
SACD / LP: Impex Records

  1. Introduction by David Kapralik (Columbia Records) / My Name Is Barbara
  2. Much More
  3. Napoleon
  4. I Hate Music
  5. Right As The Rain
  6. Cry Me A River
  7. Value
  8. Lover, Come Back To Me
  9. Band Introductions
  10. Soon It's Gonna Rain
  11. Come To The Supermarket (In Old Peking)
  12. When The Sun Comes Out
  13. Happy Days Are Here Again
  14. Keepin' Out Of Mischief Now
  15. A Sleepin' Bee
  16. I Had Myself A True Love
  17. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
  18. Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?
  19. I'll Tell The Man In The Street
  20. A Taste Of Honey
  21. Never Will I Marry
  22. Nobody's Heart Belongs To Me
  23. My Honey's Lovin' Arms
  24. I Stayed Too Long At The Fair

Categories: News Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Barbra Streisand

Avatar photo

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

Connect With Joe: FacebookTwitter

You Might Also Like

  • gold cd2The Year In Review: The 2022 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z - Part Two
  • Barbra Streisand Live at the Bon SoirRelease Round-Up: Week of November 4
  • Summer of SoulRelease Round-Up: Week of January 28
  • I Can Get It For You Wholesale OBCBallad of the Garment Trade: Stage Door Expands Streisand Debut "I Can Get It For You Wholesale"

Comments

  1. Paul M. Mock says

    September 23, 2022 at 1:22 pm

    I've been an on-again/off-again...mostly off-again fan of Babs for some time. Bought every album thru the 80's and then she eventually fell out of my "favor". However, I just ADORED the cuts from the Bon Soir on the box set. It's Barbra before she became much larger-than-life in all ways.

    I am thrilled beyond words that this nightclub performance is seeing the light of day in it's entirety. I have pre-ordered the CD and LP's. It may just bring me back into listening to her catalog once again.

    As always, thanks for the great review, Joe!

    Reply
  2. Dave says

    September 23, 2022 at 2:00 pm

    When my uncle passed in 2012, I inherited (among other things) his complete (to that point) Streisand collection. It included a bootleg of the Bon Soir. It’ll be nice to finally have an “official” copy… and I’m sure the sound quality will be better too.

    Reply
  3. joel says

    September 23, 2022 at 2:17 pm

    yay!!! what a great write up...looking forward to hearing the entire set...I also remember the few songs on the box set, and loved them...thanks for the info

    Reply
  4. Mark H. says

    September 23, 2022 at 4:38 pm

    Others of her early live recordings were released a couple of years ago on a Jasmine PD release, but those are from 1961-62. So I am really looking forward to this!

    Reply
    • Mark H. says

      September 23, 2022 at 4:46 pm

      Whoops! Mis-read the article. These are from 1962. Oh, well. Probably better sound quality.

      Reply
  5. Michael B says

    September 23, 2022 at 4:39 pm

    I've had the bootleg copy of the Bon Soir performances for years. I'm assuming these official recordings will be the same ones but with the highest available quality. It will be nice to have the official release of these shows.

    Reply
  6. Gerbrand says

    September 24, 2022 at 1:42 am

    Just for the record was over thirty years ago, not twenty. Oh, how time flies. Still waiting for a proper follow-up, an anthology, expanded reissues and/or a complete remastered albums collection which Columbia has done so well for other artists (Dylan, Cash, Davis).

    Reply
  7. David Olstein says

    September 24, 2022 at 7:12 am

    Here's hoping that we'll get more 60th anniversary releases of Barbara's live performances from the 1960s, before she quit touring. And let's hope that Babs will finally acknowledge her residencies in Las Vegas between 1969 and 1972 and release the audio and video recordings of those performances that she has in her vaults.

    Reply
  8. GenEarly says

    September 25, 2022 at 4:20 am

    Great

    Reply
  9. Mark I says

    September 29, 2022 at 9:28 pm

    Very happy to see a best-of the three recorded Bon Soir nights being released this year. Can you find out whether the 32-page booklet advertised as part of the SACD package will also be included with the standard CD release?

    Reply
    • Avatar photoJoe Marchese says

      September 29, 2022 at 9:36 pm

      Hi Mark! It appears that Jay Landers' liner notes and Barbra's introduction will be included in all formats; I will try to find out whether the notes are configured identically in the standard CD and the Impex SACD.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Upcoming Releases

  • Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon SDE
    The Dark Side of the Moon / Live at Wembley 1974
    Pink Floyd
    March 24, 2023
  • Nancy and Lee Again
    Nancy and Lee Again [Various Formats]
    Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood
    March 24, 2023
  • Honky Chateau
    Honky Château (50th Anniversary Edition)
    Elton John
    March 24, 2023
See Full Calendar

Connect

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 4,573 other subscribers

Popular

  • Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane OJC
    In Your Own Sweet Way: Craft Announces Original Jazz Classics Relaunch with Miles Davis, Monk and Coltrane posted on March 16, 2023 | under News
  • Rick Springfield Springfield
    Call the Fire Brigade: Iconoclassic Premieres Rick Springfield's Lost 1974 Album "Springfield" in Expanded Edition posted on March 20, 2023 | under News
  • Talking Heads Stop Making Sense Deluxe 2LP
    What a Day That Was: Talking Heads' 'Stop Making Sense' Expanded for Vinyl, Film Reissue posted on March 17, 2023 | under News

Comments

  • small faces here come the nice2
    Return To Itchycoo Park: Small Faces' "Here Come The Nice" Deluxe Box Set Arrives In January [UPDATED 12/3] 84 comments | by Joe Marchese | posted on December 3, 2013 | under News
  • the beatles u s albums box2
    British Invasion! The Beatles Unveil "The U.S. Albums" Box Set in January 69 comments | by Joe Marchese | posted on December 12, 2013 | under News
  • Rolling Stones in Mono
    Out of Their Heads: Stones Plan Mono Box Set 47 comments | by Mike Duquette | posted on August 10, 2016 | under News

Music Resources

  • Addicted to Vinyl
  • Crap from the Past
  • Discogs
  • Film Score Monthly
  • IMWAN Forum – From the Vaults
  • MusicTAP
  • Musoscribe
  • Pause & Play
  • Popblerd
  • Popdose
  • Record Racks
  • Slicing Up Eyeballs
  • Steve Hoffman Music Forums
  • Ultimate Classic Rock
  • Vintage Vinyl News
  • Viva La Mainstream
  • Wolfgang's Vault

Labels of Note

  • Ace Records
  • Analog Spark
  • Bear Family
  • BGO Records
  • Big Break Records
  • Blixa Sounds
  • Cherry Red Label Group
  • Craft Recordings
  • Demon Music Group
  • Friday Music
  • Funky Town Grooves
  • Iconoclassic Records
  • Intervention Records
  • Intrada
  • Kritzerland
  • La La Land Records
  • Legacy Recordings
  • Light in the Attic
  • Masterworks Broadway
  • Now Sounds
  • Omnivore Recordings
  • Real Gone Music
  • Resonance Records
  • Rhino Entertainment
  • Rock Candy Records
  • SoulMusic Records
  • Sunset Blvd. Records
  • Supermegabot
  • Varese Sarabande
  • Vinyl Me, Please
  • Wounded Bird
Copyright © 2023 The Second Disc. All rights reserved. · Site by Metaglyphics

The Second Disc is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk.

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy