It should come as no surprise that Barbra Streisand has dedicated her newest studio album to the lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Streisand began her association with the husband-and-wife lyricist team in 1969, recording their "Ask Yourself Why," with music by Michel Legrand, on What About Today?, her very first stab at the contemporary pop market. (She actually had recorded one Alan Bergman/Lew Spence song, "That Face," as part of a medley on 1966's Color Me Barbra.) Though Streisand would
The late Arthur Laurents wrote many of the most beloved musicals and films in entertainment history including West Side Story, Gypsy, The Way We Were and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope. He passed away on May 5, but today’s special Back Tracks celebrates this great writer’s legacy in music. “If you have a good strong finish, they’ll forgive anything!” So implores stage mother Madame Rose to her daughter Louise, the future Gypsy Rose Lee, in the 1959 musical Gypsy. Rose’s bon mot was one of many