Product Description:
Personnel: Barbra Streisand (vocals); Dick Hazard (conductor); Hugh McCracken (acoustic & electric guitar); John Uribe, Louie Shelton, Mike Deasy, Eric Weissberg (guitar); Gene Cipriano (clarinet, oboe); Bobby Keyes, Jim Price (horns); Richard Perry (piano, pipe organ, percussion, tambourine); Nick DeCaro, Larry Muhoberac, Mike Rubini, Lincoln Mayorga (piano); Billy Preston, Donald Fagen (organ); Joe Osborn, Larry Knechtel (bass); Jim Gordon, Hal Blaine, Jim Keltner (drums); Clydie King, Venetta Fields, Oma Drake, Shirley Mathews (background vocals).
Fanny: June Millington (acoustic & electric guitar, background vocals); Nickey Barclay (piano, background vocals); Jean Millington (bass, background vocals); Alice de Buhr (drums, percussion, background vocals).
The follow-up to STONEY END took the intrepid singer further into mainstream pop territory. The great songwriters of the past, such as Jerome Kern and the Gershwins, are conspicuously absent, and standing in their place are Carole King and John Lennon, representatives of a new generation. Despite, however, the presence of songs like the mildly R&B-flavored "Where You Lead" and the Donald Fagen-Walter Becker composition "I Mean To Shine," Streisand still has one foot, even if partially, planted on old-fashioned ground.
"I Never Meant To Hurt You" is a torch song with piano and orchestra, but it was written by Laura Nyro, not by Harold Arlen. Her most daring choices of material on this album are "Love" and "Mother," both from John Lennon's austere PLASTIC ONO BAND album. "Love" is nicely filled out with Gene Cipriano's clarinet and oboe, providing counterpoint to the delicate vocal line. "Mother," featuring Billy Preston on the organ, finishes with Streisand belting out soaring, gospel-like figures in place of Lennon's primal screams. Other highlights include soulful versions of Buddy Johnson's "Since I Fell For You" and Carole King's "You've Got A Friend."
