More Barbra Streisand

• Streisand’s 1964 release eturns to the site with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last
• These 360 Label stereo originals are the only way to hear the Tubey Magic and space that is all over the original master tape
• Frank Laico engineered at Columbia’s legendary 30th street studios – you can easily imagine how good the sound is
• Ms Streisand sings a wonderful batch of standards on this one: My Melancholy Baby, Just In Time, It Had To Be You, As Time Goes By and 6 more

We loved the mono of Babs’ first album in the past [not so much now] but the mono for this title left us cold, as did the later reissues, so what we are offering here are great sounding stereo pressings on the 360 label.

This vintage 360 Stereo pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern pressings barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back.

Having done this for so long, we understand and appreciate that rich, full, solid, Tubey Magical sound is key to the presentation of this primarily vocal music. We rate these qualities higher than others we might be listening for (e.g., bass definition, soundstage, depth, etc.). The music is not so much about the details in the recording, but rather in trying to recreate a solid, palpable, real Barbra Streisand singing live in your listening room. The best copies have an uncanny way of doing just that.

If you exclusively play modern repressings of older recordings (this one is now 55 years old), I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but less than one out of 100 new records do, if our experience with the hundreds we’ve played can serve as a guide.

What the best sides of The Third Album have to offer is not hard to hear:

• The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
• The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1964
• Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
• Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
• Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional space of the studio

No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.

What We’re Listening For on The Third Album

• Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
• The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
• Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness common to most LPs.
• Tight, note-like bass with clear fingering — which ties in with good transient information, as well as the issue of frequency extension further down.
• Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the players.
• Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, way behind the speakers. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would have put them.
• Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.

TRACK LISTING

Side One

My Melancholy Baby
Just In Time
Taking A Chance On Love
Bewitched (Bothered And Bewildered)
Never Will I Marry

Side Two

As Time Goes By
Draw Me A Circle
It Had To Be You
Make Believe
I Had Myself A True Love

Original Liner Notes

The first time I saw Barbra I was with my collaborator, Jimmy Van Heusen, at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Barbra came out on stage to open the show—the dinner show! She slowly walked to the microphone, facing a very typical dinner-type audience. In defiance of all the rules, she went into her opening number, “When the Sun Comes Out”—a ballad instead of the traditional up-tempo opener—as unlikely a number as ever began a show. I was just getting over the shock of it when I noticed, to my amazement, that everyone had stopped eating.

Even more amazing, the waiters had stopped serving. It was all Barbra Streisand, and Barbra Streisand had them all. I have only known one or two people in all of show business who had this power with an audience. I never waited to see who closed the show, but rushed backstage and fell in love!

What I adore about this or the other Barbra Streisand albums is that the magic of that first meeting is captured and held in every song. If you have ever seen Barbra, you will understand. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

Sammy Cahn