Je m’appelle Barbra (1966)
Catalog Number(s):
- CS 9347 (1966 LP)
- CK 9347 (CD)
Tracks
- Free Again
- Autumn Leaves
- What Now, My Love?
- Ma Premiere Chanson
- Clopin Clopant
- Le Mur
- I Wish You Love
- Speak to Me of Love
- Love and Learn
- Once Upon a Summertime
- Martina
- I've Been Here
About the Album
Je m'appelle Barbra's producer Ettore Stratta recalled, “I was producing recordings by American artists singing in foreign language for the foreign markets. And it came the idea that we would do an EP— four songs— with Barbra in French. And then the project developed to such a point that she was so pleased, and of course she had just met Michel [Legrand] and fell in love with him — with his music, with his arranging and everything — that we extended the project and we made a whole LP.”
The songs “Non c'est rien”, “Les Enfants Qui Pleurent”, “Et La Mer”, and “Le mur” were released on a European EP album called Barbra Streisand En Français in July 1966.
Another song from the sessions, “Look,” was the b-side of Barbra's “Stout-Hearted Men” 7-inch single in June 1967.
Michel Legrand elaborated on the genesis of the project: “I met Barbra at night after a performance of Funny Girl. She had a little piano, you know, in her dressing room. Every night we worked after her performance, you know until four or five in the morning in her dressing room. Sometimes she’s impossible, very demanding. But when she fights it’s always for the good. When she’s at home with people of her — not caliber or stature but attitude — she’s a little girl.”
Streisand remembered, fondly, “The Je m’appelle Barbra album — oh, I love that because I had written my first song called ‘Ma Premiere Chanson’ and since I was working with them for my French album Je m’appelle Barbra, Eddie Marnay, a dear, dear person—he was doing the lyrics — so I asked him to write a lyric to my melody.”
Album Cover Outtakes
Richard Avedon shot the cover photo for Je m’appelle Barbra. Two photos from Avedon's sitting with Streisand appeared earlier in the December 1965 issue of Harper's Bazaar.
End.
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