One of the rare artists that is loved by both fans and critics alike is next. She also happens to be one of the biggest entertainment legends in history. Barbara was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her father died just fifteen months after her birth and the family fell into near-poverty. Streisand gave a solo performance at age seven at the Jewish Orthodox Yeshiva of Brooklyn. She was in the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club at Erasmus Hall High School.
Barbara sang in night clubs in her teens, but also aspired to be an actress and sang in several Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood in 1959. Streisand first performed regularly at The Lion in Greenwich Village in 1960, and she changed her name to Barbra during this period. Streisand also sang at the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel.
Barbra appeared on The Tonight Show, with Orson Bean substituting for Jack Paar on that night. She also was a semi-regular on PM East/PM West, a talk/variety series on CBS.
In 1962, Streisand made her Broadway debut in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. In 1963, she released The Barbra Streisand Album that year, and during this time hired Lee Solters and Sheldon Roskin, who became her long-time publicists. People were already aware of her voice, and even though it contained no hits, the album still shot up to #8 on the Album chart and went Gold.
The Barbra Streisand Album contained a version of "Cry Me a River" and a slow-tempo version of "Happy Days Are Here Again" (which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Record of the Year). Streisand won Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal Performance for her debut album. Later in the year, Barbra released The Second Barbra Streisand Album, which also went Gold, and reached #2, again without any hits.
Streisand released The Third Album in 1964, again mostly a collection of standards. This LP peaked at #5 and went Gold.
In 1964, Streisand starred as Fanny Brice in the Broadway play Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The play was an immediate hit, and Streisand appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The Original Cast Recording went to #2 on the Album chart and sold over 500,000 copies.
She reprised her role in Funny Girl when the play opened in London at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Barbra released the title song, which reached #6 on the Adult chart. Streisand released the album My Name Is Barbra in 1965, her fifth consecutive Gold album, which won her the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Album of the Year. It featured music from Streisand's Emmy-winning first television special on CBS (Outstanding Program Achievement in Entertainment and Outstanding Individual Achievement by an Actor or Performer). Streisand hosted her first four television specials from 1965-1967.
Streisand released the albums Color Me Barbra (nominee for Best Female Vocal Performance at the Grammys) and Je m'appelle Barbra, reaching #3 and #5, respectively, and becoming the seventh and eighth albums of her career to go Gold.
In 1975, Streisand won the People's Choice Award as Favorite Female Singer of the Year. Streisand then
An album Streisand recorded in 1973 with Claus Ogerman and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra was released in 1976. Titled Classical Barbra, Streisand sang six different languages on the album, thrilling fans around the world and scoring yet another Gold album, which earned Barbra a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance.
Streisand earned her sixth Best Actress nomination from the Golden Globe Awards for her role in the movie Funny Lady, the sequel to the one that started it all off for her in 1968, Funny Girl.
Streisand won an Oscar for Best Original Song for "Evergreen", an award she also captured at the Golden Globe Awards. Streisand was named Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) at the Golden Globes for her role in A Star Is Born. The movie also won the Golden Globe as the Henrietta World Film Favorite.
"Evergreen" earned the prestigious Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Streisand won again for Singing Star of the Year and for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance. "Evergreen" was also nominated for Record of the Year and Best Original Score-Motion Picture or Television Special, and is a solid member of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*. The soundtrack album has now sold over five million copies and was #1 in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and New Zealand.
Streisand included the song "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" on her next album Songbird. Neil Diamond also chose the same song to include on his 1978 album You Don't Bring Me Flowers. Gary Guthrie, producer at WAKY-AM in Louisville, Kentucky, mixed the two versions in the studio and had it played on the air. Listeners went crazy trying to find the song to buy. Of course, it didn't exist. But Guthrie did have friends with connections to Columbia Records, and coincidentally, both Streisand and Diamond were under contract with Columbia. If that were not true, one of the great duets of all-time may not have happened.
Streisand and Diamond were nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance--Duo, Group, or Chorus, and Barbra earned another nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance for the song.
Streisand was nominated for Favorite Female Pop/Rock Artist at the American Music Awards. Later in the year, Barbra took part in another historic duet, joining The #11 Female Artist of the Rock Era*, Donna Summer, for the song "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)". The superstar combination went to #1 in the United States, #2 in Canada, #3 in the U.K. and #7 in Ireland. The single sold over two million copies.
As the decade ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer of all-time--only Elvis Presley and the Beatles had sold more records at the time. In 1980, Streisand asked red-hot songwriter and producer Barry Gibb to work with her, and she released the album of her career.
Barbra won an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. Gibb and Streisand combined for another huge hit--"What Kind of Fool". It was a #1 Adult smash and a much underrated #10 overall.
Streisand dominated an annual People magazine poll, winning Favorite Female Vocalist every year from 1980-1983 and again in 1986.
In 1984, Streisand received the Women in Film Crystal Award for "outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry." Barbra donated the Emanuel Streisand Building for Jewish Studies to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in memory of her father, a scholar and educator who died when Barbra was young.
Streisand won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance for the album, and she was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal (for "Being Alive"), plus she won the Favorite All-Around Female Entertainer Award at the People's Choice Awards. Another great song on the album is Barbra's remake of "Send in the Clowns".
In 1986, Streisand received the ASCAP Songwriter's Award as a writer of "Evergreen" for "composing one of the most-performed Pop Standards of the previous decade (1976-1985).
Streisand released the live album One Voice in 1986. Twenty-three years after she started, Barbra still could place an album in the Top 10--it landed at #9. Barbra earned Grammy nominations for Best Pop Vocal Female Performance and Best Music Video Performance.
In 1987, Streisand starred in the movie Nuts, which earned her two additional Golden Globe nominations: Best Motion Picture (Drama) and Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama).
Streisand earned a Grammy nomination for "Warm All Over" for Best Traditional Pop Vocal. Barbra recorded a song from the runaway all-time Broadway musical, Phantom of the Opera. She delivers the song in the way only she can on "All I Ask of You".
Barbra was once again named Favorite Female Vocalist in a poll of People magazine readers in 1989 and 1990, the seventh and eighth times she had earned that distinction. And this at a time when artists like Madonna and Janet Jackson were churning out hits.
In the early 90's, Barbra concentrated on directing movies, and she did almost no recording or performances. She released the four-disc box set, Just for the Record, in 1991, and it sold over two million copies.
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, wrote that Streisand "enjoys a cultural status that only one other American entertainer, Frank Sinatra, has achieved in the last half century. Another great song in the album is "Some Enchanted Evening".
Both duets with Dion and Adams earned Barbra Grammy nominations in 1997 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
In 1998, she married actor James Brolin. She then recorded an album of love songs--A Love Like Ours. The following year, Streisand was the winner in a Reuters/Zogby poll to determine the century's best female singer. Streisand toured again, selling out once again in the first few hours. A two-disc live album of the concerts in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, was released in 2000.
In 1999, Streisand released the album Timeless-Live In Concert, which gave her a 34th Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. At the end of the decade, Streisand was the only female artist with two #1 albums in the 1960's, the 70's, the 80's and the 90's.
In 2006, Streisand recorded the song "Smile" with Tony Bennett included on Bennett's 80th birthday album Duets. Barbra's 20-concert tour that year set box-office records. She grossed over $92 million and set house records in 14 of the 16 arenas played on the tour.
A collection of performances from the tour was released as the album Live in Concert 2006, which debuted at #7 on the Album chart, giving Streisand 29 Top 10 albums in her meteoric career. The album was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the Grammy Awards. Barbra followed that by touring Europe for the first time in 2007.
In 2007, Barbra was given a flattering show of respect by a foreign country when France made her an officer in their Legion of Honour. In 2008, Barbra was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors, and her classic song "The Way We Were" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The following year, she released the album Love is the Answer, produced by jazz great Diana Krall. The album debuted at #1, making Streisand the only artist in history to achieve #1 albums in five different decades. Streisand received her 39th career Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
In 2010, Streisand lent her voice to the charity single "We Are the World 25 for Haiti". She reprised her role in Little Fockers, the third movie in the Meet the Parents trilogy. In 2011, MusiCares recognized Barbra as its Person of the Year. In 2012, Streisand starred in the movie The Guilt Trip.
The Streisand Foundation, established in 1986, has contributed over $16 million in nearly 1,000 grants to national organizations. In 2009, Barbra gifted $5 million to endow the Barbra Streisand Women's cardiovascular Research and Education Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Women's Heart Center. Parade magazine ranked Streisand as the third most generous celebrity in its list of celebrities who made the largest charitable donations.
Streisand released the album What Matters Most in 2011, and it earned her a 40th Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Streisand received an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2013. She also received the Charles Chaplin lifetime achievement award from the Film Society of Lincoln Center as the only female who directed, wrote, produced and starred in the same major studio film (Yentl).
As an entertainer on Broadway, in the theatre, and on albums, Streisand is almost unmatched. When one stops to think about her body of work that she's done in her lifetime, it's mind boggling to ponder how she could do so much, and do it all at a high level.
Streisand holds the all-time record for the most Top 10 albums by a female with 32. She also has the widest span in music history (49 years) between her first Top 10 album (The Barbra Streisand Album in 1963) and her last (Release Me in 2012). She has no less than 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States, a phenomenal record of quality and longevity.
Barbra's Love is the Answer album in 2009 put her in rare company: Streisand tied the Beatles for third place in music history with 30 Top 10 albums, behind only the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra. She is far and away the female artist with the most Top 10 career albums, and holds the female record for the most #1 albums (nine).
Streisand also owns the record for the longest span between number one albums (45 years, from 1964-2009). Number two on that list pales by comparison--Madonna has 23 years between her first #1 album in 1985 and her last in 2008.
Streisand has won eight Grammy Awards, two Academy Awards, five Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. She was the first person in history to win a Grammy, an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony. Barbra has sold over 71.5 million albums in the United States and 145 million around the globe to rank as one of the best-selling female artists of all-time. In fact, Streisand ranks as the #9 recording artist in history based on sales in the United States, as certified by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The Beatles are the runaway #1 on that list with 177 million albums. Elvis Presley is in second with 129.5 million, with Garth Brooks close behind at 128. Led Zeppelin is fourth (111.5) with the Eagles at an even 100 million albums sold. Billy Joel (79.5 million units sold), Pink Floyd (74.5) and Elton John (72) are the only other superstars ahead of Streisand, with AC/DC (71 million) in 10th place.
By the way, we hinted earlier that #5 Aretha Franklin and #4 Streisand are very close in total points used to rank these artists. We also want to point out that neither is anywhere near #3. The difference between #1 and #2 is huge, as is the gap between #2 and 3, and between #3 and #4. Thus, while everyone has their own personal favorite, the fact is that The Top 3 Female Artists of the Rock Era* are just that, The Top 3 Female Artists from 1955-2013, and it isn't close.
Streisand has recorded 44 hits, with 12 reaching the Top 10 and five #1 smashes. But it is on the Adult chart (which focuses on the majority of Rock listeners) where she has sparkled--55 career hits, with a whopping 35 Top 10's and seven number one songs.
And to think, Barbra has achieved that phenomenal body of work in music while focusing just as much if not more of her time on her movies. Where would Barbra rank if she only recorded music for the last 51 years?
Barbara sang in night clubs in her teens, but also aspired to be an actress and sang in several Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood in 1959. Streisand first performed regularly at The Lion in Greenwich Village in 1960, and she changed her name to Barbra during this period. Streisand also sang at the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel.
Barbra appeared on The Tonight Show, with Orson Bean substituting for Jack Paar on that night. She also was a semi-regular on PM East/PM West, a talk/variety series on CBS.
In 1962, Streisand made her Broadway debut in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. In 1963, she released The Barbra Streisand Album that year, and during this time hired Lee Solters and Sheldon Roskin, who became her long-time publicists. People were already aware of her voice, and even though it contained no hits, the album still shot up to #8 on the Album chart and went Gold.
The Barbra Streisand Album contained a version of "Cry Me a River" and a slow-tempo version of "Happy Days Are Here Again" (which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Record of the Year). Streisand won Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal Performance for her debut album. Later in the year, Barbra released The Second Barbra Streisand Album, which also went Gold, and reached #2, again without any hits.
Streisand released The Third Album in 1964, again mostly a collection of standards. This LP peaked at #5 and went Gold.
In 1964, Streisand starred as Fanny Brice in the Broadway play Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The play was an immediate hit, and Streisand appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The Original Cast Recording went to #2 on the Album chart and sold over 500,000 copies.
With the incredible reaction Barbra had received, it was time for a single, and Streisand recorded one of the songs from Funny Girl, "People". The song reached #1 on the Easy Listening chart and #5 overall in a chart dominated by the Beatles and other acts from the British Invasion. The smash hit took the album People to #1 and gave Streisand her first Platinum certification. Streisand won the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance, and she was nominated for Album of the Year and Record of the Year (for "People").
She reprised her role in Funny Girl when the play opened in London at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Barbra released the title song, which reached #6 on the Adult chart. Streisand released the album My Name Is Barbra in 1965, her fifth consecutive Gold album, which won her the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Album of the Year. It featured music from Streisand's Emmy-winning first television special on CBS (Outstanding Program Achievement in Entertainment and Outstanding Individual Achievement by an Actor or Performer). Streisand hosted her first four television specials from 1965-1967.
The second album of music from that special was released as My Name Is Barbra, Two. Both albums from the special reached #2 on the Album chart and sold at least 500,000 copies, with the latter reaching Platinum status. Streisand's cover of "He Touched Me" was a huge hit on the Easy Listening chart, reaching #2.
Streisand released the albums Color Me Barbra (nominee for Best Female Vocal Performance at the Grammys) and Je m'appelle Barbra, reaching #3 and #5, respectively, and becoming the seventh and eighth albums of her career to go Gold.
Simply Streisand, in 1967, continued the streak, and A Christmas Album has now sold over five million copies. Streisand's Christmas album contains her version of "The Lord's Prayer", which has since become a classic.
Streisand's A Christmas Album is just behind Celine Dion's These Are Special Times, as the #1 Female Christmas Album of the Rock Era*. At last count, Celine's had sold 5,000,022 copies while Streisand was certified by the RIAA at exactly five million. The only other Christmas releases ahead of those two are Elvis' Christmas Album by Elvis Presley (12 million sold), Miracles: The Holiday Album by Kenny G (7 million), and two albums by Mannheim Steamroller--Fresh Aire Christmas and Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, each with six million copies sold.
In 1968, Streisand starred with Omar Sharif in the film version of Funny Girl. It too was a huge hit and the soundtrack album went Platinum. Six years into her career, and Streisand had already totaled eleven Grammy nominations, earning another one for the Soundtrack for Best Contemporary-Pop Vocal Performance. Barbra shared the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter), and won it outright in the Golden Globe Awards.
Barbra continued to pursue her rising movie career, starring in Hello, Dolly! in 1969, winning the Henrietta World Film Favorite Award and adding another Best Actress nomination at the Golden Globes. Streisand then starred in On a Clear Day you Can See Forever and The Owl and the Pussycat (with third Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress--Comedy or Musical) in 1970.
She did all this while continuing to record. Beginning with the album What About Today? in 1969, Streisand began introducing more contemporary material, but her first attempt was also her first album that was not certified Gold. Barbra did win Entertainer of the Year at the Grammy Awards.
Barbra's version of the Laura Nyro song "Stoney End" became her second big hit. The title song from her 1971 album hit #2 on the Adult chart and #6 overall in the United States and #5 in Canada.
Streisand continued to score well with adults that year with two more Nyro compositions--"Time and Love" (#3) and "Flim Flam Man" (#7), and she hit #3 on the Adult chart with "Where You Lead". The latter, along with its flip side, "Sweet Inspiration", earned Streisand a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, and the won her sixth Grammy as the Singing Star of the Year. Kids, meanwhile, had yet to realize how great she was. But they soon would.
The album Barbra Joan Streisand later in the year went Gold. Obviously, Streisand had a huge, dedicated fan base, but her popularity was about to explode. In 1972, Barbra starred in the great comedy What's Up, Doc? with Ryan O'Neal. Together with Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and later Steve McQueen, Streisand formed First Artists Production Company, so actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves. Barbra's first such project was Up the Sandbox in 1972. Streisand also set up her own movie production company, Barwood Films, in 1972.
In 1974, Streisand starred in the movie The Way We Were with Robert Redford, and was nominated again for Best Actress, both at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Streisand again won the special Henrietta World Film Favorite at the Golden Globes.
Her theme song to that movie took the world by storm, reaching #1 in both the U.S. (for three weeks) and Canada, with both the single and the soundtrack selling over two million copies, and taking the album to #1 as well. The song was one of the biggest hits of 1974 and is also one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.
In 1975, Streisand won the People's Choice Award as Favorite Female Singer of the Year. Streisand then
starred in the movie For Pete's Sake. The albums ButterFly and Lazy Afternoon both went Gold, giving Barbra an amazing catalog of 15 Gold albums thus far in her career. And in many ways, she was just getting started.
An album Streisand recorded in 1973 with Claus Ogerman and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra was released in 1976. Titled Classical Barbra, Streisand sang six different languages on the album, thrilling fans around the world and scoring yet another Gold album, which earned Barbra a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance.
Streisand earned her sixth Best Actress nomination from the Golden Globe Awards for her role in the movie Funny Lady, the sequel to the one that started it all off for her in 1968, Funny Girl.
Barbra was in the Top 10 Box Office Attractions list ten out of twelve years from 1969-1980. Another movie gave Streisand her second #1 song and another of her biggest career hits. She starred in A Star is Born, and the theme to that film, "Evergreen", topped charts in the United States and Canada, and was #3 in the U.K. and #4 in Ireland. "Evergreen" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song from a Motion Picture.
Streisand won an Oscar for Best Original Song for "Evergreen", an award she also captured at the Golden Globe Awards. Streisand was named Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) at the Golden Globes for her role in A Star Is Born. The movie also won the Golden Globe as the Henrietta World Film Favorite.
"Evergreen" earned the prestigious Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Streisand won again for Singing Star of the Year and for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance. "Evergreen" was also nominated for Record of the Year and Best Original Score-Motion Picture or Television Special, and is a solid member of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*. The soundtrack album has now sold over five million copies and was #1 in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and New Zealand.
Barbra released the album Streisand Superman in 1977, and the single "My Heart Belongs to Me" helped the LP go Double Platinum and reach #3 on the Album chart. "My Heart Belongs to Me" was a #1 smash on the Adult chart and #4 overall in the United States and #3 in Canada.
In 1978, Barbra released the album Songbird. The title track reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #25 overall, and helped the album sell over one million copies.
Streisand included the song "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" on her next album Songbird. Neil Diamond also chose the same song to include on his 1978 album You Don't Bring Me Flowers. Gary Guthrie, producer at WAKY-AM in Louisville, Kentucky, mixed the two versions in the studio and had it played on the air. Listeners went crazy trying to find the song to buy. Of course, it didn't exist. But Guthrie did have friends with connections to Columbia Records, and coincidentally, both Streisand and Diamond were under contract with Columbia. If that were not true, one of the great duets of all-time may not have happened.
But Columbia welcomed the project, and Barbra and Neil both wholeheartedly agreed to record the duet together. The song rocketed up to #1 in a matter of a few weeks, became one of the biggest hits of the year, and is now firmly entrenched as one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*. It reached #1 in both the U.S. and Canada, was #5 in the U.K., sold over two million copies, and helped Songbird go Platinum and Diamond's album go Double Platinum.
Streisand and Diamond were nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance--Duo, Group, or Chorus, and Barbra earned another nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance for the song.
Streisand starred in another huge movie, The Main Event, in 1979, which yielded another big hit for her. The title song hit #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #3 overall in the United States and #5 in Canada, sold over one million copies, and helped the soundtrack album go Gold as well.
Streisand was nominated for Favorite Female Pop/Rock Artist at the American Music Awards. Later in the year, Barbra took part in another historic duet, joining The #11 Female Artist of the Rock Era*, Donna Summer, for the song "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)". The superstar combination went to #1 in the United States, #2 in Canada, #3 in the U.K. and #7 in Ireland. The single sold over two million copies.
Streisand set a Rock Era record at the time for
the longest-held note in a #1 or Top 10 song, holding the note “tears” in “No
More Tears” for 16.3 seconds.
Streisand released "Kiss Me In The Rain" next, included on her album Wet, which peaked at #9 on the AC chart. Wet also went Platinum. At this point in her career, Streisand's albums had earned 27 Gold certifications and 13 of them had gone Platinum.
As the decade ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer of all-time--only Elvis Presley and the Beatles had sold more records at the time. In 1980, Streisand asked red-hot songwriter and producer Barry Gibb to work with her, and she released the album of her career.
Guilty yielded four major hits, beginning with the single "Woman in Love". That went to #1 in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Ireland, and reached the Top 10 in nearly every major country in the world. "Woman in Love", which sold over two million copies, is one of four Streisand songs solidly in The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.
Streisand was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards. The title track, sung with Gibb, gave the pair a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance--Duo, Group, or Chorus. It was a #3 smash, #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart (Streisand's fifth consecutive Top 10), and sold over one million copies.
Barbra won an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. Gibb and Streisand combined for another huge hit--"What Kind of Fool". It was a #1 Adult smash and a much underrated #10 overall.
Another song from the album, "Promises", was a #8 Adult Contemporary hit, but only #48 overall, making it easily one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.
Guilty was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards and has sold over five million copies to date. Streisand also won the AGVA Singing Star of the Year Award for her work in 1980. The Platinum album Emotion yielded this #8 hit with Kim Carnes--"Make No Mistake, He's Mine".
In 1982, Barbra released her compilation album Memories. Streisand scored a #2 Adult smash (#11 overall) with "Comin' In and Out of Your Life".
Streisand dominated an annual People magazine poll, winning Favorite Female Vocalist every year from 1980-1983 and again in 1986.
Next, the gifted, multi-talented Streisand concentrated on producing movies. She accomplished the rare feat of writing, producing, directing, and starring in the 1983 movie Yentyl, which received five Academy Award nominations. Streisand received Golden Globe Awards for Best Director and Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical), and she was nominated for Best Actress (Comedy or Musical). Barbra also recorded songs for the Soundtrack, and released "The Way He Makes Me Feel" as a single. It rose to #1 on the AC chart.
In 1984, Streisand received the Women in Film Crystal Award for "outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry." Barbra donated the Emanuel Streisand Building for Jewish Studies to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in memory of her father, a scholar and educator who died when Barbra was young.
In 1985, Streisand returned to the music that launched her as a star with The Broadway Album in 1985. The album raced to #1 on the Album chart for three weeks and has now sold four million copies. Barbra's version of the West Side Story standard "Somewhere" made it to #5 on the AC chart.
Streisand won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance for the album, and she was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal (for "Being Alive"), plus she won the Favorite All-Around Female Entertainer Award at the People's Choice Awards. Another great song on the album is Barbra's remake of "Send in the Clowns".
In 1986, Streisand received the ASCAP Songwriter's Award as a writer of "Evergreen" for "composing one of the most-performed Pop Standards of the previous decade (1976-1985).
Streisand released the live album One Voice in 1986. Twenty-three years after she started, Barbra still could place an album in the Top 10--it landed at #9. Barbra earned Grammy nominations for Best Pop Vocal Female Performance and Best Music Video Performance.
In 1987, Streisand starred in the movie Nuts, which earned her two additional Golden Globe nominations: Best Motion Picture (Drama) and Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama).
In 1988, Streisand won something no one else in The Top 100 Female Artists* can claim. She was recognized as the Favorite All-Time Musical Performer at the 1988 People's Choice Awards. Streisand again topped the People magazine poll as the Favorite Female Vocalist. Streisand released the album Till I Loved You, yet another Platinum certification. The title song with Don Johnson gave Barbra a #3 Adult smash.
Streisand earned a Grammy nomination for "Warm All Over" for Best Traditional Pop Vocal. Barbra recorded a song from the runaway all-time Broadway musical, Phantom of the Opera. She delivers the song in the way only she can on "All I Ask of You".
Barbra was once again named Favorite Female Vocalist in a poll of People magazine readers in 1989 and 1990, the seventh and eighth times she had earned that distinction. And this at a time when artists like Madonna and Janet Jackson were churning out hits.
In the early 90's, Barbra concentrated on directing movies, and she did almost no recording or performances. She released the four-disc box set, Just for the Record, in 1991, and it sold over two million copies.
She also produced, directed and starred in The Prince of Tides in 1991 (nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture).
In 1993, Streisand returned with the album Back to Broadway, which debuted at #1 on the Album chart, unseating Janet Jackson's Janet from the top spot. has now sold over two million copies. Barbra was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards for her second Broadway covers album.
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, wrote that Streisand "enjoys a cultural status that only one other American entertainer, Frank Sinatra, has achieved in the last half century. Another great song in the album is "Some Enchanted Evening".
In September of 1993, Streisand announced her first public concert appearances in 27 years. What began as a two-night New Year's appearance at the MGM Grand Las Vegas led to a multi-city tour in 1994. Tickets to the entire tour were sold out in less than one hour. Streisand appeared on the covers of several major magazines in advance of what Time magazine called "The Musical Event of the Century".
Tickets ranged from $50 to $1,500 U.S. dollars, making Streisand the highest-paid concert performer in history. The tour was the #1-grossing series of performances of the year and earned five Emmy Awards and the Peabody Award. The taped broadcast on HBO is the highest-rated concert special in the 30-year history of HBO. The album Barbra: The Concert won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special and Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the Grammys, and "Ordinary Miracles" was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
In 1992, Streisand received the Grammy Legend Award in recognition of her incredible career.
Streisand received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a special Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award from ASCAP in 1994, and received an Honorary Doctorate in Arts and Humanities by Brandeis University in 1995. In 1996, Barbra starred in the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces, which yielded this big duet with Bryan Adams, a #2 Adult smash and #8 overall in the United States, #10 in the U.K. and #1 in Ireland. It sold over one million copies, Streisand's eighth Gold single, and was nominated for Best Original Song at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.
Barbra also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, her ninth such nomination. In 1997, Streisand released the album Higher Ground, and once again, it debuted at #1. Barbra has sung with some of the all-time greats, and in 1997, she joined with The #10 Female Artist of the Rock Era*, Celine Dion for the single "Tell Him", included on Celine's album Let's Talk About Love. It reached #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart, #3 in the U.K., #12 in Canada and #2 in Ireland.
Both duets with Dion and Adams earned Barbra Grammy nominations in 1997 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
In 1998, she married actor James Brolin. She then recorded an album of love songs--A Love Like Ours. The following year, Streisand was the winner in a Reuters/Zogby poll to determine the century's best female singer. Streisand toured again, selling out once again in the first few hours. A two-disc live album of the concerts in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, was released in 2000.
In 1999, Streisand released the album Timeless-Live In Concert, which gave her a 34th Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. At the end of the decade, Streisand was the only female artist with two #1 albums in the 1960's, the 70's, the 80's and the 90's.
In 2000, Barbra received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement, and she was also honored with the National Medal of Arts. She released the album Christmas Memories in 2001, which was also nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the Grammys, and Guilty Pleasures, (a collaboration with Barry Gibb that was the sequel to their 1980 album Guilty), in 2005. The Movie Album (in 2003) also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional pop Vocal Album.
In 2004, the albums Funny Girl and The Barbra Streisand Album were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Streisand returned to acting after an eight-year absence, in the comedy Meet the Fockers, starring opposite Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, and Ben Stiller.
In 2006, Streisand recorded the song "Smile" with Tony Bennett included on Bennett's 80th birthday album Duets. Barbra's 20-concert tour that year set box-office records. She grossed over $92 million and set house records in 14 of the 16 arenas played on the tour.
A collection of performances from the tour was released as the album Live in Concert 2006, which debuted at #7 on the Album chart, giving Streisand 29 Top 10 albums in her meteoric career. The album was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the Grammy Awards. Barbra followed that by touring Europe for the first time in 2007.
In 2007, Barbra was given a flattering show of respect by a foreign country when France made her an officer in their Legion of Honour. In 2008, Barbra was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors, and her classic song "The Way We Were" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The following year, she released the album Love is the Answer, produced by jazz great Diana Krall. The album debuted at #1, making Streisand the only artist in history to achieve #1 albums in five different decades. Streisand received her 39th career Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
In 2010, Streisand lent her voice to the charity single "We Are the World 25 for Haiti". She reprised her role in Little Fockers, the third movie in the Meet the Parents trilogy. In 2011, MusiCares recognized Barbra as its Person of the Year. In 2012, Streisand starred in the movie The Guilt Trip.
The Streisand Foundation, established in 1986, has contributed over $16 million in nearly 1,000 grants to national organizations. In 2009, Barbra gifted $5 million to endow the Barbra Streisand Women's cardiovascular Research and Education Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Women's Heart Center. Parade magazine ranked Streisand as the third most generous celebrity in its list of celebrities who made the largest charitable donations.
Streisand released the album What Matters Most in 2011, and it earned her a 40th Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Streisand received an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2013. She also received the Charles Chaplin lifetime achievement award from the Film Society of Lincoln Center as the only female who directed, wrote, produced and starred in the same major studio film (Yentl).
As an entertainer on Broadway, in the theatre, and on albums, Streisand is almost unmatched. When one stops to think about her body of work that she's done in her lifetime, it's mind boggling to ponder how she could do so much, and do it all at a high level.
Streisand holds the all-time record for the most Top 10 albums by a female with 32. She also has the widest span in music history (49 years) between her first Top 10 album (The Barbra Streisand Album in 1963) and her last (Release Me in 2012). She has no less than 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States, a phenomenal record of quality and longevity.
Barbra's Love is the Answer album in 2009 put her in rare company: Streisand tied the Beatles for third place in music history with 30 Top 10 albums, behind only the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra. She is far and away the female artist with the most Top 10 career albums, and holds the female record for the most #1 albums (nine).
Streisand also owns the record for the longest span between number one albums (45 years, from 1964-2009). Number two on that list pales by comparison--Madonna has 23 years between her first #1 album in 1985 and her last in 2008.
Streisand has won eight Grammy Awards, two Academy Awards, five Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. She was the first person in history to win a Grammy, an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony. Barbra has sold over 71.5 million albums in the United States and 145 million around the globe to rank as one of the best-selling female artists of all-time. In fact, Streisand ranks as the #9 recording artist in history based on sales in the United States, as certified by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The Beatles are the runaway #1 on that list with 177 million albums. Elvis Presley is in second with 129.5 million, with Garth Brooks close behind at 128. Led Zeppelin is fourth (111.5) with the Eagles at an even 100 million albums sold. Billy Joel (79.5 million units sold), Pink Floyd (74.5) and Elton John (72) are the only other superstars ahead of Streisand, with AC/DC (71 million) in 10th place.
By the way, we hinted earlier that #5 Aretha Franklin and #4 Streisand are very close in total points used to rank these artists. We also want to point out that neither is anywhere near #3. The difference between #1 and #2 is huge, as is the gap between #2 and 3, and between #3 and #4. Thus, while everyone has their own personal favorite, the fact is that The Top 3 Female Artists of the Rock Era* are just that, The Top 3 Female Artists from 1955-2013, and it isn't close.
Streisand has recorded 44 hits, with 12 reaching the Top 10 and five #1 smashes. But it is on the Adult chart (which focuses on the majority of Rock listeners) where she has sparkled--55 career hits, with a whopping 35 Top 10's and seven number one songs.
And to think, Barbra has achieved that phenomenal body of work in music while focusing just as much if not more of her time on her movies. Where would Barbra rank if she only recorded music for the last 51 years?
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