Happy Days Are Here Again Barbra Streisand Happy Days Are Here Again Artist

"Happy Days Are Hither Again"

Equanimous by Milton Ager (music) and Jack Yellin (lyric); bundled by George "The Fox" Williams.

Recorded by Barbra Streisand for Columbia Records in October of 1962 in New York.

The story: Barbra Streisand was built-in in Brooklyn, New York on April 24, 1942. Brooklyn remained a part of her personality long after she left it, first to enter show business concern in Manhattan, and and so to become onto an enormously successful career as a singer, actress and movie-maker. Growing up in Brooklyn, she learned the quick reactions one has to have to exist successful onstage. Despite the fact that she possesses a voice that comes forth very rarely, and amazing musical instincts that she seems to take had since she was a child, her career as a performer became more successful only after she was able to talk with and joke with the audiences she blew abroad with her singing. It humanized her, and enabled audiences to know that at the core of her being, she was simply a daughter from Brooklyn. "Brooklyn to me ways the Loew's Kings, Erasmus (Hall Loftier School), the yeshiva I went to, the Dodgers, Prospect Park, great Chinese food. I'm so glad I came from Brooklyn — it's downwardly to earth." (At right: Barbara, equally she was then known, with (I think) her older brother Sheldon – 1952 in Brooklyn.)

Barbara attended Erasmus Hall High School from 1956 to January 1959, when she graduated at age 16. She excelled at her studies every bit well as singing while in high school. One of her classmates and friends at Erasmus was Neil Diamond. (Below – Barbara's picture in her high school yr book – 1956.)

She moved to Manhattan presently after leaving loftier school, and scuffled, trying to break into show business organization. The year 1959 was one during which Barbara worked at menial jobs, slept on the couches of friends, and made the rounds of casting offices. Her primary objective was to become an thespian, not a singer. She took a job as an usher at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater for The Audio of Music early in 1960. During the run of the play, she heard that the casting director was auditioning for more singers, and it marked the first time she sang in pursuit of a job. Although the director felt she was not correct for the function, he encouraged her to brainstorm including her talent every bit a singer on her résumé when looking for piece of work.

She asked her and so boyfriend, Barry Dennen, to tape her singing. Dennen found a guitarist to accompany her: "Nosotros spent the afternoon taping, and the moment I heard the start playback I went insane … This nutty little kook had one of the well-nigh breathtaking voices I'd ever heard … when she was finished and I turned off the machine, I needed a long moment before I dared wait up at her." (1)

She then duplicated the tapes so she could give copies of them give to possible employers as demos. Dennen grew enthusiastic, and in the spring of 1960 he convinced her to enter a talent contest at the Panthera leo, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. There, she performed two songs in the contest, after which there was a "stunned silence" from the audition, followed by "thunderous applause" when she was pronounced the winner. She was invited dorsum and sang at the order for several weeks without pay, but with audiences. It was during this time that she dropped the 2nd "a" from her get-go proper noun, switching from "Barbara" to "Barbra."

In the summer of 1960, Streisand auditioned at the Bon Soir, a nightclub on 8th Street in Greenwich Village. She got the gig there, which paid $125 a week. It was her first professional engagement as a singer. In the social club's show she was the opening human action for comedienne Phyllis Diller, who was the headliner. She later recalled that was the starting time time she had been in that kind of "plush" environment: "I'd never been in a nightclub until I sang in one." During her run at that venue, she became something of an hugger-mugger sensation in Greenwich Village.

She discovered that her ironic Brooklyn humor was received favorably past her audiences, so she began inserting lite-hearted comments, always with a hip Brooklyn edge, betwixt songs. During the next six months appearing Bon Soir, she began to get noticed by mainstream media. Paper reporters and columnists began comparing her singing voice to those of Judy Garland, Lena Horne and Fanny Brice. Her ability to charm audiences with spontaneous sense of humor during performances became more sophisticated and professional. Theater critic Leonard Harris wrote: "She'southward twenty; by the time she'due south xxx she will accept rewritten the record books." By belatedly in 1960, Barbra Streisand's career was outset to accept-off.

With the help of her new personal manager, Martin Erlichman, she had successful engagements in Detroit and St. Louis. Erlichman then booked her at a more upscale nightclub in Manhattan, the Blue Angel on east 55th Street, where she continued to excite audiences during the flow from 1961 to 1962.

In early 1962 she participated in the Columbia Records cast recording of the Harold Rome Broadway show I Can Get Information technology for You Wholesale. This recording was produced by the president of Columbia Records, Goddard Lieberson. Lieberson was a well-schooled musician who had worked his way up to the presidency of Columbia from the position of A and R man, where he started in 1939. Although his accomplishments at Columbia Records were manifold, his detail favorite action was in introducing cast recordings of Broadway shows to the popular music market on LP records, which started in the early on 1950s. He loved every aspect of doing this, including acting every bit producer at the recording sessions. In order to ensure a constant menses of new fabric for Columbia Broadway cast recording LPs, Lieberson as well pioneered in having Columbia Records invest in promising Broadway musical shows. (In a higher place right: Goddard Lieberson and Barbra Streisand at the signing of her first contract with Columbia Records.)

During one of the recording sessions for theI Tin Become Information technology for You Wholesale album, which took place at Columbia's 30th Street recording studio in Manhattan, with dozens of musicians and singers participating, the smoothen catamenia of the session was interrupted when a relatively unknown Barbra Streisand "stopped in the middle of her song, 'Miss Marmelstein,' because she didn't like the orchestration. Lieberson, who produced the session, stepped out of the control booth, took her bated, and quietly just firmly got her to sing the song as written."(2) This inauspicious meeting was the first between Goddard Lieberson, president of Columbia Records, and Barbra Streisand. But she did encounter him, and later on that interaction, he definitely knew who she was.

As one would wait, Lieberson, though he couldn't help simply to appreciate Barbra's singing, was less enchanted with her behavior in the recording studio on that date. At age 19, she clearly had huge talent equally a singer, and the ancestry of an artistic temperament to match. Nevertheless, Lieberson showed no inclination to take whatever involvement with Barbra Streisand's singing career.

Just equally president of Columbia Records, Lieberson was at the epicenter of the pop music business so, and increasingly, various people were coming to him with the same recommendation: sign Barbra Streisand Now! Eventually, Lieberson agreed to nourish i of Barbra'south performances at the Blue Affections. Her singing "…knocked him to the canvas. 'Information technology takes a large man to admit a mistake,' Lieberson told Barbra'south manager Marty Erlichman, 'and I made a mistake. (Now) I would similar to record Barbra.'"(3) Barbra Streisand signed with Columbia Records on October ane, 1962.

The music:

The song "Happy Days Are Here Once again" was composed in 1929 for the G-G-M film Chasing Rainbows. In May of 1962, Barbra Streisand appeared on The Garry Moore television set show. During a segment called "That Wonderful Yr," in a skit set in the year 1929, Barbra performed "Happy Days Are Here Over again" ironically as a millionaire who has just lost all of her money and enters a bar, giving the bartender her expensive jewelry in substitution for drinks. She sang the song, which was usually done at a medium or up tempo, at an insinuatingly slow tempo. Her performance built dynamically to an explosive finale, and immediately became an audience-pleaser during the early stage of her career.

Streisand first recorded "Happy Days Are Here Again" in October 1962 at Columbia'south 30th Street NYC studio, some months earlier her kickoff album sessions. This version, arranged and conducted by George "The Fox" Williams(shown below left) (3), became Streisand'due south first commercial single in Nov 1962, with the Harold Arlen/Ted Kohler standard "When the Sun Comes Out" on the B side. Only 500 copies of this single were pressed for the New York marketplace, and no copies were sent to radio stations. Nevertheless, the tape flew off the shelves of the tape stores where it was available for purchase. This 1962 version was re-released as a single in March 1965 as part of Columbia's "Hall of Fame" series.

This first recording of "Happy Days Are here Over again" by Barbra Streisand is the ane where nosotros hear her interpretation of the vocal at its purest. She sings the song's poesy, accompanied only by sparse piano chords, and so goes into its commencement chorus equally well an any jazz performer, by inbound deliciously after the downbeat. The quality of her vocalism, her phrasing, range and passionate interpretation set the standard of what she would do as a vocalist over the next 5-plus decades. The diminuendo from the climactic note, which starts with Barbra in full voice, and which she masterfully reduces to a whisper, is i of many thrilling moments in this performance that make information technology clear that this was no ordinary singer.

Streisand re-recorded the song in January 1963 for her debut Columbia LP anthology,The Barbra Streisand Anthology, the music for which was bundled and conducted by Peter Matz.

Barbra sang the song reverse Judy Garland, who performed "Get Happy," during an October 1963 circulate of The Judy Garland Show on tv. That operation was recorded and was first included on Streisand'south 1991 box set Merely for the Record, and and then again on her 2002 Duetscompilation.

In June of 1967, Streisand performed the song for over 135,000 people in Primal Park That recording was released every bit a part of the live concert albumA Happening in Key Park.It was later rereleased on the compilationsBarbra Streisand's Greatest Hits,andThe Essential Barbra Streisand.

The vocal has get a signature part of Streisand's concert repertoire, and she has performed it live on numerous occasions. I was fortunate enough to her sing it at a concert in her home town Brooklyn in 2013, and she stopped the bear witness with information technology, as e'er.

(2)The Label …The Story of Columbia Recordspast Gary Marmorstein (2007), 320-321

(3) George Dale Williams (1917-1988) was built-in in New Orleans just grew up in California. He studied at Chico State College from 1934 to 1937. His first involvement with a swing band came in 1939, when he began working for bandleader Bob Astor equally pianist and arranger. In early 1940, Williams began submitting arrangements to Jimmie Lunceford. After that year, he wrote much of the initial library for Lionel Hampton'due south first big band. In 1941, Williams worked as trumpeter Sonny Dunham'south pianist and sometimes arranger. In 1942, he began placing some arrangements and originals with Glenn Miller. From 1943 to 1946, Williams was in military machine service (Merchant Marine). From 1946 until 1950, Williams acted essentially as Cistron Krupa's banana, writing arrangements and doing many other musical tasks. In the early 1950s, he worked for Ray Anthony. By the mid-1950s, Williams was a successful free-lance arranger and conductor in Manhattan. He had a long association with comedian and would-be musician Jackie Gleason from the mid-1950s through the 1960s, writing many of the arrangements for Gleason's highly successful mood music albums. He acquired his nickname "The Fox" as a result of an original limerick by that proper name that he wrote for Ray Anthony, which was recorded and successful.

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Source: https://swingandbeyond.com/2021/01/23/happy-days-are-here-again-1962-barbra-streisand/

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