Hello, Gorgeous Edition Part 2

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

Slate Podcasts

Music, Music History, Music Commentary

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Barbra Streisand: star of stage and screen. Oscar-winner, film director and TV producer. Culture warrior and meme generator. Yes, all that—but don’t get it twisted: Barbra’s legend rests in her catalog of hit songs—and that voice. Even as culture vultures consume her recent doorstop of a memoir My Name Is Barbra, what’s getting overlooked are Streisand’s awesome musical benchmarks, especially on the Billboard charts. All of those records Taylor Swift has been setting on the album chart, and Billie Eilish on the Grammys? Babs got there first. At a time when rock was ascendant and showtunes were on the wane, Streisand set her own pop agenda, scoring brassy hits that weren’t trendy but topped the charts anyway. She became a pop star, Broadway legend and box-office commander practically simultaneously. Join Chris Molanphy as he tells the story of the original Queen of All Media and explains how she racked up all those hits your mom loved (be honest, you know them too) and made “memories, like the corners of [your] mind.” Trust us: It’ll be like buttah. Podcast production by Kevin Bendis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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0:34.6	Get your quote today at progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
0:43.0	Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliants,
0:45.7	Price and Coverage Match limited by state law. Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine, about the hits
1:09.7	from Coast to Coast. I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why
1:16.1	is this song number one series. On our last episode, we walked through the first two decades of Barbara Strissans career.
1:26.0	How she emerged as a Broadway star, movie star, and yes, pop star star virtually simultaneously and how she struggled to adapt to
1:38.1	contemporary music before finally finding an approach in the mid-70s that consistently generated hits.
1:47.5	We are now at the end of the 70s.
1:50.4	Disco is on the wane, but Barbara is about to score her biggest pop album ever by teaming
1:58.0	with a leading disco singer and songwriter.
2:03.4	By 1980, the leading acts of disco were all finding ways to pivot their careers amidst the
2:11.4	disco backlash.
2:13.0	Strisean's friend, Donna Summer, not long after their hit duet,
2:19.0	pivoted toward a fusion of dance pop and synthesized rock on her 1980 album The Wanderer.
2:27.0	I know I'm ready now it's just a little time.
2:30.0	Cause I'm a lot. Sheek, the hit-making disco group led by Nyle Rogers and Bernard Edwards that had revolutionized dance music and even helped launch
	...

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