Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - Hello, Gorgeous Edition Part 1
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2024
⏱️ 62 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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening Ad-Free on Amazon Music. |
| 0:03.6 | Hey there, hit parade listeners. |
| 0:06.3 | What you're about to hear is part one of this episode. |
| 0:10.1 | Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. |
| 0:14.1 | Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? |
| 0:18.3 | Sign up for Slate Plus. |
| 0:19.9 | It supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed |
| 0:24.2 | journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com slash hit parade plus. You'll get to hear every |
| 0:31.8 | hit parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus, hitade The Bridge, our bonus episodes, with guest |
| 0:39.7 | interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again, to join, |
| 0:46.5 | that's slate.com slash hit parade plus. Thanks, and now please enjoy part one of this |
| 0:54.0 | hit parade episode. |
| 1:10.9 | Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast. Barbara Streisand. |
| 1:19.1 | Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast. |
| 1:20.4 | I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why is this song |
| 1:25.4 | number one series on today's show. Back in 2010, this |
| 1:31.0 | disco house single by a Canadian-American duo who called themselves Duck Sauce reached the top |
| 1:39.7 | of Billboard's club songs chart. The song's title was taken from its only intelligible lyrics, besides a series of |
| 1:49.6 | woo's. |
| 1:51.0 | Those lyrics comprised just two words, Barbara Streisand. |
| 1:57.0 | Barbara Streisand. |
| 1:58.0 | Music Barbara Streisand. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.