1962 Recordings Catch Rising Star Streisand, Then 20

Nightclub shows by the future star will be released
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 23, 2022 11:20 AM CDT
Early Nightclub Recordings of Barbra Streisand Unearthed
Barbra Streisand performs in 2012.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

A series of 1962 performances by Barbra Streisand at a Manhattan nightclub before she became a superstar have been remastered and will be released this fall, per the AP. Barbra Streisand—Live at the Bon Soir features songs from a three-night stint at the Bon Soir nightclub in Greenwich Village. The sessions led to Streisand's first record deal. Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings announced Friday that the remastered sessions would be released on Nov. 4, allowing listeners "to witness 20-year-old Streisand at the dawn of her unparalleled career."

The performances were intended to become Streisand's first album, but instead, many of the songs were redone as studio recordings and released as her Grammy-winning self-titled debut album in 1963. Streisand kept the recordings in her personal collection and approved the release after engineer Jochem van der Saag used technology to improve their quality, according to a news release. The nightclub's acoustics weren't meant for professional recording, but modern techniques allowed van der Saag to separate Streisand's vocals from the instrument sounds. "I had never even been in a nightclub until I sang in one," Streisand said in a statement, noting the release comes 60 years after the Bon Soir sessions.

(More Barbra Streisand stories.)

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