The Way We Were (Barbra Streisand album)
| The Way We Were | ||||
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| Studio album by Barbra Streisand | ||||
| Released | January 1, 1974 | |||
| Recorded | 1969–1973 | |||
| Studio |
United-Western Recorders (Los Angeles) |
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| Genre | Contemporary pop | |||
| Length | 35:13 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Barbra Streisand chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Way We Were | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | B- |
The Way We Were is the fifteenth studio album recorded by American vocalist Barbra Streisand. It was released on January 1, 1974 by Columbia Records. The record was compiled quickly after lead single "The Way We Were" generated commercial success and a great deal of hype. A majority of the material on the album was meant for the singer's unreleased project The Singer while other songs included were previously released in prior years. Following the distribution of the soundtrack for the 1973 film of the same name, Columbia added a caption to Streisand's LP (Featuring the Hit Single The Way the Were and All in Love Is Fair) in order to minimize confusion between the two albums.
Covering a wide array of themes and topics, Streisand sings about recovering relationships, social awareness, and love in general. Like the majority of Streisand's catalog, The Way We Were was described as a contemporary pop album blended with her signature vocal style. In terms of production, she heavily worked with Tommy LiPuma and Wally Gold, while Marty Paich contributed to the title track.
The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who praised Streisand's vocals and found the record capable of being extremely successful. However, some critics felt the album was not carefully planned out and Streisand was just "acting" the tracks out rather than "singing" them. The lead single, and title track, was released on September 27, 1973 and became a chart topper in both the United States and Canada. It was also the top-selling single in the former country in 1974. The second and final single, "All in Love Is Fair", was released in March 1974 and also charted in the two aforementioned countries.
The concept for the record first developed in late 1973, following the success of "The Way We Were", which was written specifically for the 1973 film of the same name starring Streisand and Robert Redford. American composer and producer Marvin Hamlisch was commissioned to write the melody for the track, which he found to be hugely challenging when due to Streisand's wants; she had wanted him to produce the composition in minor key, but he instead wrote it in major key due to his fear that the song's lyrics would be revealed too quickly to the listener. According to the liner notes of her 1991 greatest hits album Just for the Record, "The Way We Were", "All in Love is Fair", "Being at War with Each Other", and "Something So Right" were the only tracks specifically recorded and created for the album. The majority of the project's material consisted of demos and recordings from Streisand's recording sessions with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman for an unreleased album titled The Singer. Both "The Best Thing You've Ever Done" and "Summer Me, Winter Me" were previously released together as a non-album single by Streisand in April 1970, and were originally intended for inclusion on the official soundtrack to her 1970 film The Owl and the Pussycat.
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