What Barbra Streisand Thought When Beyoncé Sang ‘The Way We Were’
Beyoncé is not famous for singing cover songs but she put her own spin on Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were.” In her memoir, Streisand spilled all her feelings about the cover. She also revealed what she thought of the “Break My Soul” singer as a person.
Beyoncé felt honored to sing ‘The Way We Were’ for Barbra Streisand
In an excerpt from Streisand’s 2023 memoir My Name is Barbra in Interview Magazine, Streisand had a lot to say about Beyoncé. “And when Beyoncé came out to sing ‘The Way We Were,’ I was thrilled,” she wrote. “After her last note, in the midst of the applause, she looked up at me and said, ‘It’s an honor to sing for you, Miss Streisand.’
“At the party afterward, she was so charming and complimentary, and I told her I felt the same way about her,” she added. “She’s done such imaginative work in her music and her videos … she just knocks me out.” Beyoncé and Streisand have quite a lot in common, as they both have powerful voices, dedicated fanbases, and have found success in several different mediums, including music, film, and television.
The song’s writer dreamed of Barbra Streisand’s voice
It’s interesting that Streisand liked Queen B’s “The Way We Were” considering that the song was penned for the “Woman in Love” singer. During a 1996 interview published in American Songwriter, Marvin Hamlisch discussed writing the ballad for Streisand. “No matter what I was doing, I could hear Barbra’s voice in my head and recall how wonderful she sounds when she holds certain notes,” he said. “I wanted to let her soar. I was determined not to write something drippingly sentimental.
“To be honest, my first attempts were in that direction,” he added. “I’d work for three hours then leave the piano, and try again the next day. At night, my dreams were accompanied by a soundtrack, and it was always Streisand’s voice doing the singing.”
‘The Way We Were’ took over the world
“The Way We Were” became a massive hit for Streisand. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. It spent a total of 23 weeks on the chart, making it Streisand’s most successful single in the United States besides “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)” and “Woman in Love.” “The Way We Were” is part of the album The Way We Were. That record peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for two weeks and spent 31 weeks on the chart in total.
“The Way We Were” remains a prime example of 1970s easy-listening music. This sort of soft rock is not very popular today, but it was a massive part of the radio from the 1970s into the early 2000s. While Beyoncé isn’t really an easy-listening singer, you can hear traces of that sound in some of her ballads like “Halo” and “Best Thing I Never Had.” If Beyoncé has the artistic prowess to create her own brand of country R&B, she absolutely has the cultural cache to bring 1970s easy-listening back into the mainstream.
“The Way We Were” is a classic song and Beyoncé is part of its story.
