Music : Streisand Superman

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- A "super" album!
Barbra recorded and released this album shortly after A Star is Born became one of the most successful albums and movies of her career. Due to that success, she decided to stick to a similar sound the second time around, with a few of these songs even being intended for the film originally. The results is one of her best albums.

Despite the album's clear focus, it is also great in that there is truly something for everybody. Many of the songs on this release seem to represent an archetypal song that Barbra has made as her signature style. There is the great song that seemed almost destined to be a movie theme ("Superman"), the irresistibly catchy pop song that is actually very sexy in its own right ("I Found You Love"), the song that is there to help Barbra make a statement about something she cares about ("Don't Believe What You Read"), her simple but beautifully composed song ("Answer Me"), the unusual cover that becomes a classic in its own right ("New York State of Mind"), and finally the somewhat-schmaltzy-sounding-but-destined-to connect-with-the-public song that became one of her biggest hits ("My Heart Belongs to Me").

What really makes this album stand out, though, is that is one of Barbra's first albums to really express her feelings. She was always expressive in her songs before, but that was usually her playing a part. Every Barbra fan has got to own this album.

Rating:

- jade_7335
It may be one of Streisands' earlier albums, but it certainly is one of her best.

Rating:

- Superwoman..
A great voice in a one of her best albums for the seventies.My heart belongs to me is a very good song but my favourite song is the superman..great vocals..i love it so much,melody and lyrigs are heartfelt..i'm going to dance to it in december when i'm getting married..for sure..

Rating:

- Esther Hoffman Howard Becomes Streisand Superman!
1977 - WOW! What a glorious and amazingly prolific year for Ms. Streisand it was. Coming off of the tremendous success of "A Star Is Born", both the film and its stupendously successful album, she blows everyone away with her follow-up endeavor ~ "Streisand Superman", an album that continues to build on her sure and strong grasp of contemporary "pop" which started with 1970's "Stoney End", continued with 1974's "The Way We Were" and "Butterfly", and advanced so magnificently with the aforementioned ASIB. Produced by Gary Klein, "Streisand Superman" was a major force in the year that saw the tremendous success of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours", and Ronstadt's "Simple Dreams" (Gee, how wonderful and diverse pop music was back in the day when the like of all these three could chart in the top five in the same year!). The album opens with one of Streisand's most commanding & sexy recordings which should have been released as a single -"Superman", a grand, superbly sung ode to the strength and power of a "woman in love", continues with such deceptively simple and sensual performances such as "Baby Me Baby" (love the C&W twinge), "I Found You Love", "Answer Me", and the incredibly lyrical and moving "Love Comes From the Most Unexpected Places". "My Heart Belongs to Me" was a deserved major radio hit, and "Lullaby For Myself" speaks volumes on acting through singing, with a very telling lyric about the strengths and vulnerabilities of a woman who wants love in her life. However, the most majestic statement and powerful singing from Streisand just might be her definitive rendition of Joel's "New York State of Mind", which conjures up NYC in all its glory by a still little girl from Brooklyn (whether she wants to believe it or not!). This was the beginning of a new and different phase in Streisand's recording career, which would continue to astound with the commercial monsters of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", and the commercially AND artistically successful "Guilty".
Luigi ~ NYC

Rating:

- Business goes on as usual for Barbra after A STAR IS BORN
By the mid-1970s, Barbra Streisand was truly a one-woman media blitz, having conquered television with her highly imaginative specials, Hollywood with films that were almost always guaranteed top grosses at the box office, and finally pop music with one finely-crafted LP after another. Sure, consistency was not always the order of the day with regards to the latter, but you could always count on an affair that was every inch approved by Barbra herself. If that was how she wanted to hear her music, there was no reason why her fans should not either. 1977's STREISAND SUPERMAN was another link in this unbreakable chain.

Most of Barbra's 1970s albums were filled with various covers that were either great reinventions or interesting efforts, depending on the song at hand. SUPERMAN instead relies more on original songs heard here for the first time (Barbra even gets in on the act with credits on 2 songs).

The harder-edged rock sound she had dabbled in while filming her 1976 remake of A STAR IS BORN was sure to be held over onto her next album, and SUPERMAN does not disappoint (some songs were originally intended for the movie itself). For someone as constantly in the public eye as Barbra was back then, the anti-tabloid "Don't Believe What You Read" (which is one of the Barbra co-writes) fits in nicely. While not as fierce as, say, Michael Jackson's "Leave Me Alone", it does rank as one of Barbra's most energetic & defiant songs of her career. "Cabin Fever" seems to be a precursor to Donna Summer's (who of course would record with Barbra 2 years later) "Hot Stuff" & "Bad Girls" with a ballsy salute to not staying inside, but getting out there & doing something, for crying out loud.

In case the tougher side of Barbra was too unbelievable for some (and she was only marginally successful at turning up the volume), SUPERMAN still had plenty of softer treasures to remind us what Barbra always did best. The title track is perhaps too gimmicky to really work, but it still speaks to any listener looking for their own superhero to come rescue them (it probably took a pretty penny for Barbra to get the rights to use the Superman trademark).

Roger Miller's "Baby Me Baby" abandons the sweeping strings of most the album's ballads for a smaller jazz-based backdrop that is Barbra's most sensual number since "Love In The Afternoon". "I Found You Love" finds her strutting gently towards the disco with a tune that would not quite be at home in Studio 54, but believe me, you will feel the need to cut a rug.

The other Barbra co-write "Answer Me" is not really a terrible song, it just simply floats by in the 3 minutes it lasts without leaving much of an impression. Probably the only song on SUPERMAN that does not hold up with the rest (with it co-written by Paul Williams, this is probably the most likely holdover from A STAR IS BORN).

"My Heart Belongs To Me" was the album's big hit, reaching #4 on the Hot 100, along with topping the Adult Contemporary charts, and was truly the best representative of the album for a single. It was also perfect for Barbra's own independent nature with its theme of opening oneself up to love, but never feeling the need to give your heart to only one. Rupert Holmes' "Lullaby For Myself" (a leftover from 1975's LAZY AFTERNOON?) is similar in its reminder to the listener that before you can love anyone, you must love yourself first. With Barbra's passionate delivery of this song, it is clear she has no trouble with that (and I mean that sincerely, not acknowledging her half-deserved reputation for being difficult & perfectionistic).

The best-known covers come near the end of SUPERMAN, and show off the strengths Barbra has always had as an intrepreter. "Love Comes From Unexpected Places" was written by Kim Carnes when she was better known as a songwriter who had only minor success as an artist. This came 7 years before she & Barbra would team up again for "Make No Mistake, He's Mine", and it is said Barbra recording this song helped edge Kim further towards becoming a full-time singer who just happened to write her own material.

Billy Joel was finally making his way to headliner status in 1977 with THE STRANGER, and Barbra helped the cause of getting him there by covering "New York State Of Mind". A lifelong New Yorker herself, I cannot think of anyone else who could have covered this song this well. She may have conquered Hollywood & played to audiences around the world, but Barbra remains forever drawn to the city that is her home. This could have been a can't-miss follow-up single to "My Heart Belongs To Me", but unfortunately remains an album track worth searching after.

While STREISAND SUPERMAN may not have been Barbra's most groundbreaking album or her even most original, the fans appeared to have gotten their money's worth for the album peaked at #3 even with only one single release. It arrived only 7 months after A STAR IS BORN had been released, so Barbra Streisand was definitely a busy woman back then. Who was to say if she was running herself ragged & not taking a break once in a while? But as SUPERMAN shows, even with the workaholic attitude, a Barbra Streisand album could sound similar to the one that came before it, but never ever was it dull.

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