149 Hello Barbra Streisand - Second Hand Rose

Chart  entered  :  20  January  1966

Chart  peak : 14

Number  of  hits  : 18

On  into 1966  and straightaway  we  start  encountering  artists  who'd  make their  fullest  impact  in  the  subsequent  decade. This  was  an  outlier  hit , a  full  five  years  before  her  next  one, one  of  the  longest  gaps  in  chart  history  between  a  first  and  second  hit.

Barbara  was  born  in  New  York  to  second  generation  Jewish  immigrants in  1942  and lived  in straitened  circumstances  after  her  father's  death  when  she  was  a  baby. She  was  a  singer  from  an early  age  and  made  her  first  demos  at  13. She  became  a  nightclub  singer  while  still  in  her  teens and  also  acted  in  theatre. She's  also  to  be  found  in  a  porn  film; she's  always  denied  this  but  it's clearly  her. From  1961  she  started  appearing  on  TV  and  after  a  string  of  appearances  on  a  show called  PM East / PM West  she  was  signed  by  Columbia  despite  their  President's  dislike  of  her showboating  style.

Babs  negotiated  her  own  contract  particularly  a  clause  that  gave  her  control  over  what  material  she recorded. Her  first  single  released  in  March  1962  was  a  version  of  Milton  Ager's  "Happy  Days Are Here  Again"  written  in  1929  and  quickly  appropriated  by  the  Democrats  for  FDR's  election campaign. Barbara  deconstructs  the  song  and  comes  up  with  an  ironic  torch  ballad. From  a  low- key  beginning , her  vocal  attack  is  almost  overpowering  by  the  song's  end. It  wasn't  a  hit ; in  fact only  500  copies  were  pressed  for  the  New  York  market. In  November  she  released  "My   Colouring  Book"  which  is  equally  full-on  before  her  first LP  the  following  March, the  Grammy -winning  "The  Barbra  Streisand  Album"  comprised  of  Broadway  standards  rather  than  contemporary songs. Her  imaginatively titled  "The  Second  Barbra  Streisand  Album"  came  out  just  six  months  later without  any  singles  and  reached  number  2.

In  January  1964  she  released  two  contemporary  songs  from  her  soon-to-open  Broadway  musical  Funny  Girl . " I  Am  Woman" ( no relation  to  the  Helen  Reddy  song )  was  the  nominal  A  side  but  was  ignored  in  favour  of  "People"  which  rose  to  number  5  and  became  her  signature  song.  The  song's  hit  status  cemented  its  place  in  the  musical  after  the  producers  had  evinced   a  dislike  of  it. It's  noticeable  how  much  more  controlled  her  vocal  is  than  on  the  previous singles.

Barbara  also  had  time  to  release  "The  Third  Album"  before  the  show  opened.  Again  there  were  no  singles. Six  months  later  she  released  her  fourth  "People"  ( her  first  number  one ) . The  title  track  was  the  only  song  from  the  musical  but  the  opening track  "Absent  Minded  Me"  was by  the  same  writers  and  that  was  released  as  a  single  in  August  1964. Once  again  people  preferred  the  B-side  "Funny  Girl" which  hadn't  actually  been  used  in  the  musical. It  made  number 44  despite  being  as  dull  as  ditch water.

Her  next  single  was  in  March  1965  "Why  Did  I  Choose  You"  yet  another  torch  ballad  from  a  musical  called  The  Yearling. It  reached  number  77. It  also  featured  on  her  next  album  "My  Name  Is  Barbra" released  in  May  just  after  her  Emmy-winning  TV  special  of  the  same  title. The  final  track  "My  Man"  was  originally  recorded  by  the  subject  of  "Funny  Girl"  , Fanny  Brice  in  1921  and  was  released  as  the  next  single  in  June.  It  wasn't  in  the  musical  but  Barbra  got  to  perform  it  in  the  film  version. It  got  to  number  79  but  sounds  tuneless  and  over-the-top  to  me.

In  September  came  "He  Touched  Me" , another barnstorming  ballad  from  a  musical  called  Drat ! The Cat ! . It  reached  number  53  and  became  the  opening  track  on  her  next  album  "My  Name  Is  Barbra Two"  released  in  October. The  sixth  track  and  next  single  is  this  one.

"Second  Hand  Rose"  was  another  song  that  Fanny  Brice  had  recorded  and  like  "My  Man"  would  be  incorporated  in  the  film version.  Breaking  away  from  the  ballads, it's  a  Tin  Pan  Alley jazz  tune  about  having  to  settle  for  hand-me-downs  which  Barbra  performs  in  character  with  exaggerated  New  York-isms  - "piana", "nive" (nerve) ," befaww"  and  so  on. Why  this  particular  tune  should  be  the  only  one  to  tickle  the  fancy  of  the  UK  singles  buyer   from  her  first  eight  years  of  recording  is  difficult  to  fathom.