1970 · Behind the Songs
A rock-soul cover that announced a new Streisand.
The recording in context
By 1970, Barbra Streisand had conquered Broadway, film, and the easy-listening charts — and she was restless. Stoney End, her 1971 album, was a deliberate reinvention: contemporary songs by young writers, produced by Richard Perry with a rock-soul edge. The title track, written by Laura Nyro, became a Top 10 hit and proved that the great theatrical voice of the sixties could thrive in the seventies’ new musical landscape.
Listen closely
The arrangement crackles with intent: a gospel-tinged piano, a rhythm section with real bite, and Streisand attacking the lyric with a looseness her earlier records never allowed. Listen to how she leans into the groove — this isn’t a singer performing a song, it’s a singer joining a band. The famous voice is still there, but it’s wearing different clothes.
Notice the confidence of the phrasing. Where her sixties ballads savoured every syllable, “Stoney End” moves — and Streisand moves with it, finding swing and grit in a voice nobody had asked to swing before. It’s the sound of an artist refusing to be a museum piece.
What the record announced was bigger than one song: Streisand would not be frozen in amber. Across the decade she would chase every new sound — and master most of them. “Stoney End” is where that chase began, and it still sounds like a door being kicked open.