A Barbra "Funny Girl" Question

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 2:55am

Has this been discussed before? I think it's fascinating!

Curious to hear people's opinions...

http://youtu.be/l7t0qY0hyOs

Updated On: 9/27/12 at 02:55 AM

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 3:53am

71 hits but only 19 video views?

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 6:18am

Wow! That's uncanny! It's certainly possible that they took the vocal from that album and stuck it in with a new orchestra track. This was the number she sang live and you can hear the break between the quality of the live singing and the quality of the studio singing.

I'm not sure why they'd port over an old vocal track from an album version, but who knows.

Makes me wonder if she secretly recorded every song from Gypsy 40 years ago and is waiting to use it for the new movie version.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 6:44am

Yes.

[artscallion]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 7:54am

The difference was clear to me. You sing a song enough times and it starts coming out the same way. But there were obvious moments when it was off a sec here and there. Not the same recording, IMO.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 10:10am

I'l give it another listen.

At any rate, her sense of dynamics is unlike any other singer's.

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 1:48pm

"The difference was clear to me. You sing a song enough times and it starts coming out the same way. But there were obvious moments when it was off a sec here and there. Not the same recording, IMO."

I just ran them in synch and they match up perfectly. People do sing songs the same way, but no one can duplicate a performance exactly.

[newintown]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 1:49pm

And Babs has always been famous for never singing a song the same way twice.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 4:21pm

They looked identical to me.

And I agree with Newintown: the more Barbra sang a song, the more different it sounded.

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 5:26pm

So, on to the real question: why??

Did they really think this 3-year-old recording could not be equaled?

Weird.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 5:30pm

They sound the same to me. I admit that, while I love Babs doing My Man, I resent that it replaced one of my all time fave Styne songs from the stage version (actually I miss both Music That Makes Me Dance and Who Are You Now?)

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 7:26pm

In both versions, her lip-synching is off on the word "Alright".

So even assuming they used the earlier recording for the soundtrack, what track was she singing to while the cameras rolled?

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 7:53pm

I believe she sang this number live. The first half of the number in the film is the live version from the set, but then they post dubbed her big, belty parts for some reason. If you watch the film, you can hear a shift in the audio quality after she sings "...forever more" and the orchestra picks up. I'm just curious as to why they would use an old version of the song she recorded. Maybe there wasn't time or something. I dunno.

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 7:56pm

The last half was sung to this track, which I'm convinced was the same track from 1965. The first part was famously done live, at Barbra's insistence.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 8:26pm

(Deleted because I simply repeated what ComingUpRoses already posted.) Updated On: 9/27/12 at 08:26 PM

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 5:08pm

Here's my theory: Barbra goes into the studio to pre-record the track, tries it a number of times and is not satisfied with the result. Frustrated, she says, "Can't we just use my recording from 1965?" Would anyone else have had the nerve to suggest that?

And why couldn't she do it as well? Was there any vocal damage in the intervening three years? I can't believe she didn't at least try to do it in 1968, since it's so unprecedented to re-use an old vocal track for a film soundtrack.

[followspot]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 6:13pm

There's a vocal roll on "come" ("... back on my knees someday") in the soundtrack version that isn't in the original.

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 6:22pm

It's possibe taht a couple of edits were made, but when I ran them in synch, 99% of it matched exactly.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 7:14pm

Did they do a lot of "one note edits" in 1968? I thought they were still basically recording songs in one long take back then.

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/29/12 at 12:21am

Absolutely. They've been editing songs for decades. Watch my Judy clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KEaQD1E93g

[Theatrical Landladies]

Posted: 9/29/12 at 12:33am

However, whenever......... It was/is movie magic.

STRONGLY agree with EricM about the cut songs though as both "Music That Makes You Dance" and "Who Are You Now" are totally outstanding original songs! I wonder if they were ever recorded for the movie score?

[marknyc]

Posted: 9/29/12 at 12:56am

I never said it wasn't. I just find it fascinating that she re-used an old recording!

[Theatrical Landladies]

Posted: 9/29/12 at 1:10am

Sorry Mark I didn't mean to belittle you original point which is very interesting but I was simply transported in my mind to the Glasgow cinema in 1968 when I was first moved by La Streisand's incredible performance!

Thank you for bringing the memories back!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 9/29/12 at 8:53am

Barbra Streisand pre-recorded her musical numbers for the film version of FUNNY GIRL around April 1967 which were to be used for playback during filming, which began in June 1967. A standard practice used for decades at that point and continues today. Barbra never had learned to lip-sync to playback as she only performed 'live' at that point in her career -- her TV guest appearances were all sung 'live' and the few small moments she DOES lip-sync on her TV specials (1965's MY NAME IS BARBRA, most notably), the results are terrible. She just can't land it and stated this countless of times.

As is known fact, Barbra perfectly (and begrudgingly) filmed her musical numbers in FUNNY GIRL performing to her playback as a guidance track but chose to 'act' in the moment, even if the pre-recorded track performance didn't match. It had been decided early on that she would film her scenes using those pre-recorded tracks but she would later loop/re-dub her vocals later. In other words, Barbra ended-up lip-synching her vocals to match the screen performance AFTER everything was filmed and edited. This turned-out to work fantastically. Luckily, she did eventually master the art of lip-synching, but it just wasn't happening during FUNNY GIRL, her first film.

And yes, as it has already been stated by everyone everywhere (including La Streisand herself), she asked if she could film the 1st part of "My Man" 'live' on set instead of using the pre-recording they had done. She wanted her acting in that sequence to be authentic, which the pre-recording didn't capture. Director William Wyler agreed and it was decided that Barbra would sing the 1st part of "My Man" live on set and then they would use the pre-recording of the track for the 2nd part. Sadly, most people know only part of this story so many assume Barbra sang the ENTIRE song 'live' in the film. Nope.

That's all I have to offer.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/29/12 at 10:31am

Thanks, Brody. I think I remember hearing somewhere (or at various times) that Part One of "My Man" was filmed and recorded live, as it seems to be unfolding on screen.

The question remains: was the remainder of the song re-recorded for the film itself? Or did they "plug in" her older recording?