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What's your favourite cover photo on Barbra's albums? Love is the answer is fantastic, that goes without saying, but I was thinking of her previous albums. I would choose:
The concert 1994 - very elegantly composed portrait even though it's 'photographed live' (a freeze-frame image taken from the concert video, is it?). Captures the feeling and theme of the whole show.
Memories - because photos of her right profile are so rare, and also her eyes are so intense and honest.
People - very inspirational and peaceful in its composition, I think.
And finally an honourable mention for Prince of Tides. Basically the film's entire storyline is captured in that one photograph.
This is also one of the reasons why I don't download music online. I want the actual booklet (is that the word?) in my hand, with all the additional photos and liner notes that come with each CD. I don't want to print them or read them on the computer screen, thank you very much. I am old-school, I know. Even though I've replaced them all with CD:s by now, I still have all my Barbra vinyl records, although I threw out my record player a decade ago. Maybe there's a support group for people like me 
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I like the minimalism of the Simply Streisand cover shot. Less is more I think.
Oh gosh I have so many favorites....here are just a few after my number one favorite being
MY NAME IS BARBRA, TWO
Lazy Afternoon
Christmas Memories
What About Today
Songbird
Barbra Back to Broadway
Collection
Barbra Joan Streisand
and the list goes on..................
I'm not sure what happened to my comment from yesterday. It seems to have vanished like a number of my other posts here....(webmaster problems?) so I'll reiterate:
Favorite cover shot: Simply Streisand
Less is more...
I agree less is more.
Except when it comes to Barbra; in which case more is more.
The more the better.
Over the top.
Too much drama.
Viva la Diva.
PS. Have also noticed that posts disappear and then re-appear after a while.
I also like the Richard Avedon photo on the cover of Je'mappelle Barbra. So very moody, and would be stunning in a matted black frame.
Barbra Back to Broadway.
Also, Big Fan's Richard Avedon pick.
Streisand's Greatest Hits Vol 2( backlit and that profile)
A Christmas Album
Classical Barbra
The Movie Album (great head shot with camera) Great tunes also, (2 Bergman tunes)(Previn and Sondheim)(and Mancini)
Greatest Hits Vol 2 has a very dramatic photograph which is very in keeping with the theme of most of the songs on that album. Many of her cover photos seem to portray the feeling expressed in the songs on the album, as well as depicting how she is feeling in her private life at the time of recording. I speculate, based on interviews given by Barbra years later.
For instance
Till I loved you - with its very distanced and reserved look.
Higher Ground - portraying her renewed soulsearching after entering into a new relationship
Guilty pleasures - displaying her professional confidence after decades in the business.
And so on. Other performers seem to portray a fictional character on their cover photos, irrespective of turmoil going on in their private lives at the time.
They forgot to post this on Sat.:
Barbra Back to Broadway.
Also, Big Fan's Richard Avedon pick.
Streisand's Greatest Hits Vol 2( backlit and that profile)
A Christmas Album
Classical Barbra
The Movie Album (great head shot with camera) Great tunes also, (2 Bergman tunes)(Previn and Sondheim)(and Mancini)
Classical Barbra
Simply Streisand
Higher Ground
The Third Album
My top 5
1- Higher Ground
2- Love Is The Answer
3- Back to Broadway
4- Guilty Pleasures
5- The Way We Were
I like too many to mention, but I can't resist putting down a few, so here goes...
1. Ja M'appelle Barbra
2. The Way We Were
3. Wet
4. Emotion
5. Till I Loved You
I agree that her cover pictures set the tone for the album; a really good example of that is the cover picture for the Wet album. I too have many of her albums on vinyl, stored away safely (and no record player to play them on). CD's are the way to go, and none of that downloading stuff, since I Iove to look at the liner notes too, and have a product in hand for the purchase.
David.
One of the most striking cover, I think, is Greatest Hits Vol 2 - fantastic use of light and shadow.
Then there is Love Songs - Barbra looks stunning on that cover.
A Star Is Born ....and.... Song Bird (With the doggie and all Barbra's other dogs on the back
Lynne
So many of us seem to like Greatest Hits Vol 2
Great!
Now about "Love Songs", I am not sure but I think that this is the same album as "Memories", is it? They sometimes rename American albums when they are released in Europe (God knows why). They renamed Guilty pleasures "Guilty too" in Britain, if I remember correctly.
Maybe someone knows the answer?
Yes Hanna, Love songs is the same as Memories.
My favourite cover shots are
1- Stoney End. To me, it looks so atmospheric and mysterious.
2- Je m'appelle Barbra. I love her hair and her eyes in this picture
3- Guilty Too (Guilty Pleasures). She looks content, and safe wrapped in Barry's arms, like a little girl
4- The Way We Were. I love the red lipstick, and her hand looks so elegant. The scarf/turban thing on her head is really stylish.
5- Superman. Its really playful and shows a different side to Barbra.
Classical Barbra, A Star Is Born, and People.
I think Barbra designed the cover of People herself (unique design at the time by not showing the face of the artist) and won a Grammy for the design?
1.- Classical Barbra (Both front & back covers. Wild and tender. Extreme beauty)
2.- Je m´appelle Barbra (Arty and very European look)
3.- Stoney end (So different from the previous ones. New music, new artistic touch)
4.- People (How original can you be?)
5.- The Concert (Happy & beautiful at the peak of her career)
The Broadway Album - the richness of theatre, that single bulb, the score flowing over Barbra's knees and cascading to the floor, the irony and the comedy in Barbra's expression and demeanor, and lastly the memories I have that cannot be set apart from the hundreds of listenings I've given this extraordinary vocal and artistic achievement.
I remember Barbra talking in an interview about the fact that she matched the lace in her collar with the lace on her stockings for the costume in that photo. Now there´s a perfectionist!
There are many cover photo that I like, one of them is THE WAY WE WERE album solo. Till I was a teen that look cast a spell on me!
my favorite album covers are
till i loved you
higher ground
a collection greatest hits & more
emotion
second album
third album
love is the answer
memories
My favorite poster of Barbra was the one taken when her hair was straight and highlighted, and sometime around when she filmed "What's Up Doc?". I had her posters hanging in my bedroom and as a child growing up in the 1970's, my older sisters were listening to the Rolling Stones and Cat Stevens, and I was reading, watching, and listening to Barbra. She inspired me and pulled me through some pretty sad days in my young years. I feel like she is my true friend, and that somehow she did some of the things she did just to help me. ha ha.
Thank you Ms. Streisand. And thank you for having perfect pitch.
Amy Vasques Higgins
Chandler, AZ
I'd probably have to say Classical Barbra is the most 'artisitc' with the back photo just as elegant. I also like the covers for Stoney End, People, and Higher Ground for giving us a sense of what the music inside is all about. She looked extraordinarily pretty on Songbird's cover, and very sexy on the covers of WET and Guilty. On Barbra's Third album, I believe, was a very theatrical photo (take by the late Roddy McDowall ) with Barbra at the microphone, a complete black-out except for a small view of her face, that blonde streak in her hair...wonderful ! I can't rule out the rather whimsical fashion depicted on What About Today's cover, also in keeping with the 60's 'anything goes' style. Lazy Afternoon is also very colorful, her outfit perfect for the early 70's, and those beautiful legs ! But my favorite is the first Christmas Album because she looks (and sounds) like a glowing angel from God who is keeping us warm and safe throughout the holiday season. And, of course, KUDOS for the lovely sunset scene with her and Jim at the beach celebrating their adoration for one another on the cover of "Love Like Ours". The other snapshots included are a real treat. What a team ! That's it for now from Fran of Trenton NJ
vintage Streisand cover : There would be two, the black & white portrait
on Je m'appelle Barbra and What About Today
New: The upcoming Vanguard ...it was a wonderful night for her with Jim sitting directly upfront in an intimate setting...in the photo she looks very pleased and happy!
I brought the LP of the Broadway Album a couple of weeks ago, and I never realised how beautiful that cover is. The CD version does not do the picture justice. There is so much more detail on the LP than on the CD. It's definitely now in my top 10 favourite album covers.
I miss LP covers!
I love them because they're so big and you can see much more detail. I think the term "artwork" is really apt when describing LP's as they would look great hung on a wall, especially Barbra's.
Also the cover of Butterfly is BRILLIANT! So original and typically Barbra!
I have to go with The Broadway Album as it's were she belongs and looks stunning.
"Artwork"...hmm...now there's an idea! Maybe I'll have a few of my Barbra LP's framed (since I don't have a record player for them any more).
Stunning on any wall!
Back to Broadway.
Thanks for a nice question to ponder about.
Well, I actually really like the photos on The Essential Barbra Streisand, I like the mood Barbra´s in, but I wouldn´t put them in the list. So to speak about my favourite covers of Barbra´s albums (now, because who knows what nice surprises are still waiting for us) I would probably choose this order for the following reasons
1. Classical Barbra and Barbra Joan Streisand
I like them from the artistic point of view
2. Wet and Higher Ground
natural and spiritual two beautiful sides of Barbra
3.One Night Only and The Broadway Album
one of her best sides - on the stage, singing
4. Yentl
that´s how I met her and saw her in reality
THE WAY WE WERE
A very classy and sophisticated photograph that still looks fresh and contemporary today (30 plus years and counting).
I agree. And that's the ultimate sign of class and style, isn't it - the fact that it stands the test of time.
Timeless...