UPDATED: Here’s the track list:
1. It Had To Be You (w/ Michael Bublé)
2. People (w/ Stevie Wonder)
3. Come Rain Or Come Shine (w/ John Mayer)
4. Evergreen (w/ Babyface)
5. New York State Of Mind (w/ Billy Joel)
6. I’d Want It To Be You (w/ Blake Shelton)
7. The Way We Were (w/ Lionel Richie)
8. I Still Can See Your Face (w/ Andrea Bocelli)
9. How Deep Is The Ocean (w/ Jason Gould)
10. What Kind Of Fool (w/ John Legend)
11. Somewhere (w/ Josh Groban)
12. Love Me Tender (w/ Elvis Presley)
EARLIER Barbra Streisand can do anything, even sing with the dead! For her Duets album, due September 12, La Streisand has exhumed Elvis Presley for a duet. They never got the chance to sing together when he was alive, so why not now? Icky? We’ll see.
All the other artists on the album are guys. They include a list of MOR (that’s middle of the road) types like Andrea Bocelli, Michael Buble, Josh Groban, John Legend, Lionel Richie, John Mayer, and Blake Shelton. Billy Joel is also featured. So is Barbra’s son Jason Gould. Sounds like one big Ambien to me. I’d rather hear Barbra sing solo than pair up with this group. Zzzzz… (It will be nice to hear Billy though.)
What if Barbra had gotten Sting, Bono, Mick Jagger, Steven Tyler, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Smokey Robinson, and some younger dudes like Rob Thomas and Adam Levine? Wake it up a little bit! This Duets album is going to sell 30,000 copies. She’s wasting her extraordinary voice. If the orchestrations are similarly snoozy to those on her ill fated Barry Gibb album of a few years ago, she’ll be lucky to sell 30K.
And Elvis? I doubt they duet on Don’t Be Cruel or Burning Love. It’s probably either Love Me Tender or I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.
You know, don’t get me wrong. I’m very fond of Barbra. But if she’s going to keep recording, she’s got to find younger, hipper, people to mix with.
