At first glance, the list of collaborators on Barbra Streisand’s newly announced duets album “The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two” offers an expected blend of fellow superstars and more contemporary acts, including Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Sting, Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith, Bob Dylan…
Wait, what? Bob Dylan?
This album cover image released by Columbia Records shows “The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two” by Barbra Streisand. (Columbia Records via AP)
Actually, it’s not as crazy as one might think.
They’re both Jewish, 83 years old (Streisand was born a month before Dylan) and began their careers by changing their birth names (Barbara Streisand, Robert Zimmerman) and fleeing their hometowns to seek stardom in Manhattan (even if the Brooklyn-born Streisand didn’t have to travel as far as Minnesota’s own Dylan). They also both signed deals with Columbia Records, which remains their dual home to this day.
In a 1971 Dylan interview with the late Minneapolis blues legend Tony Glover that emerged after Glover’s 2019 death, Dylan revealed he had written his classic “Lay Lady Lay” for Streisand. In a statement to NBC News at the time, Streisand responded to the news: “”I’m very flattered to find out that Bob Dylan wrote ‘Lay Lady Lay’ for me. What I remember is getting flowers from him with a handwritten note asking me to sing a duet with him, but I just couldn’t imagine it then. Guess what, Bob, I can imagine doing it now!”
It turns out the pair kept eyes on each other for decades. In her 2023 memoir “My Name Is Barbra,” she wrote that “in the 1970s he sent me flowers and a charming note, written in colored pencil with childlike letters, asking me if I would like to sing with him.” In 1978, Streisand wrote to Dylan suggesting they work together. Five years later, he sent her a copy of his latest album “Infidels” with a message saying he was looking forward to seeing her film “Yentl” and hoped she’d direct him in a movie someday: “You are my favorite movie star. Your self-determination, wit and temperament and sense of justice have always appealed to me.”
We’ll find out what the long-in-the-works duet sounds like when Streisand’s album, a sequel to 2014’s “Partners,” arrives June 27. The pair’s song, “The Very Thought of You,” is presumably the 1934 standard by Ray Noble, although it’s possible it could be an unreleased Dylan original of the same name from 1985. (It’s probably not, though. Dylan took a deep dive into covering classic pop standards on a trio of late ’10s albums.)
“I’ve always loved singing duets with gifted artists,” Streisand said in a news release. “They inspire me in unique and different ways and make our time in the studio a joy! My new album, ‘The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume Two,’ gave me the chance to work and play with some of my old friends, label mates and new artists too. I admire all of them and I hope that you’ll enjoy listening to our collaborations as much as I enjoyed recording with all of my wonderful partners.”
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