Barbara Streisand’s upcoming album The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume Two is a collaborative effort that will feature duets with Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Sting, Hozier, Laufey, Sam Smith, Tim McGraw, Josh Groban, Seal, and Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande.
It arrives in stores on June 27, but Streisand released her first single, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” featuring Hozier, on Wednesday.
“I’ve always loved singing duets with gifted artists,” Streisand says in a statement. “They inspire me in unique and different ways…and make our time in the studio a joy! My new album gave me the chance to work and play with some of my old friends, labelmates, 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.”
Streisand and Dylan have never appeared on a song together before. But a 1971 letter from Dylan to his friend Tony Glover surfaced in 2020 that said “Lay Lady Lay ” was originally written for Streisand. And in 2016, the New York Times revealed that Dylan saved a 1978 letter from Streisand thanking her for sending flowers, and suggesting they record a song together.
“I was so touched to find out he had saved a note from me,” she wrote in response to the New York Times. “It prompted me to go back into my own archive and retrieve a letter I had saved from him. As I remember it, first he sent me flowers and a lovely note, asking me if I would like to sing with him. In return, I sent him the note that’s in his archive, thanking him for the flowers and the invitation. But for whatever reason, it never happened at the time.”
It’s taken 47 years, but the Dylan/Streisand collaboration dreamed up in 1978 is taking the form of a duet on the Thirties pop standard “The Very Thought of You.” (By coincidence, Dylan recorded an original song in 1985 also called “The Very Thought of You.”)
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Streisand also teams up on the album with McCartney for “My Valentine,” “One Heart, One Voice” with both Carey and Grande, “To Lose You Again” with Smith, “I Love Us” with McGraw, “Fragile” with Sting, “Where Do I Go From Here?” With Groban, “Love Will Survive” with Seal, “Secret O’ Life” with Taylor, and “Letter To My 13 Year Old Self” with Laufey.
The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume Two was produced by Walter Afanasieff and Peter Asher. It was recorded at The Streisand Scoring Stage in Culver City, California and at Abbey Road Studios in London with London Symphony Orchestra.
