Just for the Record... (Barbra Streisand album)

Just for the Record...
A golden rose appears over a pink background that displays the album's title and respective artist.
Box set by Barbra Streisand
Released September 24, 1991 (1991-09-24)
Recorded 1955–1988
Genre Pop[1]
Length 4:07:14
Label Columbia
Producer
Barbra Streisand chronology
A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More
(1989)A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More1989		 Just for the Record...
(1991)		 Back to Broadway
(1993)Back to Broadway1993

Just for the Record... is a box set by American singer Barbra Streisand. It was released by Columbia Records on September 24, 1991. Streisand and her manager, Martin Erlichman, were credited as the album's executive producers. Just for the Record... includes a variety of performances throughout Streisand's career, recorded between 1955 and 1988. It also features a song taken from her first studio recording session, a cover of Mack Gordon and Harry Warren's "You'll Never Know". Other tracks were taken from various live performances, TV specials, and her previous albums from her back catalog.

Reception-wise, Just for the Record... received positive views aimed towards its comprehensiveness of her overall career. Commercially, the album was equally successful, becoming the second best-selling box set in the United States by 1994, when it had sold over 404,000 units. It entered the Billboard 200 in the United States and peaked at number 38; it has also been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In the Netherlands, Highlights from Just for the Record, a condensed version of the album, peaked at number 72.

Background and release

Just for the Record... was released on September 24, 1991 by Columbia Records.[2] It includes four discs, with each disc focusing on a different decade ("The 60s Part I", "The 60s Part II", "The 70s", and "The 80s"). It was initially priced at $79.98 USD and by 1994 was the second best-selling box set collection in the United States (behind only Led Zeppelin's 1990 self-titled box set) with approximately 404,000 copies sold.[3] Serving as a retrospective of Streisand's three decade-spanning career, it features several songs from her catalogue in addition to previously unreleased tracks. Her first studio-recorded track ever, a cover of Mack Gordon and Harry Warren's "You'll Never Know" (1943), was featured as the album's opener track and was recorded in 1955.[4] Howard Reich from PopMatters claimed that Streisand's cover proved that she already had had plenty of talent to become a recording artist, despite her young age.[5] Despite the wide array of producers who contributed to the various tracks included in the collection, Streisand and her manager, Martin Erlichman, were credited as the album's two executive producers.[6] In addition to the four discs of material, Just for the Record... includes a 92-page color booklet featuring a variety of photos and artwork created throughout her career.[1]

Among the previously unreleased material of Just for the Record... are live performances on The Jack Paar Show, P.M. East, The Garry Moore Show, The Tonight Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Judy Garland Show. Duets with Judy Garland, Harold Arlen, Don Rickles, and Ryan O'Neal are also featured. As a whole, the performances featured on the collection range in year recorded from 1955 to 1988.[6] A condensed version of the box set titled Highlights from Just for the Record was released sometime in 1992. It includes 24 of the songs from Just for the Record... and was priced significantly lower than the original collection.[7]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
AllMusic
Highlights from Just for the Record		[8]
Entertainment WeeklyA-[1]

Just for the Record... received high ratings and praise from music critics. William Ruhlmann from AllMusic enjoyed the unique nature of the record and commented that because "she had complete creative control over th[e] retrospective", she was able to release a box set consisting of nearly only "rare [and] previously unreleased material". He also labelled the duets with Garland and "Las Vegas Medley" as some of the album's best tracks.[2] In the publication's review of Highlights from Just for the Record, Ruhlmann was equally appreciative and noted that it serves as a "fine overview of Bab's career" and provides for a "great listening".[8] Describing the large size of the collection, Entertainment Weekly's David Browne compared it to the two installments of Use Your Illusion (volumes I and II) by Guns N' Roses and claimed that it "is impossible to digest in one sitting". Browne ultimately awarded the collection a grade of A- and called it a good representation of the singer's ability to "chang[e the] definition of pop" and "make mainstream adult pop that was strong, elegant, [and] even passionate".[1] Joe Brown from The Washington Post was more mixed towards the effort: "All four discs are dotted with oddities that even the most devoted Barbraphiles will program their CD players to skip after the first listen or two"; however, Brown appreciated some of the rarities on the album, including her duets with Garland and her melody of "My Man" and "Auld Lang Syne".[9]

The box set entered and peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 38 on October 12, 1991 and was the week's fifth highest-peaking debut.[10] It dropped to number 63 the following week and spent a combined total of 16 weeks on the chart.[11] On November 19, 1991, it was certified Gold as a multi-disk package by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for physical shipments of 125,000 copies; its certification was then upgraded to Platinum, signifying shipments of 250,000 copies, on July 8, 1992.[12] As of June 2007, Just for the Record... had sold 454,000 box sets in the United States.[13] The Highlights from Just for the Record version entered the album charts in the Netherlands, where it spent three weeks in total and peaked at number 72.[14]

Track listings

Just for the Record...

Highlights from Just for the Record

Charts

Chart (1991–1992) Peak
position
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[14]
Highlights from Just for the Record version		 72
US Billboard 200[15] 38

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/Sales
United States (RIAA)[12] Platinum 454,000[13]

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Browne, David (October 18, 1991). "Article: Just for the Record..." Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Ruhlmann, William. "Barbra Streisand – Just for the Record...". AllMusic. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
  3. ↑ Bronson, Fred (April 23, 1994). "Box Score: Top 50 Boxed-Set Reissues". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 106 (17): 58. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  4. ↑ Waldman 2001, p. 74
  5. ↑ Reich, Howard (November 14, 2006). "Barbra Streisand takes time out from a rare tour to give a rarer interview". PopMatters. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Just for the Record... (Liner notes). Barbra Streisand (CD ed.). Columbia. 1991. CK 48648.
  7. 1 2 Highlights from Just for the Record (Liner notes). Barbra Streisand (CD ed.). Columbia. 1992. CK 52849.
  8. 1 2 AllMusic staff. "Barbra Streisand – Highlights from Just for the Record". AllMusic. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  9. ↑ Brown, Joe (October 6, 1991). "Pop Recordings; Barbra Streisand's Big Box of Gems and Ego". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  10. ↑ "Billboard 200: The Week Of October 12, 1991". Billboard. October 12, 1991. Archived from the original on July 25, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Billboard 200: The Week Of October 19, 1991". Billboard. October 19, 1991. Archived from the original on July 25, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  12. 1 2 "American album certifications – Barbra Streisand – Just for the Record". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 
  13. 1 2 Caulfield, Keith (June 22, 2007). "Ask Billboard". Billboard. Archived from the original on September 13, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  14. 1 2 "Dutchcharts.nl – Barbra Streisand – Highlights from...Just for the Record" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Barbra Streisand Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved August 23, 2017.

Bibliography

  • Waldman, Allison J. (2001). The Barbra Streisand Scrapbook (illustrated, revised ed.). Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-2218-6.
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