Barbra Streisand's most recent album, Partners, hit platinum status recently, bringing her total to 31. She is currently the queen of million-selling albums according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with Reba McEntire far behind at 19 platinum releases. It's her best-selling record since 2001's Christmas Memories, Billboard notes.
The album hit number one on the pop charts in September, making it her 10th record to top the list. She is the only artist, female or otherwise, to have a number one album in all of the past six decades.
For Partners, Streisand enlisted the help of a laundry list of male singing talent. Josh Groban, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel and Blake Shelton all sang duets with Barb (can I call you Barb?). Despite all of the commercial success, though, the album received mostly negative reviews.
"Ms. Streisand's voice has noticeably diminished in size, but its signature quality, an ingrained sob, still exerts its pull. The choppy calls and responses between Ms. Streisand and her partners, however, lack conversational or narrative flow, and you have an uncomfortable sense that the parts were spliced together after the fact," The New York Times wrote.
The record is up for the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy this year.
One of the better tracks, according to the NYT, is "How Deep is the Ocean" - a duet with her son, Jason Gould.
"I nearly fell off my chair, how beautiful his voice is," Streisand told Katie Couric. "His musicianship ... he just floored me so I had to sing with him. ... He played me 'How Deep Is the Ocean.' I said I have to sing that song with you, because it's perfect lyric for a mother and a child."
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