Barbra Streisand had already released award-winning and best-selling albums, starred in a Broadway musical (Funny Girl) and two film musicals (Funny Girl again, and Hello Dolly), by the time she recorded the theme song from ‘The Way We Were’ in 1973, but this was her first hit single, going to number 1 in USA and winning the Oscar for best song. She was still just 31.
The song is by composer Marvin Hamlisch, who also bagged an Oscar for ‘The Sting’ score in the same year. The husband and wife team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman provided the lyrics.
‘The Way We Were’ was hot property in 1974 with recordings by Perry Como and Gladys Knight among many others. Andy Williams included the song on an album of the same name. In 1975 covers came from Shirley Bassey, Johnny Mathis, Jimmy Scott, Glen Campbell and Bobby Vinton, and on and on through the late 1970s and into the 80s. I particularly enjoy Bing Crosby’s version from 1976, made the year before he died.
Much of the poignancy of the song is established in the first five bars. The lyrics are extremely evocative – “Mem’ries light the corners of my mind” and “Misty water-coloured mem’ries” – and they are supported by the use of non-chordal tones on the first syllable of ‘memories’ each time. The first is a sixth (A) over the C triad, the second uses a 9th (B) over an A minor chord.
Key Versions:
Barbra Streisand (1973)
Bing Crosby (1976)