Description
Partners is the thirty-fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Barbra Streisand, released on September 16, 2014 by Columbia Records. The album features Streisand singing duets with an all-male lineup including Stevie Wonder, Michael Bublé, Billy Joel, John Legend, John Mayer, Andrea Bocelli, Lionel Richie, and, from an earlier recording, Elvis Presley. The collection also features Streisand’s first studio-recorded duet with her now 47-year-old son, Jason Gould. The album release was promoted on The Tonight Show, where Streisand was the evening’s sole guest and sang a medley with host Jimmy Fallon.
While the recordings are new, most of the songs have a previous history as Streisand releases. Two classic Streisand duets are updated with new partners: “What Kind of Fool”, newly performed with John Legend (originally with Barry Gibb) and “Lost Inside of You”, newly performed with Babyface (originally with Kris Kristofferson). The deluxe edition features an additional duet with Babyface along with previously released material featuring Frank Sinatra (who died in 1998), Bryan Adams, Barry Manilow, and Barry Gibb (from The Bee Gees).
Partners is one of 2014’s best-selling albums in the US, having sold 856,000 copies. Partners topped the Billboard 200 with sales of 196,000 copies in the first week, making Streisand the only recording artist to have a number-one album in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. It was also certified gold in November 2014 and platinum in January 2015, thus becoming Streisand’s 52nd gold and 31st Platinum album (she also has 7 Gold-certified singles to her credit), more than any other female artist in history.[11] The album was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal album at the 57th Grammy Awards.
