Easily one of the top five Streisand recordings of all time, THE WAY WE WERE is an album that shouldn't work at all, no less work brilliantly. After the title song took off as a single (it hit #1 on the Hot 100 and eventually became the top selling single of the year), THE WAY WE WERE was hastily assembled by having Barbra quickly record three more new songs (recorded in a one-night session) and using previously unissued songs that were left over from canceled earlier projects to fill up the rest of the record. The end product should have been spotty and uneven, but THE WAY WE WERE stands as an amazingly cohesive and consistent release.

While recorded anywhere from four to seven years apart, the songs interweave with one another to produce a remarkably solid piece. I have no idea why such strongly written, marvelously performed songs remained in the vaults as long as they did. This is an album that really makes you aware of the power of Barbra's subtlety. Her restrained vocals on "Summer Me, Winter Me" and "Pieces of Dreams" are gorgeous, while her haunting renditions of "What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life?" and "My Buddy/How About Me?" will give even the most cynical listeners chills. However, she also gets to show off her phenomenal vocal prowess, and gives "The Best Thing You've Ever Done" and "Never Been A Woman Before" incomparable performances.

The new material is just as fantastic, and lays down perfectly beside the older tracks. Her renditions of Paul Simon's "Something So Right" and Stevie Wonder's "All In Love Is Fair" are particularly lovely, and of course the title track is one of Streisand's best-loved signature songs. THE WAY WE WERE album hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 200 and has reached Double Platinum status in sales, probably due to the success of the hit title track. However, the whole disc is amazing in it's entirety and is one of Streisand's finest.

I was amazed when I read sometime back that "The Way We Were" album was actually just a bunch of previously released non-LP singles and B-sides thrown together with some unreleased tracks and her then current #1 hit "The Way We Were."

But what material! In my opinion, her only albums that even come close to this are Guilty, People, and maybe The Broadway Album. Every song is outstanding.

But she has never been in better voice than on this set. Her delicate opening notes on "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life" send chills up your spine. I once played just the first few lines of that song for a friend of mine, and she simply closed her eyes and said, "Mmm!" as if she were tasting the most delectable dessert. It is arguably the single finest vocal performance of Streisand's career.

But sadly, the US version of this CD lacks any bonus tracks whatsoever. The UK edition does feature the film version of the title track, but this has been issued many times before. What should have been included is the hit single recording of "The Way We Were," which, though utilizing the same instrumental backing track as the LP version, used a completely different vocal take from start to finish.

Perhaps she decided she didn't like her vocal on the single, and re-recorded it for the later-released LP. Whatever the case, the hit 45 rpm recording has never been issued on any LP or CD. I remember the first time I bought her "Greatest Hits Vol. 2" album, back in 1981, on vinyl. I thought, "This isn't how I remember 'Way We Were' sounding on the radio." But I chalked it up to poor memory.

Do you know that, once ABKCO's boxed set of Cameo-Parkway artists is released late in 2004, "The Way We Were" will be the only #1 single since 1939 to never have been issued on CD in its hit version? Sad but true.

5 stars for the album, 4 1/2 for the remastering, and zero for not including at least two bonus tracks! Barbra, if you're reading this, quit sitting on your old recordings!

From the beginning to the final tracks, this album is Barbra Streisand at her finest! The ballads on this album are still as beautiful today as they were 25 years ago. The album starts off on a powerful note with the ballads "Being at War With Each Other", and "Something So Right". Amazingly enough, the greatest song on this album is NOT the immortal classic, "The Way We Were", yet it is the extremely powerful ballad, "The Best Thing You've Ever Done". The ending still sends chills down my spine. "All in Love Is Fair", "What Are you Doing the Rest of Your Love" and "Summer Me, Winter Me" contain Streisand at her best in a restrained vocal, yet she lets it all out on the beautiful, intoxicating, goosebump giving "I've Never Been a Woman Before". This album is a must-have not just for Streisand fans, but for all music fans in general. An excellent piece of art!

The fact that the better half of the tracks on this album(3, 6-10) were recorded in 1970(five years before its release) right after Barbra finished On a Clear Day... is not surprising. It was at this time before she decided to go pop that her voice was at its most pure and powerful. Her voice sounds so warm and effortless on those tracks you cant help but be hypnotized. Thankfully Barbra chose to use less than rock and more class on the remaining tracks, which are just as enjoyable because they are so passionately song. It makes one wonder how even more wonderful the album the pre-recorded songs came from would have been, had Barbra decided not to scrap them for the more contemporary Stoney End CD

I don't see a listing for it, but found this original entry for the previously issued THE WAY WE WERE studio album. The new version has restored original artwork, inclusive of the words "THE WAY WE WERE" next to the lovely Barbra photo from the first album release prior to removing it later. The names of the men responsible for the remastering Stephe Marcussen & Stewart Whitmore are noted on the tray insert, so you have the correct one, plus a new catalog number BK85153. The sound is superb and previous hiss has been further diminished or eliminated (still a slight amount at the end of "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life", but not like before, where the last note goes & the hiss fades out). This edition did not make 5 stars, as Bonus tracks could've been added and were not. The true single version of THE WAY WE WERE could've been included (where the line "smiles we gave to one another" sounds different than the album version), as well as a 45RPM single version of "The Best Thing You've Ever Done". With CDs able to contain up to 80 minutes of music these days, it is a shame this new issue, along with 4 other Streisand Classics did not add bonus tracks. I hope future releases will take this into consideration based on her 40th Anniversary with Columbia this year. All in all, the sound is superb and this is one of Barbra's best overall albums.