Song #317: "The Way We Were" by Barbra Streisand

Date: Feb 2, 1974
Weeks: 3

I suppose it's to this song's credit that I thought it was older than this. Apparently it was originally written for a 1973 movie, The Way We Were, starring Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand. The movie is set in the 1930s, so it's appropriate that this feels like it should have been a song from the 1930s.

Well, that was my impression of it before I heard this recording, anyway, which I believe to be the recording that reached No. 1. While the lyrics and general string and piano music sound like they fit with the 1930s, this recording has carefully had several layers of unpleasant 70s excess piled on top of it. There's a bass guitar providing a 70s funk rhythm and cymbal percussion that just isn't needed. The string section is too big. The song just needs a pleasant little violin, but instead there are layers and layers of powerful strings that just makes the song feel way bigger than it needs to be.

Of course, the strings need to be that powerful to successfully compete with Barbra Streisand. As I complained before, Streisand oversings, and she's certainly doing that here. Again, it's too much power, and robs the song of its genuine emotion.

I like the lyrics. They feel appropriately timeless. "Can it be that it was all so simple then, or has time rewritten every line?" I like the overall awareness that we tend to look back fondly on the past and remember the good things. And I suppose now that I know that it's deliberately trying to be the type of song from the 1930s that people in the 1970s are remembering, the lyrics seem even more appropriate. Good on you, song.

My verdict: Don't like it. The way this song was performed in the movie is a little better, with a more genuine 1930s-style musical arrangement. That doesn't solve the problem of Streisand oversinging it, but it feels more timeless and classic with an arrangement that isn't so stuck in the 1970s.