Till I Loved You (album)

After two successful projects with The Broadway Album – Streisand's 1985 return to her stage roots – and One Voice – her first full-length live concert recorded in September 1986, which was issued on both disc and video with benefit purposes, Barbra Streisand decided to make a return to the pop scene. Till I Loved You was conceived as a lushly romantic album, with a particular concept – it followed the stages of a relationship from the beginning (in songs like "The Places You Find Love") to the end ("Some Good Things Never Last"), and then wrapped up the theme with a positive song about the future ("One More Time Around").[5]

Many writers, producers and musicians appeared on the album, making of the album a high-budget project as happened with Streisand's previous pop mainstream project, 1984's Emotion.

The opening song, "The Places You Find Love" was produced by Quincy Jones. Later, the song appeared on his own album Back on the Block, which received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1991. Streisand's version featured an all-star backup group - background vocals were credited to Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, James Ingram, Howard Hewett, Jennifer Holliday, Peggi Blu, Clif Magness, Siedah Garrett and Edie Lehmann. On Back on the Block's version, Siedah Garrett sang the first verse and chorus, followed by Chaka Khan singing the second verse. Jones utilized the same arrangement and background singers for his album, and also incorporated some African chanting during the bridge and climax of the song. "The Places You Find Love" was the only time Barbra and Quincy Jones have worked together (until "We Are The World 25 (For Haiti)" in 2010).

Another highlight from the album was the title track, which was a duet with the Miami Vice superstar actor Don Johnson, whom Streisand was dating at the time of recording.[7] The track was the love theme from Goya, a project developed by CBS Records, Freddie Gershon and Allan Carr for opera singer Plácido Domingo playing artist Francisco Goya. In 2006, in an interview with TV host Jonathan Ross, Johnson recalled about the recording of the song:

... It was amazing. First of all she's probably the diva of all time, in terms of voices... I was under contract to Columbia at the time – her studio. Of course, at the time I was the "biggy-wow-wow" in television and film and with Miami Vice. And I'd just put out a record that had made the Top 5. This is how I met Barbra – Columbia came to me and said, "Would you like to do a duet with Barbra?" At first I said it's a different kind of music. Then I went, "What are you, crazy? You've got to do a duet with Barbra Streisand!

There was studio glass between us so that she could watch me sing – because it was a duet. It was a little nerve wracking, as I recall. She's a perfectionist... She's impeccable about everything, impeccable about every note. I want to be that way; it's just that I don't have the equipment that she has to do it. She is a wonderful, wonderful person. She's one of the most intelligent persons I've ever been around in my life, and she's very funny and has a humongous heart. She's a really terrific person.

— Don Johnson

Burt Bacharach produced and wrote three tracks on Till I Loved You with his wife and lyricist Carole Bayer Sager. According to his own words, "Barbra has great range. Nobody sounds like her when she's up that high, with that kind of clarity and purity. You can tell right away it's her. You can't say that about many singers."

Phil Ramone produced the song "All I Ask of You", which was originally a duet in Andrew Lloyd Webber's blockbuster musical The Phantom of the Opera. Ramone commented:

... It's an interesting concept – messing with Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff. It's not easy. Barbra's always approached music from both a lyrical point of view and a sensibility of, ‘why can’t I sing this? Why wouldn’t I sing this? Why wouldn’t I sing this to him?’ You know, it's established for too long that it's a duet. You can take a song and re-voice it or change keys. But this song is written as a duet. I don’t know, we just took a shot... We worked on it so it could be a meaningful song, as it is.

You always call [the lyricists]. It's one of the classic things that Barbra's capable of. She's not afraid to make a change, make a lyrical point more poignant. Her friends, you know, are the Bergmans. Barbra's the queen of listening and looking at lyrics. All of us who have been around great songs know what that means.

— Phil Ramone

Information taken from Liner Notes[1][8]

Information taken from Liner Notes[1][8]

• Barbra Streisand – vocals (2-5, 7-8, 10-11, lead on 1, 6, 9)
• Burt Bacharach – piano (6)
• Jeff Baxter – guitar (“Till I Loved You”)
• Peggi Blu – background vocals (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Michael Boddicker – synthesizer (4, 6, 11)
• Dave Boruff – saxophone (3, 9)
• Robbie Buchanan – synthesizer (2, 7-10)
• Lenny Castro – percussion (4, 6, 11)
• Scott Cutler – drum machine (“What Were We Thinking Of”)
• Paulinho da Costa – percussion (1, 5)
• Lynn Davis – background vocals (“You and Me for Always”)
• Denise De Caro – background vocals (“You and Me for Always”)
• Chuck Findley – trumpet (“Love Light”)
• Michael Fisher – percussion (“Till I Loved You”)
• Siedah Garrett – background vocals (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Howard Hewett – background vocals (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Jennifer Holliday – background vocals (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Dann Huff – guitar (4, 6, 11, electric on 8, acoustic on 8)
• James Ingram – background vocals (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Philip Ingram – background vocals (“You and Me for Always”)
• Paul Jackson Jr. – guitar (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Don Johnson – vocals (3, background on 9)
• Louis Johnson – bass guitar (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Tom Keane – piano (“One More Time Around”)
• Randy Kerber – keyboards (1), piano (7, 10), Fender Rhodes (4, 6), synthesizer (11)
• Michael Landau – guitar (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Edie Lehman – background vocals (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Clif Magness – background vocals (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Joe Pizulo – background vocals (“You and Me for Always”)
• Jeff Porcaro – drums (“Some Good Things Never Last”)
• Mark Radice – piano (“Some Good Things Never Last”)
• Tom Rainer – synthesizer (2, 8)
• Andrea Robinson – background vocals (“You and Me for Always”)
• John Robinson – drums (1, 7)
• Howard Smith – background vocals (“You and Me for Always”)
• Neil Stubenhaus – bass guitar (4, 6-7, 10-11)
• Michael Thompson – guitar (“What Were We Thinking Of”)
• Luther Vandross – background vocals (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Carlos Vega – drums (4, 6)
• Randy Waldman – piano (2, 8), synthesizer (3, 5, 7, 9-10), drum machine (3, 9)
• Dionne Warwick – background vocals (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Larry Williams – keyboards (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Patrick Williams – string arrangement, string conductor (2, 5, 8)

Production

• Barbra Streisand – producer (2, 7-8, 10)
• John Arrias – recording engineer (1-3, 5, 7-10), audio mixing (2-3, 5, 7-8)
• Burt Bacharach – producer, musical arrangement (4, 6, 11)
• Glen Ballard – producer, synthesizer arrangement, musical arrangement (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Carole Bayer Sager – producer (4, 6, 11)
• Scott Cutler – rhythm arrangement (“What Were We Thinking Of”)
• Denny Diante – producer (7, 9-10)
• Humberto Gatica – recording engineer (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Mick Guzauski – recording engineer (4, 6, 11), audio mixing (4, 6, 9-11)
• Jerry Hey – synthesizer arrangement, musical arrangement (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Quincy Jones – producer, synthesizer arrangement, musical arrangement (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Randy Kerber – synthesizer programming (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Rhett Lawrence – synthesizer programming (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Jeremy Lubbock – synthesizer arrangement (10), string arrangement (7, 10), string conductor (7, 10)
• Clif Magness – producer, synthesizer arrangement, musical arrangement (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Phil Ramone – producer (3, 5), musical arrangement (3)
• Jim Scott – recording engineer (“What Were We Thinking Of”)
• Bruce Swedien – recording engineer, audio mixing (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Randy Waldman – musical arrangement (3), rhythm arrangement (5, 9), synthesizer programming (3)
• Larry Williams – synthesizer programming (“The Places You Find Love”)
• Frank Wolf – recording engineer (2, 5, 8-10), audio mixing (5)