Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan Drop a Duet That’s Shaking the Music World—You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!
Who would have thought that the legendary Barbra Streisand and the enigmatic Bob Dylan—a diva and a folk icon seemingly worlds apart—would finally join forces on a duet? It’s like the musical equivalent of spinach meeting chocolate: unexpected, yet oddly perfect. Streisand’s latest album, The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two, is packed with duets featuring some heavy hitters like Paul McCartney and Sting, but it’s her collaboration with Dylan on “The Very Thought of You” that’s sparking all the buzz. How did these two giants, who crossed paths and admirations as young artists in the ’60s but never quite connected until now, end up recording together after all these decades? Buckle up, because the story behind this long-awaited collaboration is as rich and surprising as the chemistry they share in the studio. LEARN MORE
On the surface, Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan seem pretty different, to say the least, but the two iconic singers just collaborated for the very first time, and they have a surprising history. Streisand’s latest album, The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two, which came out last month, features duets with musical greats like Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Tim McGraw and Sting, but out of this stacked lineup, the song that’s gotten the most attention is a duet on “The Very Thought of You” with none other than Dylan.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about the song and how a collaboration decades in the making finally came to fruition.
The long history between Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan
Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan started out around the same time in the early ’60s, and while they were part of different musical scenes, there was a mutual admiration between the diva and the folkie. In a 1971 interview that wasn’t made public until 2020, Dylan revealed that he wrote his classic 1969 love song “Lay Lady Lay” for Streisand.
In typically enigmatic Dylan fashion, the singer-songwriter didn’t clarify whether he intended the lyrics of “Lay Lady Lay” to be about Streisand or if he wrote the song with her in mind to sing it, but either way, Streisand was delighted to learn that she inspired the ballad, and when this news was revealed, she said, “I’m very flattered to find out that Bob Dylan wrote ‘Lay Lady Lay’ for me. What I remember is getting flowers from him with a handwritten note asking me to sing a duet with him, but I just couldn’t imagine it then. Guess what, Bob, I can imagine doing it now!” Five years after she found out she was Dylan’s muse, the odd couple finally got their opportunity to work together on “The Very Thought of You.”
Streisand elaborated on the handwritten note from Dylan and her enduring appreciation of him in her 2023 memoir, My Name Is Barbra, writing, “I read an article about some of the items in Bob Dylan’s archives and was touched to find out he had saved a note from me. As I recall, back in the 1970s he sent me flowers and a charming note, written in colored pencil with childlike letters, asking me if I would like to sing with him. In return I sent him the note that’s in his archives, thanking him for the flowers and the invitation. But for whatever reason, it didn’t happen.”
She continued, “Years later, when Yentl was about to come out, he sent me his latest album along with another letter. In it he wrote, ‘There are some songs on this album which I’m sure you would love to do.’ He adds, ‘I’m looking forward to seeing your movie. Maybe you can direct me in one of mine.’ And then he goes on to say, ‘You are my favorite star. Your self-determination, wit and temperament and sense of justice have always appealed to me.’” She concluded, “That feeling goes both ways, because I have such respect for his talent.” Now that they’ve done their duet, maybe a Streisand/Dylan film project will be next!
How Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan’s duet came to be
Over 50 years after Dylan first said that Streisand inspired “Lay Lady Lay,” the musicians hit the recording studio to duet on “The Very Thought of You.” Covering the 1934 standard was a fitting choice for the pair, as they’ve both released albums of songs from this era, and she told The New Yorker, “Bob loved that song. He’s very shy, like I am. But he was wonderful to work with. I was told that he didn’t want any direction. But when I talked to him about things that I suggested, he was so pliable—he was so open to suggestions. Everything I heard about him just went out the window. He stood on his feet for three hours with me . . . It was just an extraordinary three hours.”
Given Streisand’s larger-than-life persona, it’s surprising to learn that she was initially intimidated by recording with Dylan, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “We were all kind of scared a bit because I was told I can’t bring anybody to the recording studio, not even my producers. So I was kind of scared, but thrilled to be meeting him in person for the first time. My husband wasn’t allowed to come. He usually comes to my sessions. He likes to do that. Bob came with his wife. I actually gave him a copy of my book and inscribed it with something like, ‘You and I were 19 years old at the same time, strolling around Greenwich Village looking for work.’”
In a Billboard interview, Streisand further detailed the early-career history she shared with Dylan, saying, “I talked to him about our pasts; we never met but we were in Greenwich Village at the same time, finding our way, unknown—me at the Bon Soir [a defunct nightclub] and him with his guitars playing his clubs. It’s interesting we finally met.”
It seems that Streisand and Dylan were fated to work together, and recording their duet proved to be a powerful experience. As she told Billboard, “The interesting thing is that I saw it as an acting piece. It’s two different people, how they were feeling each other out: what kind of emotions are going on when two people have known of each other for such a long time but never met. It was wonderful to work with him, actually. I did my part earlier in the day, and it worked out perfectly with his. I’m ever the director. And he wanted direction, which was so lovely: ‘What do you think? What do you want?’ He just was so open to trying this or trying that. It was really easy.”
While fans never expected Streisand and Dylan to duet, it’s clear that the two performers have real chemistry, and we love that the connection between them reaches all the way back to the ’60s.
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