NEW YORK (Columbia Records) - Nearly 25 years after their historic success with Barbra Streisand's "
Guilty" album, the legendary singer will rejoin with
Barry Gibb to work on a new album together. Mr. Gibb will again be writing and producing for the as-yet untitled project, scheduled for
September release (the silver anniversary of "
Guilty") on Columbia Records.
Upon its initial release in 1980, "Guilty" was quickly certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and within two months, achieved Platinum status. It has gone on to be certified 5x's Platinum, with sales exceeding 5,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone. It is one of Ms. Streisand's record-breaking tally of 49 Gold, 30 Platinum and 13 Multi-Platinum albums. According to the RIAA, she is the industry's No 1 bestselling female recording artist ... and the only female in their top 10 list.
In October of 1980, "Guilty" became Ms. Streisand's fifth album to reach No 1 on Billboard's chart. The album's single "Woman In Love" also topped the charts. Additionally, the title track "Guilty" and "What Kind Of Fool," both duets with Mr. Gibb, became Top 10 hits, with "Guilty" receiving the Grammy Award for "Best Pop Vocal performance, Duo or Group."
Mr. Gibb will compose a dozen new songs for the reunion album. (He composed all nine songs featured on "Guilty"). Recording will take place at his studio in Miami, Florida, and at Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City, California. Last year, the motion picture studio's historic recording facility was formally renamed The Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage.
"Guilty" is tied with Barbra Streisand's "Greatest Hits Vol. 2," "A Christmas Album" and "Memories" as the singer's best-selling albums to date, representing together 20 million of the more than 71.5 million albums she has sold to date.
Last year Ms. Streisand made her first film appearance following an eight year absence from the screen. "Meet The Fockers," in which she stars with Ben Stiller, Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman, has become the top-earning live action comedy in film history, earning over a half-billion dollars worldwide.
