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Grammy Honors Barbra's 1st Album
Lessons at Columbia

 
Mike Berniker

People We Remember
   

Producer
 
Columbia Records producer Michael Berniker passed away on July 25 in Great Barrington, Mass, near his home in Upstate New York. He was 73. Berniker produced Barbra Streisand's first three studio albums, along with her breakout single, "People."

I knew Mike personally and was proud to have been his host at our 1996 fan reunion in New York. Those who met Mike will remember how proud he was of his association with Barbra. His passing is truly the end of a significant era in Streisand music history.
   
   
A Note from Mrs. Berniker (August 15, 2008)
"Thank you for acknowledging my husband, Mike Berniker. He was loved and respected by so many people, not just in the music world but in his private life and the folk he met along the way. I shared 33 wonderful years with this unique man, and enjoyed every fun-filled minute."
   
   
Producer of "The Barbra Streisand Album" et al.
   
July 29, 2008
 Mike Berniker was a true renaissance man of the music industry. An accomplished musician himself, one of Berniker's personal and professional passions was jazz. His first responsibility in the recording industry was to produce jazz albums for Columbia's Epic records label in the early 1960s. Later, Berniker founded Columbia's Jazz Masterpieces series.

With the "new" sound that Barbra Streisand represented at the time, Columbia Records was unsure at first on how best to showcase her on vinyl. Columbia went to Berniker and asked him if he would be able to successfully translate Barbra's unique vocal qualities into a successful studio album. Berniker leapt at the chance to work with someone whose voice was strong, profound, and perhaps most importantly, different. "I could not believe that this wasn't terrifically important to record," Berniker would later go on to recall. Berniker treated Barbra's voice as a jazz instrument, carefully mixing her vocals with arrangements that would blend together perfectly. With the success of Barbra's first three albums to his credit, Mike Berniker set an industry standard that was emulated my many record producers throughout the sixties.

With the notoriety and success he achieved by working with Barbra Streisand, Berniker became the record industry's foremost expert when it came to recording contemporary vocalists.  Berniker began producing for such notable artists as Eydie Gorme, Connie Francis, Perry Como and Johnny Mathis, among other pop recording artists. With Berniker at the helm in 1966, Eydie Gorme received a Grammy as Best Female Vocalist for her now classic rendition of "If He Walked Into My Life."

Mike Berniker's subsequent role was to produce Broadway cast albums. Again, his touch was golden. Many of his cast albums went on to become true Broadway classics,  among them, "The Will Rogers Follies" which won a Grammy as Best Cast Recording in 1991.

In all, Mike Berniker's projects were awarded nine Grammys, including "Album of the Year" for "The Barbra Streisand Album." In 1995, Berniker was inducted into the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

 
 



The 1996 Streisand Fan Reunion

 Fresh on the heals of his induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame, I asked Mike if  he would like to address the attendees of our 1996 Reunion in New York. He couldn't have been more enthusiastic about the opportunity to talk about those wonderful early years with Barbra in the recording studio. Mike was open and candid during his presentation, and fans hung on his every word as he talked about the amazing new talent Barbra Streisand represented to Columbia in the early sixties. He discussed how Columbia Records landed Barbra to her first recording contract after executives had seen her perform at The Bon Soir. Mike recalled in astonishing detail his responsibility as Barbra's first record producer. They were both novices at the time and had to work tirelessly to discover the best way to showcase Barbra's unique talent on her very first solo album. The success of Barbra Streisand's first  three albums certainly proved that Mike Berniker was the perfect record producer for Barbra as she sprinted from the starting line of her career as a recording artist. For their efforts, "The Barbra Streisand Album"  won Grammy Awards for "Album of the Year" and "Best Performance by a Female". (Art director John Berg won a third Grammy for the album's distinctive cover).

As a firsthand participant in the early development of Barbra's career in music, Mike's appearance with us in New York was truly special. He was unassuming as he spoke of Barbra's unique talent and the pivotal role he played in transforming Barbra Streisand, the Broadway star and nightclub singer, into Barbra Streisand, the successful recording artist we know today.


 Mike Berniker Recalls

When he spoke with us in New York on April 12, 1996, here's what Mike Berniker had to say about his time with Barbra:

I was twenty-four and she was all of nineteen when we started working. I couldn't believe the strength and profundity of her voice. I could not believe that this wasn't terrifically important to record.

I went to the Bon Soir and I listened to her, and there were a whole bunch of questions. Would her personality translate on records? Would she be too extreme in, at that time, her musicality? It's amazing to say that in today's context, but in 1962, she was very, very musical and very out there as far as what pop was about. It [pop music] wasn't about music. It was about songs and how you could get them on the radio. That's pretty much what the music business was about then.

So along comes this incredible woman who knew her stuff.  I was asked very bluntly: "What do you think? Can you work with her? She's so different," which to me as a producer, is the greatest thing you can say about any artist. That's the whole reason why we live. If she was different, that's what I wanted to know. If somebody's that talented and that profound, if you're a good producer, you make it your business to make sure that it gets displayed.

When it was all done, the first album, I was asked, "What do we call this?" I said, " 'The Barbra Streisand Album', of course." Fifteen bureaucrats stood up and said, "That's ridiculous. No one knows who she is. How could you call it 'The Barbra Streisand Album?' " I said, "Precisely." It comes from her chutzpah and mine. She was so strong and so perfect on that record that the title befitted the whole idea. It was a thrill for me to be able to enhance her talent.

She taught me a great deal. She was always prepared. She never came into a session wondering what she was going to do. She came in prepared and it was up to everybody connected with the project to understand what that preparation meant and to join hands and get it done. And that discipline helped me become the producer I became after her. I became a better producer by recording her than I would have without recording her.

What about now? When I got this terrific award last year for entry into the NARAS Hall of Fame, she sent me a lovely note which we read at the event. She said "It was difficult, but it was a lot of fun."  We had terrific times. And for a producer to have terrific times in the studio is what it's about.