Streisand's Ex Auctioning Private Tapes

By PopEater Staff Posted Aug 21st 2009 10:07AM

Barbra Streisand's ex-boyfriend is hoping to make a quick million off the singer by auctioning off tapes of her earliest performances, NY Post reports. With bids starting at $1 million, Barry Dennen is taking a risky move admitting, "I'm a little trepidatious. I don't know what the fallout will be. I don't like upsetting Barbra, and I don't want her fans angry at me."

Dennen said he met Streisand in 1959 as cast mates in the off-Broadway play, 'The Insect Comedy' and became lovers soon after. The two collaborated on a few songs and he has held onto those tapes until now.

According to reports, the tapes include Streisand singing 'A Taste of Honey' and 'Two Brothers' in Dennen's apartment, with him accompanying on guitar.

There's also a Sept. 17, 1960, rehearsal at the Bon Soir nightclub, where Streisand sang 'Keepin' Out of Mischief Now,' 'A Sleepin' Bee,' 'I Want To Be Bad,' 'When Sunny Gets Blue,' 'Lover Come Back to Me,' 'Nobody's Heart' and 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?'

After they broke up, she asked for the tapes back, but Dennen refused. "I said 'No. They are the only thing I have left of our collaboration,'" he recalled. Now the private tapes are being auctioned off to the highest bidder on his Web site, MomentsInTime.com. The auction will end on September 24.

A spokesman for Streisand said, "Our lawyers are dealing with this."

Tags: auctioning, barbra streisand, BarbraStreisand, private tapes, PrivateTapes

Comments

(133)

Friday 21 August

By Barbwa is like buttah!

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On Barbra's "Just for the Record" retrospective set, a section of the Bon Soir performances were included (I thought they were the Dennen tapes, but maybe not) so it's not like these are true rarities. Why didn't Dennen offer them to Barbra for sale in the first place? Dennen is probably down and out and needs the money.

Saturday 22 August

By Heather

Whats the big deal, not like they are sex tapes.

Saturday 29 October

By caspar mctaggart

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no, those recordings were made by columbia records for her debut album. in the end, however, they decided not to use the live recordings and produced a studio album. dennen recorded her very first appearances at the bon soir in order to help her refine her act. the 'dennen tapes' are the holy grail for streisand collectors.

By jannykmac

There's something so icky about an ex-boyfriend making money off someone else's talent...

By Dan

I have lots of tapes of performances by fellow music school students. My goal is to make digital versions of them, burn them on CDs and send them back to the performers (or perhaps to their families for those folks who are no longer with us). The original tapes will be erased. No money will be exchanged.

By redfldnparadise

Just about ex-boyfriends? What about women who drill husbands into poverty.

By muchogroucho

there's something really "icky" about people who say "icky".

By Raffael Zuccaro

I think that if he was DINGING Barbra and he has it on tape, he would make millions- Everybody would like to see a guy making love to an ugly PIG-- But for songs, WHO CARES???

By Jim

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you got that wright , not one time in her shallow life would i want to see that talentless shrwude naked ...eeeeeewwwwwww

By Gail

you are just jealous. She has had some bad times too. Be careful what you say about other people it can come back and bite you where it hurts

By shoegal85

excuse me.. she is not ugly. you are rude for saying that about the most talented female singer of all time..

By twogolfcats

Hey Shogal85, Not only do I think Barbra is UGLY, I also think her voice has a NASAL quality that is unbearable when you hear her sing for a short period of time!!! You say she has one of the greatest voices of all time???? I DISAGREE- the only reason she became famous is because of the "LIKE" people who PULL the STRINGS in Hollywood and New York!!! They have "MADE" stars out of NOBODIES for years-Its all about the "SHECLES", thats all!!!

By bill

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what a LOW life. Go cut some hair Jon....

By belle

My only question is What took him so long?

It's only business. As a co-colaborator he has
a right to see if he can get money for this!

By Ed Weirdness

He's entitled to sell anything that he produced (recorded) or that he played guitar on. Intellectual property might protect anything that Streisand did, provided it was an original work (i.e. music, lyrics, arrangement, etc) and such authorship could be demonstrably show. Just like home movies, if the participants allowed the taping to happen, the rights belong to the person doing the taping. I can't imagine that there's anyone who would pay 1 million dollars for even Streisand doing "covers" of other peoples material, especially some that are now considered "really old standards". They should let the guy hawk his tapes, it's not like he has a closet full, it's a one time shot, and I doubt there's enough music there to make inroads into the Streisand catalog or otherwise harm her image.

By Angiebaby

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I'm thinking that unless she signed a release for her performances, the weasel is setting himself up for an ugly legal battle. I hope by the time Barbra Streisand is finished with him, he goes straight from the ALMS house... to the BIG house.

By KG

Striesand and Brolin don't need the money, but in this case, Dennen may need the money, otherwise, he wanted to keep the collaboration between the two as a sample of what he's done. However, if he wants to sell them, technically, they're his, Barbara never insisted or taken him to court to gain rights of her work, or put a stipulation on his keeping those tapes. Over 30 days, possession is 9/10ths of the law, and they're his to have and to hold and he can sell them. If she wants to get a lawyer and fight for recording rights, and a percentage of the sale, then she can go for it! Right now, they're his to do what he wants with.
You mean to say, the recordings, autographs, etc of performers I can't sell without their permission at a flea market or garage sale? Will I need permission to do what I want with my possessions, I can't sell Barbara Striesand albums?

By Puma

Not legally. It's like pirating. Just because you bought it doesn't mean you have a right to make a profit. Read the fine print.

By KS

Barbra asked for the tapes back and he refused. That was stated in the article. It may be legal, but I still think it's tacky.

As a young girl in NY, my friends and I went to Coney Island and did record a record of a song we collaborated on, and not knowing the copyright laws, we sent off our record to a studio, don't truly know where, as my friend's father did send it for us. We wrote, "The Boy Next Store," in which a recording using our lyrics replacing boy with girl, using our melody to boot. However, we couldn't claim that recording was ours, as we didn't keep a copy of the record, or the letter that was sent with it to the studio. It was early 60's we sent it and soon after the song came out. I do wish I kept a copy of our childhood recording, as that was a fun time, with good memories that are priceless. Hopefully, Barbara Striesand will offer him money and have him sign a contract that he signs a waiver relinquishing him from future claims and giving her sole property to do whatever she wants with, or if she does air them, he's given a percentage as royalty for the background music.

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