VIDEOS: Barbra Streisand's Broadway! Part Three: The 1980s

Barbra Streisand's "ENCORE: Movie Partners Sing Broadway" album will debut on August 26th, 2016, featuring 10 new Streisand duets of Broadway classics with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. The inspired new musical pairings on "ENCORE: Movie Partners Sing Broadway" include Alec Baldwin, Antonio Banderas, Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman,Seth MacFarlane, Melissa McCarthy, Chris Pine, Daisy Ridley, Patrick Wilson, and a spectacular virtual duet with Anthony Newley.

Fans can pre-order "ENCORE: Movie Partners Sing Broadway" now at Amazon, Apple Music or the Barbra Streisand Music Store.

In celebration of Barbra Streisand's commitment to singing and recording the great songs of Broadway, BroadwayWorld presents a six-part decade-by-decade video series sampling the legendary artist's performances of musical theatre classics.

Barbra Streisand's Broadway! Part Three: The 1980s:

The music industry turned upside down in 1981 when MTV became the first television network dedicated to broadcasting music videos. Suddenly, hit songs were no longer just meant to be heard. There had to be a visual aspect. Of course, that was no trouble for a seasoned actor like Barbra Streisand.

Her 1981 album, "Memories," led off with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn's "Memory," from their Broadway-bound West End hit, CATS. Streisand premiered this rapturous video.

And then came "The Broadway Album." Some would call her 1985 release a bit of going back to her roots but there was nothing nostalgic about the inventive ways she found to interpret this first-class selection of musical theatre songs. The work of Stephen Sondheim dominated the playlist, such as this showcased performance of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE's "Putting It Together," which was given a new context to suit the occasion.

Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein's "Somewhere," from WEST SIDE STORY, was given this striking video.

Streisand certainly wasn't the first vocalist to record Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns" from A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, but she was probably the first to approach the composer/lyricist to ask about a part of the lyric that didn't make sense to her. Indeed, in the context of the musical, there's a bit of dialogue that takes place in the middle of the song that changes the character's perspective. So Broadway's greatest living composer/lyricist took out his pencil and added a new bridge to connect the two sections.

Of course, there were also great songs in the album that weren't written by Stephen Sondheim, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein's "If I Loved You" from CAROUSEL, Frank Loesser's "Adelaide's Lament" from GUYS AND DOLLS and Jerome Kern and Hammerstein's "Can't Help Lovin' That Man Of Mine" from SHOW BOAT.

But Streisand wasn't through with Broadway yet. The year after "The Broadway Album," a little show opened on the West End called THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. By 1988 it was on Broadway, and its sweeping ballad, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stillgoe's "All I Ask Of You" was featured on her album, "Till I Loved You."

Tomorrow: Barbra Streisand's Broadway! Part Four: The 1990s.