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10 years ago Duck Sauce ‘Barbra Streisand’ changed my life. Armand and I never thought it would be a hit. We thought it was a b-side. We made the song in early 2010 and first brought it down to Miami in March for Ultra / WMC. (Cont’d...) https://twitter.com/DuckSauceNYC/status/1315686344329363458
After dropping the track in a few sets, some fan-filmed videos started circulating on youtube and on blogs. Everyone was asking what was the song that said “Barbra Streisand” 
People figured out it was the new Duck Sauce record, and expected the song to come out soon...
People figured out it was the new Duck Sauce record, and expected the song to come out soon...
The thing no one knew is that we were barely starting the sample clearance process with Boney M, and talking to some label partners. That sample clearance became hell. It took months to get any movement and Boney M wanted 100% of our publishing. Then the strangest thing happened.
People were requesting the song so much (and figured out the sample we used), that some bedroom producers started recreating the track based on what they heard on YouTube clips and sending it to blogs.
This was also early twitter years, so the fact that anyone could write to us directly was new. By the summer, people were hitting us like “what are you waiting for to drop Barbra? You guys are waiting too long. No one’s gonna care anymore by the time you drop it” etc. It was odd!
No one knew we were dealing with these tense lawyer conversations and we had to really bite our tongues during the process
Finally by the end of the summer we started getting a bit of progress on that sample clearance so we started talking about a video.
Finally by the end of the summer we started getting a bit of progress on that sample clearance so we started talking about a video.
I reached out to a video directors that we knew. One of the people I sent the song to was So Me, the French artist who mostly worked with @edbangerrecords at the time. He was known for his animated videos, like the seminal “D.A.N.C.E.” video. So I was expecting an animated idea.
So Me came back to me with a simple concept, written out as a regular email, no fancy PDF presentations. (Btw all my best videos were made without an official treatment.) He said he wanted to come to NY with just a cameraman, no crew, and film a video like a documentary....
This was happening at a time when we all stopped caring about TV and realized the point of a video was for people to share a cool moment on the internet. (It ended up becoming literally the first viral video in dance music.) So Me wanted to show us visiting friends in New York.
I still have that email (it’s in French). So many of the ideas were in that original email: we’ll go visit @questlove in his rehearsal studio. We’ll go to Kanye’s house. We’ll get random cool kids in the street saying “Barbra Streisand”. We’ll go to Todd James’ studio...
We’ll add some scratches that weren’t in the song. We’ll show some SKILLS. And we’ll pay hommage to New York. That was the idea. We made this on the smallest budget.
By the time the song and video came out, 6 months had passed since the initial Miami buzz. We NEEDED a new spark. Well, it worked.
My fav thing that happened after was when people made their own versions of the vid showing THEIR city, with THEIR friends. That was touching.
My fav thing that happened after was when people made their own versions of the vid showing THEIR city, with THEIR friends. That was touching.
To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of this crazy song — a song with no verses or hook or song structure that hit #1 in 12 countries — we made this “Pop Up Video” version, revealing some of the easter eggs....
Enjoy
Enjoy
I’m glad people enjoyed the Babs stories today.
There’s so many more stories...
- how the song was unmasterable
- how we still never met Barbra
- how the French label asked us to re-record a version that says “Evian” instead of “Barbra Streisand” (the syllables don’t work)
There’s so many more stories...
- how the song was unmasterable
- how we still never met Barbra
- how the French label asked us to re-record a version that says “Evian” instead of “Barbra Streisand” (the syllables don’t work)
...also how, after all that trouble clearing the sample, we found out the Boney M song was a cover of another song 
But my fav Barbra story is when Armand said the only song we can compare it to is The Champs “Tequila”
(repetitive melody + 1 word)
But my fav Barbra story is when Armand said the only song we can compare it to is The Champs “Tequila”
(repetitive melody + 1 word)
