On February 9, 1969, at the age of 18, Roslyn Kind made her second of two appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” performing a pair of songs from her newly released debut album, Give Me You. The younger sister of entertainment sensation Barbra Streisand, Roslyn was breaking out on her own with a new album and an upcoming engagement at the famous San Francisco nightspot, The Hungry I. The first song of the night was the title track of the album, “Give Me You,” written by Hal Hackaday and Larry Grossman, which matched the Broadway musical sound that was making her sister a star. But for her second number, Roslyn Kind challenged Sullivan’s Sunday night audience with a bold choice. In her own distinct style, she became one of the first women to perform Barry Mann and Cynthia Wells’ counter culture anthem, “The Shape of Things to Come.” A song about revolution, new ideas and the battle of the generations, it was a powerful statement about the evolution of society. At a time in American history filled with war, revolution, and rapid societal change, “The Shape of Things to Come” spoke of the realities of the era and hopes for the future. However, when presented in Roslyn’s sing’-song style, the garage rock standard was transformed into a song that parents watching at home might understand, while their kids cheered, “Right on!” While it may have sounded like a cabaret piece, that night on the Sullivan stage was Rosyln Kind’s definitive rock n’ roll moment.
Flashforward to 2024 and Roslyn Kind is continuing to deliver audience favorites in a series of new recordings that have been carefully selected and presented to bring a new kind of message to an audience that needs it. At a time with wars being fought around the world, and an American homefront that is divided by social and political unrest, Roslyn is using the talent that she has to deliver her own message of light and love. The latest, released online through music streaming services, and accompanied by an enchanting new music video directed by Monique Impagliazzo, is a medley of two favorites, “The Look of Love” and “The Island.” Produced alongside Roslyn’s musical collaborator Malek Hanna, it embodies the spirit of passion and romance as an eternal feeling, which extends itself through time to people of all societies and ages. In a presentation void of cynicism or darkness, Roslyn recaptures the romance of another age, but brings it to a place accessible to all people of all generations, in a medley that reminds you of the joys and excitement of being in love.
A spectacular performer who has managed to stay in show business through her work on stage, screen, and cabarets, Roslyn Kind is also a deeply spiritual woman who has explored her place in the universe via alternative spiritual practices, which has had a deep influence in her current message of light and love. Inspired by a vision from the past, Roslyn is looking to spread light and love through her voice and her music to her current audience, in hope for a peace-filled future.
I had the great joy of talking to Roslyn about her new recordings, as well as the vision that inspired them and her current journey in spreading that light to her audience. But Roslyn also indulged the vinyl collector in me by discussing her original two 1969 releases, Give Me You and This is Roslyn Kind, which are two favorites from my record collection.
Sam Tweedle: I have spent a lot of time over the last while not only listening to your original albums, but also exploring your current releases via Spotify. I was particularly thrilled to see “The Look of Love” as part of your newest recordings, as it is one of my favorite love songs ever written. But although I know that one very well, the other half of your medley, “The Island,” is a song I wasn’t familiar with. What is your personal relationship with both of these songs?
Roslyn Kind: Well, as a child of the 1960’s, I loved Bacharach and David, who wrote “The Look of Love,” and I loved the way that Dusty Springfield sang it when it was first released. In my very first show, after I did my Ed Sullivan appearance, I went to The Hungry I nightclub in San Francisco, where I first performed “The Look of Love” as part of my show in an arrangement by Lee Holdridge. That was in 1969. It’s just one of my favorite songs that I adored. I remember when I started singing it, the critics were saying, “What does she know about love?”
Sam: You know, it is such a smoldering love song. It’s extraordinarily passionate and I think one of the sexiest songs ever written.
Roslyn: Yeah. You know, this is why this piece, and my video that goes with it, is so sultry. I had to find the passion in it. It’s a very sensual romantic piece. As for “The Island”, it’s a song that came into my life much later in my career, and I loved it when I first heard it and I put that in my show in the 1980’s. So, I was looking at love songs to record and I said [to] my music producer, “What would it sound like to put ‘The Island’ and ‘The Look of Love’ together?” [I] felt that putting them together tells a story, and I love the story.
Sam: What is the story that you’re telling?
Roslyn: When I’m singing it, I’m talking about a love that is passionate. Maybe I’m still looking for that sort of love of my life. It’s like a yearning. It’s so beautiful when that happens. I imagined the romantic movies I watched growing up. I’m tired of watching death and violence. I miss those kinds of romantic movies. So, to me romance, and sensuality, is an important thing not to lose, no matter what age you are.
Sam: I can relate to that. I married much later than most of my friends. I was in my mid-40’s and didn’t think it could be this good.
Roslyn: I was 32 when I first was married, but unfortunately it didn’t work. We just probably never should have been married. So, in my own way, I’m probably still looking and yearning for romance, but in the meantime, I have another path I have to follow.
Sam: What was your thought process behind putting this out as a medley for the contemporary audience?
Roslyn: Well, I think there is a lack of love in the world now. Everything begins and ends with love. Everything. I would wish in my heart that others would bring light into their heart, rather than the fear and hatred and dislike and the narrow mindedness that exists so much today. I wish people would feel with their hearts more open and be more trusting in others no matter how different they may seem. People need to be accepting of people’s differences, and get to know about them, and learn about them. Bless those differences and bless those similarities. We all are born of the same God, or from the universe, or from whatever is comfortable for you to call it. But we come from that light, and we are here on Earth to learn lessons and to find a way in our journey to go on. Hopefully, we come to being better people before we leave this world, and that we’ve done something wonderfully positive for this earth and the people on it. To me, that’s where the value of being here comes. So, I want to use my music as a way to spread messages of love and positivity, as a way to spread that kind of light to the world.
Sam: I can understand what you are saying, and I think anybody who is aware can see the great divide in our society, both socially and politically. There is so much going on in this message, both politically, socially and spiritually. I read that you are a very spiritual individual and have had some strong experiences with spiritualists. This is something that I am also very interested in and have experience with as well.
Roslyn: Yes. During the 1980’s, when my career was going up and down and side to side, I was in a deep search, and I was very concerned for myself in not knowing my purpose. So, in 1984, at a recommendation of a friend, I went and had a past life regression where I went back to only one life. I entered a scene within my mind where I was a man in a turban wearing white pantaloons and sandals and there were stone huts, and at this moment in time I was in a duel over the woman I loved. So I believe that I have been searching for that love through all the many lifetimes that I have been reincarnated. If the word associations connected with that past life regression came up, they would be “world.” “universality,” “harmony,” “peace” and “love.” It was all about bringing hearts together, bringing people together, and not just looking for my own one love. Then, on top of that, I climbed Bell Rock in 1987 during the Harmonic Convergence, and that solidified everything. While on the road, I was reading about psychic phenomena, and the new age and everything which related, and I realized that my purpose here is to use my individual gifts to spread love and light to others. Later I had a session with a medium who had no idea who I was, and she said to me, “Oh, my God, you’re a healer.” She also saw my mother and my grandmother coming through and said, “There are very strong women in your family.”
Sam: Well, that part is obviously very accurate.
Roslyn: So, this is where I found where my path had to be. I’ve been using the gifts I’ve been given since then to bring positive messages to the audience through the use of my voice, and through what I sing. Through what I say to people, and how I present myself, to help bring hearts together. To bring healing where there is hatred. To bring trust where there is distrust. To give a universal hug.
Sam: I can see this as a theme within your current recordings. I was listening to the version of “Save the Country,” that you recorded a few years ago. This is another great song that I love. Although Laura Nyro wrote it in the late 60’s, in so many ways the song is even more relevant today with the state of politics and unrest in the United States, as well as throughout the world. Do you think that “Save the Country” is one of those universal songs that seem to be timeless for each generation?
Roslyn: We always have something that we have to deal with. I think we’re being tested to see if our hearts are in the right place and that we’re good people through the way we are with each other. We could all have a happy life right here on Earth if people felt that the whole world is full of angels overhead, filled with light. That’s where they come from and operate from. Can you imagine what kind of world it would be if people believed that? You wouldn’t have to wait to die to go to heaven. You could have it here on Earth right now.
Sam: Those are some powerful ideas, which could require a lot more music. Do you have more plans to go into the studio in the coming months?
Rosyln: Oh, yes. I’m working right now on a new song with my co-producer, Malek Hanna. Malek is a talented singer, and we are doing an original piece written especially for us which we’re learning right now. His friend, Jeff Stopler, found out that Malek and I were working together, as well as the message I want to spread through our music, and he wanted to write something for us. So, I’m very fortunate that I have a lot of people coming into my life now that are coming from that same place of love and light. We are like a family and supporting each other. My plan is to hopefully do a major concert one day that’s all about being kind and loving and the feelings that come from your heart. There is just too much anger and darkness in the world today, and we need to stop that darkness through music of love and of positivity.
Sam: When going back to your earliest material, you were never scared of singing songs of political or social importance. I’m going to admit to you that my favorite thing you ever recorded is “The Shape of Things to Come” which appeared on your first album! That was pretty wild, and a bit of a departure from everything else you were recording.
Roslyn: Yes. That song originally came from a movie, didn’t it?
Sam: It came from a film called “Wild in the Streets.” The original hit was done by a studio group calling themselves Max Frost and the Troopers, and over the years it’s been recorded by George Benson, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Slade and The Ramones. It’s become a garage rock favorite. But your cover of it was one of the earliest and I’m pretty certain you were the first female artist to ever record it.
Roslyn: Once, when I was performing at 54 Below in New York City, The Wall Street Journal critic who was sent to see the show asked me if I would perform “The Shape of Things to Come.” I was blown away by that request.
Sam: On “Give Me You,” the songs are a bit all over the place. You are doing Lennon and McCartney songs, then some bubble-gum songs, show tunes, a Jimmy Webb song, and so on. In one way, it seems that the producers didn’t know what to do with you, but it also could be seen to be an interesting showcase in all of the different types of songs you were able to sing.
Roslyn: Have you heard “This is Roslyn Kind,” my second album?
Sam: Oh, I own both of your original albums. I love them both!
Roslyn: On that one I did “Taxi Man” by Zager and Evans.
Sam: You also do “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” which is one of my all-time favorite songs. It’s kind of a personal anthem for me. It says a lot about how I lived my life.
Roslyn: I sang “Make Your Own Kind of Music” in German too. I did on a German TV show.
Sam: Yes! The footage of you singing it in German is on YouTube. It’s a very interesting choice.
Roslyn: I did a Neil Diamond song on that album too. I did “A Modern Day Version of Love.”
Sam: Did you have much control over the song selection? How was that collection of songs built?
Roslyn: Well, I was very young, I was new, I had a manager and I had just signed with RCA Records. I was signed by Henry Jenkins, who was the gentleman that signed Elvis Presley. Well, your A&R man would go and find the songs for the album, and from his picks, I got to pick. But there was also a time that I was sent songs from the publishing firm of the record company where they’d say that they wanted me to do songs from shows that RCA was publishing. But the hierarchy was asking me to record those songs whether I wanted to do it or not. It’s amazing how many people I hear from who love the different songs that I recorded on those records.
Sam: Well, you never know what’s going to connect with people, right?
Roslyn: No, you just never do. I’ll tell you something interesting. On my first album I sang a song called “Can I Stop the Rain?” Do you know what that song was originally? It was “The Way of Love,”
Sam: What?
Roslyn: Yes. It was “The Way of Love,”, but I couldn’t relate to it. I was eighteen, and it was so trite to me. So, they rewrote the lyrics, but kept the melody. I had the hardest time in the studio with it because I thought it was supposed to be “Can You Stop the Rain” and every time I would go to the microphone, I kept saying “you” instead of “I,” because I couldn’t get the wrong title out of my head. So, they changed the words for me, and I believe Edie Gorme later did a version of “Can I Stop the Rain?” as well. But, of course, Cher ended up having the actual hit when she did “The Way of Love.”
Sam: If you could have had more control over the songs that you could record then, much like you do now, what would have you wanted to record? Would it have been a lot different?
Roslyn: Well, in the early 60’s I listened to Motown and the English Invasion, which was a big thing for me. I loved. I loved Beatles songs, and Dusty Springfield, and Cilla Black, and Marianne Faithfull. I would walk around with my transistor radio in my hand. Every week, I went to Mel’s Record Rack and bought a new single. Every day, I listened to Dandy Dan Daniel and the Top 25. That was what I did. That was the music I listened to. Through Barbra I got educated into the Lena Horns, and the Johnny Mathises, who I appreciated. There was this show called Where the Action Is. I loved all the groups that’d go on that show. So, I had all kinds of material that I loved through that whole era.
Sam: This is going to sound like such an obvious question, because I know that your mother sang with the oepra, and of course Barbara was a singer, but was music an important part of your household?
Roslyn: Well, it wasn’t like we [were] always singing all the time together. When my sister was a teenager, she was more acting than singing. I loved singing and I always sang in the mirror. My mother would just, like, kind of blurt out songs. There were several times where the three of us got together around a reel-to-reel tape recorder and were all singing, I was singing my songs from yeshiva and grade schools, and my sister and my mother were comparing their mother/daughter voices. My mother would be at the top of the piano, and then my sister and I bring down the bottom. So, it was fun. They were singing what they know, and then I was coming with my songs from Hebrew school. When my mom would sing, we would have to give her the words because she never remembered the lyrics. So, we had like a few sessions like that, which was really sweet. Barbra taught me how to cha cha and mambo, because that was the era.
Sam: But Barbra left home pretty young, so you must have been a little girl when she moved out.
Roslyn: I was. We were nine years apart. I was in the sixth grade when she was doing I Can Get it For You Wholesale on Broadway. But the musical gene was passed down to us from our maternal grandfather. He was a cantor in Russia, but when he entered the United States, he didn’t follow it. So, music has always been an important part of our lineage.
Sam: You only put a pair of albums out at the beginning of your career, but through the 1970’s and 1980’s you just put out the occasional single. What made you decide to cut back on full LPs?
Roslyn: Well, I wasn’t really recording a lot then, and eventually I wasn’t with the label anymore. I started recording more in the 90’s and 2000’s, when I was able to do my own records, produce my own right kind of music.
Sam: Sure. And, of course, that way you are able to control the material that you are putting out and cultivate your own voice and your own kind of message.
Roslyn: Exactly, and when it’s just the producer and I in the room together it’s so wonderful. I get instruments I want to hear. I love the oboe, and I love to hear the violin strings. That’s the way to do it. When you go on the road now, it’s too expensive to carry a lot of musicians. In my case, I’d be performing with a piano, or with a trio. But with all these new recordings, I was able to have them fully orchestrated.
Sam: I see that it’s been a while since you’ve been doing live performances. Do you plan on returning to the stage?
Roslyn: I last performed some dates in 2018 and 2019, and then a few in 2020 right before the pandemic, but I haven’t returned to the stage since then. I’ve been going forward with baby steps. I managed to avoid getting COVID for a long time, until I finally got it, and I didn’t like the feeling. You know, you feel in danger when you’re opening your mouth that wide to sing when you don’t know who’s in the room with you. So, I’m still very, very ultra careful, but I’m really looking forward to getting back on the stage one day, and I think of “The Look of Love” and “The Island” as being my re-entrance into the arena.
Sam: Well, I am looking forward to what comes next, be it in the studio or in concert. I’d love to see you perform live one day, but your music and message are solidly on my radar. I believe that music is one of the most powerful forms of expression. With the right intentions, it can unify people together, bring joy to our hearts, free societies, and bring so much joy. Your music has touched my heart and has brought me so much joy into my home. I love that you are dedicated to continuing spreading that love and light in your music, especially to a world that seems to need it more than ever.
Roslyn: Transcend with love and light and, God willing, with our faith and our voices, we can help it happen.
A deeply intelligent and passionate woman, Roslyn Kind is a joy to talk with and I often felt that I was talking to a wise and wordly friend who I could tell all my troubles and secrets to. She is deeply empathic, and filled with a love which I could feel very deeply. I honestly could have talked to Roslyn for hours. She is just a delight, and while I have had a love for her albums for a while now, talking with her just made her music all that more special to me. I just adored the time she gave me to talk about her music and message.
Roslyn’s music, both past and present, can be heard on most streaming platforms. In a world so full of cynicism and heartbreak, the love and positivity that Roslyn is bringing into the universal soundscape is needed more than ever, and is a true gift to our society which often seems to be struggling.
For more information on Roslyn Kind and her continuing projects visit her website at www.roslynkind.com.
(Note: Special thanks to Harlan Boll of B. Harlan Boll Public Relations for arranging this very special interview with Roslyn Kind.)
