When you listen to “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond, it certainly sounds like it was created with the sole intent of bringing these two superstars together on record. It’s a seamless melding of their talents on a song tailor-made for each to showcase their vocals.
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In actuality, the pairing only happened after a series of happy accidents made it possible. A failed attempt at a TV theme song and a duet that was almost forced into existence, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” is one of the most serendipitous hits in pop music history.
A Theme Song Without a Show
Neil Diamond wanted to get in on the TV theme-show act. After all, examples of these little ditties becoming unlikely hits were popping up all over the place in the ’70s. Diamond locked in on a new show called All That Glitters, which was being launched by producer Norman Lear of All in the Family fame.
Diamond wrote the music, and received help on the lyrics from the legendary songwriting team of Marilyn and Alan Bergman. The end result was a 45-second snippet of music called “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” Unfortunately, the tenor of All That Glitters changed as it was being put together, and the effort by Diamond and the Bergmans no longer fit.
But Diamond liked it enough that he added a little bit and made it into a complete song. “You Don’t Being Me Flowers” was released on Diamond’s 1977 album I’m Glad You’re Here With Me Tonight, although it wasn’t chosen as a single. (“Desiree” was Neil’s big hit from that record.)
Bring on Barbra
Barbra Streisand had made magic with lyrics from the Bergmans on “The Way We Were,” so perhaps it wasn’t too surprising she gravitated to “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” She recorded it on the 1978 album Songbird, and she did so in the same key as Diamond’s take. That proved crucial to what happened next.
A Kentucky radio station employee combined the two versions of “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” When this mashup was played on the air, fans became enchanted by it. A few other stations did something similar, with the national media soon reporting on these Frankenstein-monster creations.
Diamond and Streisand got wind of it all, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity. They headed into a studio with producer Bob Gaudio to do an official version of the song, which was released in October 1978, just a few months after the mashups started appearing. It became a runaway No. 1 hit in the U.S.
Behind the Lyrics of “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”
Even though it wasn’t written as a duet, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” works brilliantly in that fashion. It’s a song about a once-sizzling relationship that is petering out before the participants’ eyes. The loving gestures that once characterized the affair have disappeared: You don’t bring me flowers / You don’t sing me love songs.
The couple’s bed has been emptied of all passion: When you just roll over and turn out the light. It used to be so natural / To talk about forever, they sing of better days. Yet even though they’re clearly running on fumes, neither one quite has the strength to officially call it quits: So you think I could learn how to tell you goodbye.
Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand performed “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” live at the 1980 Grammy Awards, completing the strange journey of this song. It was always meant to be that these two should bring it to life, even if they needed a little push to get there.
Photo by L. Cohen/WireImage
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