When Barbra Streisand released his 1975 album Lazy Afternoon, the album also featured her first songwriting credit on “By the Way,” which she co-wrote with Rupert Holmes. A year later, Streisand stretched her songwriting muscles a bit more for the soundtrack of A Star is Born, which she starred in alongside Kris Kristofferson, including the love song “Lost Inside of You.”
In 1977, Streisand also co-wrote “Don’t Believe What You Read” and “Answer Me” for her album Superman and the title track of her 21st album Wet released in ’79.
By the early ’80s, Streisand also co-wrote “You’re a Step in the Right Direction” and “Here We Are at Last” from her 1984 album Emotion, and “Two People” from her 25th album Till I Love You from 1988 along with starring in, co-writing, co-producing, and directing the 1983 film Yentl, and went on to direct the 1991 Oscar-nominated drama The Prince of Tides and The Mirror Has Two Faces in 1996.
Streisand wrote more on her 2018 album Walls, co-writing “What’s on My Mind.” “Don’t Lie to Me,” and “The Rain Will Fall.”
Here’s a look at two songs Streisand wrote that made it to the top of the charts.
Videos by American Songwriter
[RELATED: 5 Songs You Didn’t Know Barbra Streisand Wrote]
“Evergreen” (1976)
Written by Barbra Streisand and Paul Williams
Along with co-writing “Lost Inside of You” for A Star is Born, Streisand also co-wrote the love theme song “Evergreen.” The song is Streisand’s second No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, following “The Way We Were” in 1974.
“She sat down and played on a guitar, the melody for ‘Evergreen’ that she’d written,” said Williams in 2007 of working on “Evergreen” with Streisand. “It was just such a beautiful melody. I said, ‘There’s your love song. There’s the big love song.’ I asked her for the melody. She put it on tape for me, and I took it home. I actually wrote that as the last thing, which I think bothered her. But all the Kris Kristofferson stuff was the first thing up on the shoot schedule. So I wrote the songs for Kris first.”
Williams initially wrote those first two lines in the opposite order: Love, fresh as the morning air, love soft as an easy chair. “I called Barbra as I was getting on a plane to go on tour with Olivia Newton-John,” recalled Williams. “I called her and said, ‘You know what, flip those two first lines because it sings better’: ‘Love, soft as an easy chair, love, fresh as the morning air.’
He added, “‘Morning’ sang better at that point in the song. And I remember saying to Barbra, ‘They’ll probably laugh us out of the theaters for starting a love song with a line about a chair, but I think it works better that way.’ And I think it was the biggest-selling soundtrack album ever at that time.”
Featured on the soundtrack for the film, “Evergreen” also earned Streisand her second Academy Award for Best Original Song, making her the first woman to win an Oscar as a composer. “Evergreen” also won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
Love, soft as an easy chair
Love, fresh as the morning air
One love that is shared by two
I have found with you
Like a rose under the April snow
I was always certain love would grow
Love ageless and evergreen
Seldom seen by two
You and I will make each night a first
Every day a beginning
Spirits rise and their dance is unrehearsed
They warm and excite us
‘Cause we have the brightest love
“These are mystical things,” said Streisand of writing her A Star is Born hit. “They’re magical things. They’re one me. I can’t describe it to you. It’s why I could write “Evergreen,” ’cause I hear it in my head. I hear it, and then I have to figure out how you do it. I had to learn to play the guitar to do it.”
“I Finally Found Someone” (1996)
Written by Barbra Streisand, Bryan Adams, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, Marvin Hamlisch
“I Finally Found Someone” was Streisand’s first Top 10 hit in nearly a decade and her first gold single since “Guilty,” the title track of her 22nd album, which was written by the Bee Gees‘ Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibbs and earned her a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Duo or Group.
Featured as the theme song from the 1996 romantic comedy The Mirror Has Two Faces, starring Streisand, who also directed the film, and Jeff Bridges, “I Finally Found Someone” went to No. 2 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and No. 8 on the Hot 100. Performed as a duet between Streisand and co-writer Bryan Adams, and arranged by David Foster, the song plays over the closing credits of the film.
“I wrote the love theme, the main love theme, then Marvin [Hamlisch]wrote a bridge to it, and that was going to be our song,” said Streisand in 1996. “Then David Foster had the idea that I should sing the duet with Bryan Adams. Bryan played our track and heard me humming and fell in love with this little theme that I wrote and then he and his producer Mutt Lange wrote a counter melody based on the track that I sent him, and they wrote the lyrics.”
Streisand added, “I don’t think his record company wanted him [Adams] to sing with me, because I’m more traditional, and I haven’t had a hit since I don’t know when.”
I finally found someone
Who knocks me off my feet
I finally found the one
Who makes me feel complete
It started over coffee
We started out as friends
It’s funny how from simple things
The best things begin
This time is different la la la la
It’s all because of you la la la la
It’s better than it’s ever been
‘Cause we can talk it through
Photo: Terry Fincher/Express/Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.