Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand took the pop culture world by storm with their 1976 remake of A Star is Born, and not just because of their extra-steamy album covers. The film’s soundtrack brought a wealth of great hits to the mainstream, including “I Believe in Love” and the movie’s original love theme, “Evergreen”. The latter was co-written by Streisand and Paul Williams, garnering them the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
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As lyricist Williams recalled, the song’s accolades were especially reassuring, given how nervous Streisand initially was to bring the song to the table. In a November 2025 interview with The Telegraph, Williams described Streisand sitting down to show him the early stages of what would become “Evergreen”. “Barbra said, ‘I want to play you something to see if you can use it.’ She is a very impressive presence. It was the only time I ever saw her look uncertain.”
“She was just learning to play the guitar,” Williams explained. “She had to keep stopping to check her fingering for each chord.” Once she sang the melody to “Evergreen”, Streisand asked Williams, “Can you do anything with that?” He said, “I went, ‘Are you kidding? It’s stunningly beautiful.’”
The Indirect Effect “Evergreen” Had on Paul Williams
The 1976 remake of A Star is Born was a massive success, both at the box office and on the musical charts. It became the second-highest-grossing film of the year. (The first was Rocky, and A Star is Born was followed by King Kong, Silver Streak, and All the President’s Men. It was a good year for movies.) The soundtrack also received multiple awards, including a Grammy, Academy Award, and Golden Globe. With all that success, one would think co-writers Barbra Streisand and Paul Williams would be on top of the world.
But for Williams, it proved to be more of a tough wakeup call. “When I won the Oscar in 1977, I wasn’t myself. The wind was so loud from what was going on and my own ego. When I looked around, I had been welcomed by all these amazing people. But… I’d moved all over the place. I was always the smallest kid in class. All I wanted to be was a character actor. Yet, here I was standing with an Oscar in my hand.”
Williams might have struggled to reconcile his success, but it didn’t stop him from earning more career wins in addition to A Star is Born. From his work in The Muppet Movie (“Rainbow Connection”) to Bugsy Malone to mainstream hits, Williams’ career is a testament to the importance of not questioning your gift too much. Good songs will fall out of a good songwriter. All the songwriter has to do is stay out of their own way, whether it’s Williams’ emotional struggles or Streisand fighting her way through a chord progression on guitar.
Photo by FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images
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