468. Barbra Streisand – Woman in Love (1980)

April 6, 2024April 6, 2024 / robbarker1979 / Leave a comment

The Intro

As the 80s dawned, The Bee Gees knew their second peak couldn’t last forever. But moving into writing and producing for others proved very fruitful. Superstar actress and singer Barbra Streisand initially asked Barry Gibb to write half the album Guilty. He went on to produce the whole LP and Woman in Love became her biggest UK hit.

Before

Barbara Joan Streisand was born on 24 April 1942 in Brooklyn, New York City. Her father died soon after her first birthday, and the Streisands struggled financially, with her mother working as a bookkeeper. She was also a semi-professional singer, but she was initially reluctant when her daughter showed an interest in performing. At the age of nine, Streisand had already failed an audition for MGM. But her mother came round to the idea and she helped her 13-year-old daughter record a demo.

However, Streisand’s main ambition was to be an actress. At 16 she left school and moved out, taking on a number of menial jobs to make ends meet while striving for acting jobs. She became an usher in 1960 and auditioned for The Sound of Music. Although she failed, the director was impressed and urged her to include singing on her resumé. She entered a talent contest at gay nightclub Lion in Greenwich Village and stunned the audience into silence. Returning after winning for several weeks, she decided to change her first name to ‘Barbra’. Determined to make it her way, she refused to contemplate suggestions she have a nose job to improve her chances of mainstream appeal. Her first professional engagement came in September 1960 as support for the comedian Phyllis Diller.

Streisand spent the next few years honing her act and developing her between-song patter. She made her TV debut on The Tonight Show in 1961 and her Broadway debut the following year in the musical comedy I Can Get It for you Wholesale. At the age of 21 she signed with Columbia Records, gaining full creative control, in exchange for less money. A respectable position to take, and just as well, because they wanted her debut LP to be called Sweet and Saucy Streisand. It was eventually released as The Barbra Streisand Album in 1963.

In 1964 Streisand returned to Broadway for Funny Girl, which became an overnight success. People became her first US charting single, peaking at five, and she even made the cover of Time. Streisand’s UK chart debut came in 1965 with Second Hand Rose, which climbed to 14. In 1968 she won her first Academy Award, for Best Actress, after starring in the cinema version of Funny Girl.

The British Invasion dented Streisand’s mainstream musical appeal, like many stars of her ilk. But during the 70s her fortunes improved, with a return to the singles chart in 1970 with Stoney End – six in the US, 27 in the UK. One of her signature tunes, the haunting The Way We Were from the film of the same name, became her first Billboard number 1 in 1973, yet strangely it only climbed to 31 in the UK. Her role alongside Kris Kristofferson in the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born was huge, and Evergreen (Love Theme from ‘A Star Is Born’) was her second US chart-topper, soaring to three over here. She also won an Oscar for Best Song for Evergreen.

Her version of Neil Diamond’s You Don’t Bring Me Flowers was so popular, an unofficial duet was achieved by splicing Streisand and Diamond’s recordings. When an official duet was released in December 1978, Streisand achieved her third Billboard number 1. A year later, another duet saw her cross over successfully into disco. No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) teamed Streisand with Donna Summer and was co-produced by the genius Giorgio Moroder. Back at the peak of Billboard for the fourth time, it peaked at three in the UK. Streisand was named the most successful US female singer of the 70s.

Between February 1979 and March 1980, Streisand worked on her 22nd album, Guilty. She was so impressed with Gibb’s production and songwriting, he contributed to every song, with Robin co-writing five songs, and Maurice joining them for the title track. Production was credited to Gibb-Galuten-Richardson, which saw Barry team up with producer Albhy Galuten and sound engineer Karl Richardson, who produced Bee Gees number 1s Night Fever and Tragedy. Barry and Robin co-wrote lead single, Woman in Love, and Barry was credited with acoustic guitar and arrangement.

Review

You can always tell when a song has been written by the Gibb brothers, even if they don’t record it. Their marks are all over it – all you have to do is imagine the vocals made a lot higher. This rule works here. Unfortunately, that’s about the most interesting thing I can say about Woman in Love. It’s a very pedestrian love song masked in glossy production. I don’t understand why it was so popular, other than that perhaps it was due to Streisand’s stock being so high on the back of her role in A Star Is Born (the video is simply a compilation of scenes from the film) and her duet with Summer. There’s no amazing vocal prowess on display, the lyrics are unremarkable and the tune is lacklustre. Certainly one of the lesser number 1s of 1980.

After

Nonetheless, Woman in Love was a smash hit around the world, topping the charts in the US, Australia, Spain – pretty much everywhere, in fact. The parent album Guilty was also huge, despite no further real success in the UK singles chart (the title track only made it to 34). It would be four years before her next studio LP, Emotion. In 1985, despite objections from Columbia, Streisand returned to her roots with The Broadway Album. Three years later, Streisand was in the UK top 20 for the first time since Woman in Love, with the title track to Till I Loved You – a duet with Miami Vice star Don Johnson, which peaked at 16.

The 90s started very well for Streisand. She directed, co-produced and starred in the romantic drama The Prince of Tides (1991). Places That Belong to You, from the soundtrack, saw her back in the singles chart at 17. In 1993 she announced her return to live public concerts for the first time in 27 years. At the time, she was the highest-paid concert performer ever and won five Emmy Awards. She left the limelight again for a few years, but made a triumphant return in 1996, producing, directing and starring in another romantic comedy – The Mirror Has Two Faces. From the soundtrack came the number 10 hit duet I Finally Found Someone, with Bryan Adams. Then, a year later, a duet with Celine Dion – Tell Him, soared to number three. It is to date her last top 10 single.

The new millennium began with sad news for Streisand’s fans, as she announced she was to retire from public performances. But she did return to the movie world, starring in 2004 comedy Meet the Fockers. Album releases continued, including Guilty Too, a second collaboration with Gibb, in 2005. A year later, aged 64, she announced she was to tour once more, and became one of the highest-grossing performers in the world yet again. Amazingly it took until 2009 for Streisand to make her performance debut on British TV, when she appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

In 2014, Streisand released Partners, an album featuring duets with Lionel Richie, Billy Joel and, from beyond the grave, Elvis Presley. Her last album to date was Walls in 2018, the title of which was a reference to the singer’s condemnation of President Donald Trump’s policies.

The Outro

Streisand has been a hugely successful singer, actress, director, producer over six decades. However, when it comes to pop music, there’s not a lot to recommend, other than No More Tears (Enough Is Enough). And that’s most likely down to Summer and Moroder.

The Info

Written by

Barry Gibb & Robin Gibb

Producers

Barry Gibb, Albhy Galuten & Karl Richardson

Weeks at number 1

3 (25 October-14 November)

Trivia

Births

26 October: Scottish actor Khalid Abdalla
28 October: Footballer Alan Smith
12 November: Rugby union player Charlie Hodgson

Deaths

26 October: Northern Irish playwright Sam Cree
27 October: T Rex singer-songwriter Steve Peregrin Took
29 October: Actress Ouida MacDermott
30 October: Actor Guy Bellis
3 November: Actor Dennis Burgess/Horticulturalist David Lowe
4 November: Radio broadcaster Paul Kaye/Boxer Johnny Owen
6 November: Literary scholar Nevill Coghill
7 November: Theatre director Norman Marshall
8 November: Scottish painter Gordon Robert Archibald/Astrophysicist Valerie Myerscough/Film producer Julian Wintle
9 November: Social researcher Pearl Jephcott
10 November: Journalist Patrick Campbell, 3rd Baron Glenavy/Painter James Priddey
11 November: Suffragette Connie Lewcock
12 November: John Chetwynd-Talbot, 21st Earl of Shrewsbury
14 November: Dance critic Arnold Haskell

Meanwhile…

28 October: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declares her government will not back down to seven jailed IRA terrorists on hunger strike in the Maze Prison, who are hoping to gain prisoner of war status.

5 November: The Yorkshire Ripper is suspected responsible when 16-year-old Huddersfield mother Theresa Sykes is wounded in a hammer attack.

10 November: Michael Foot, the left-wing Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, is elected as their new Leader.

13 November: Security guard George Smith is shot dead when the van he guards is intercepted by armed robbers in Willenhall, West Midlands.

451. Kenny Rogers – Coward of the County (1980)

November 24, 2023March 25, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

Three years after his first chart-topper, Lucille, country superstar Kenny Rogers returned to the summit of the hit parade with this tale about a pacifist that is pushed too far.

Before

Lucille was quickly followed up with a new album, Daytime Friends, but its singles couldn’t get near the crossover success of the popular single. The title track only just scraped into the top 40 at 39. Even The Gambler, one of his best-known tracks, only made it to 22 in 1978.

Coward of the County was written by Roger Bowling (who co-wrote Lucille) and Billy Edd Wheeler and was the second single from Rogers’ 1979 LP Kenny. Rogers tells the story of his fictional nephew Tommy, who has a reputation for being a coward. But he has his reasons. When he was 10, his father died in prison. On his last visit there, Tommy’s father told him not to repeat his mistakes, that turning the other cheek is not a sign of weakness, and being a fighter doesn’t make you a man. Not often you get a man’s dying words as a chorus, but then, this is country music.

The narration fast forwards 20 years to Tommy as an adult with a girlfriend called Becky. While Tommy is at work one day, Becky is sexually assaulted by three brothers – the Gatlins. When he finds her crying, Tommy has to decide whether to heed the words of his father and risk being called ‘Yellow’ for the rest of his life, or avenging Becky. He chooses the latter and issues some southern justice after meeting the Gatlin boys in a bar. Tommy is coward of the county no longer.

Review

Much like Lucille, Coward of the County is a gripping story for a number 1 song. So it’s a shame that, also like that single, the actual tune is so mediocre, I stop listening and look forward to it ending. If anything it’s of lower standard than his first number 1, the edge of the lyrics obscured by tedious strumming. But as longtime readers will know, country is usually a turn-off for me anyway. First poor number 1 of the 80s.

After

There was some controversy over the name of the villains after the song’s release. The Gatlin Brothers are a real-life country trio, and were understandably unhappy at the reference. Rogers and Wheeler denied it was deliberate, but Bowling had an argument with Larry Gatlin at the 1977 CMA awards, when Lucille won song of the year. Sounds like a very deliberate reference to me.

Rogers went on to release a duet with Kim Carnes in 1980, who was a year away from her own hit, Bette Davis Eyes. Then, he had a number 12 hit with Lady, written by Lionel Richie. In 1983 Rogers returned the favour by singing backing vocals on his single My Love. That year he also had two hit duets – the first, with Sheena Easton – We’ve Got Tonight – reached 28 in the UK.

More successful and memorable was the much-loved Islands in the Stream, with Dolly Parton, which came from his album Eyes That See in the Dark, written and produced by Bee Gee Barry Gibb. Although it became number 1 in the US, it peaked at seven on these shores. Gibb originally co-wrote this song with brothers Maurice and Robin for Marvin Gaye. 26 years later, as (Barry) Islands in the Stream, this Comic Relief version performed by Ruth Jones, Rob Brydon, Tom Jones and Robin Gibb became number 1. In 1985 Rogers sort of achieved his third UK number 1, by joining fellow US musicians under the umbrella name US for Africa on We Are the World.

Rogers’ UK hits dried up, but he continued to have singles success in the US, and also branched out into acting, starring in a series based on The Gambler and a TV movie called Coward of the County. He also reunited with his friend Parton several times – on the 1984 festive album Once Upon a Christmas, 1985 single Real Love and the 2013 song You Can’t Make Old Friends.

In 2015, Rogers announced his farewell tour – ‘The Gambler’s Last Deal’. His final performance, an all-star concert featuring Parton, Richie, the Flaming Lips and more, took place in Nashville, Tennessee in 2017.

The Outro

Rogers had wound his career down early due to a bladder cancer diagnosis in 2017, but the country legend passed away of natural causes on 20 March 2020, aged 81.

The Info

Written by

Roger Bowling & Billy Edd Wheeler

Producer

Larry Butler

Weeks at number 1

2 (16-29 February)

Trivia

Births

22 February: Footballer Martin Garratt

Deaths

16 February: First World War pilot Geoffrey Hornblower Cock/Mathematician Edward Copson/Athlete Percy Legard/Biologist Arthur Loveridge
17 February: Artist Graham Sutherland
18 February: Opera singer Muriel Brunskill
19 February: First World War pilot Bruce Digby-Worsley
21 February: Mycologist Kathleen Simpson
24 February: Engineer Paul Wilson, Baron Wilson of High Wray
25 February: Manchester United chairman Louis Edwards (see ‘Meanwhile…‘)/Welsh poet Caradog Prichard
28 February: Conservative MP Michael Astor/Scottish cricketer Ian Peebles
29 February: Dancer Margaret Morris

Meanwhile…

17 February: British Steel Corporation announced more than 11,000 jobs would be axed at its Welsh plants by the end of March.

25 February: The first episode of political sitcom Yes Minister is broadcast on BBC Two.
Also on this day, Manchester United chairman Louis Edwards died of a heart attack, aged 65. His death came only weeks after allegations about his dealings in connection with the football club and the retail outlet chain he owned.

434. The Bee Gees – Tragedy (1979)

January 15, 2022October 28, 2023 / robbarker1979

The Intro

The Bee Gees rounded off an astounding few years with a fourth number 1. It was to mark the start of another downward slide in their fortunes, however.

Before

Thanks to the disco boom and their part in the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, the Gibb brothers were everywhere in the late-70s. After Night Fever became their third UK number 1, the LP was mined further. Yvonne Elliman’s version of If I Can’t Have You was a US number 1. The Tavares’ version of More Than a Woman was a number seven hit in the UK. In March 1978 songs by The Bee Gees held the number 1 and two spots in the US with Night Fever and Staying Alive – a feat unrivalled since The Beatles. Five songs written by the Gibbs were in the top 10 at once over there that month, too.

Barry Gibb and brother Robin wrote Emotion, a number 11 UK hit for their Australian friend Samantha Sang and The Bee Gees performed backing vocals and Barry wrote the classic theme to the smash-hit cinema adaptation of Grease, sung by Frankie Valli – a US number 1. It wasn’t a good time to be alive if you weren’t a fan of the Gibbs.

However, not everything they touched turned to gold. They starred in their manager Robert Stigwood’s famous flop Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, based on The Beatles’ concept album, in 1978. The critics hated it and the public ignored it. They featured heavily on the soundtrack too. But at least while working on the film, the Gibbs did co-write the excellent Shadow Dancing for their younger brother Andy, which also became a US number 1.

From there, they went to work on their follow-up to Saturday Night Fever. Spirits Having Flown, their 15th album, was co-produced by Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. Galuten has claimed that it was he, Richardson and Barry who did most of the work, though keyboardist Blue Weaver disputes this. They both agree that Robin took on more of a behind-the-scenes role, active in songwriting and offering feedback during the recording process. He performed only one solo lead vocal, on Living Together, amounting to the least work he had featured on a Bee Gees album since the 60s. It wasn’t a happy time for Maurice, who was an alcoholic and struggling with back pain. Although he recorded bass parts, he didn’t know they were later overdubbed.

In a bid to prove they weren’t just about filling disco dance floors, the first single from Spirits Having Flown was the ballad Too Much Heaven. It was another US number 1, and peaked at three in the UK. That single and the next, Tragedy, had been written by Barry, Robin and Maurice earlier the same day as Shadow Dancing.

Review

I’ve mixed feelings about Tragedy. I’ve never been much of a fan until relistening for the blog just now. I previously found it overblown and too melodramatic, with the Gibbs harmonies, which I normally enjoy, just too much. Now, I can see it’s a decent enough tune, just not up there with the likes of Staying Alive and Night Fever. I mainly like the bubbling synth sound on the verses. But it outstays its welcome somewhat and is a sign the Gibbs were starting to slide creatively. Though nobody can deny they’d had a bloody good run.

After

It would be eight years before The Bee Gees next held the top spot in the UK. Just as with psychedelia at the close of the 60s, the genre the Gibbs had aligned themselves with, disco, became unfashionable. The Bee Gees were much more successful at the point though, and had farther to fall. The backlash became so strong, they were forced into writing hits for others.

The Outro

Tragedy would return to the top of the charts in 1998 when it became half of a double A-side with Heartbeat for the dance-pop group Steps. It became their signature song and led to a stupid trademark dance as well. Shorn of the synths, it’s not as good as the original.

Every UK Number 1

The stories behind the chart-toppers

Robin Gibb