Songfacts®:

• Barbra Streisand sang this power ballad with Bryan Adams for the 1996 romantic comedy/drama The Mirror Has Two Faces. Streisand, who directed the film, stars as a mousy college professor who gives up on romance and settles for a platonic relationship with a colleague (Jeff Bridges). But as the song suggests, the pairing points to something more.
  
  The single gave Streisand her first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1981 when "What Kind Of Fool," a duet with Barry Gibb, reached #10.
• Streisand initially wrote the love theme with veteran composer Marvin Hamlisch (whose first job was as a rehearsal pianist for the 1964 Broadway musical Funny Girl with Streisand) but her producer, David Foster, envisioned it as a duet. That's when Bryan Adams and his producer, Mutt Lange, were brought on to the project. Adams had a pair of chart-toppers earlier that year with "The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You" and "Let's Make A Night To Remember."
  
  In a 1996 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Streisand explained how all the players came together: "I wrote the love theme, the main love theme, then Marvin wrote a bridge to it, and that was going to be our song. 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. So that's how that happened. I don't think his record company wanted him to sing with me...because I'm more traditional, and I haven't had a hit since I don't know when."
• This also peaked at #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The last time Streisand had landed a big hit on that tally was in 1989 with the Michael Bolton/Diane Warren-penned ballad "We're Not Makin' Love Anymore."
• This was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1997 Academy Awards (Madonna's "You Must Love Me" from Evita won). Streisand was asked to perform the tune at the ceremony but declined, so Natalie Cole was enlisted to take her place. When Cole fell ill, Streisand offered to sing after all, but it was too late as Celine Dion had already agreed to perform it with trumpeter Arturo Sandoval playing in Adams' stead.
  
  Streisand caused a stir when she decided to use the restroom during Dion's performance, but she insisted there was no malice behind her absence - she really had to go! Still, she wrote a letter of apology praising Dion's performance (she watched it on tape) and asking her to collaborate on a duet - which became the hit "Tell Him."
• This was also nominated for Best Original Song at the 1997 Golden Globe Awards (again, "You Must Love Me" took the prize). Unlike the Oscars, however, Streisand also earned recognition for her acting with a nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, but she lost to Madonna again for her role as Eva Peron in Evita.
• The duet was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals at the 1998 Grammy Awards, but lost to "Don't Look Back" by John Lee Hooker with Van Morrison.