Songbird by Barbra Streisand

Album: Songbird (1978)

Charted: 25

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Songfacts®:

The title track of Barbra Streisand's 20th studio album is a lonely number about a songbird looking for someone to sing her troubles away. It was written by David Wolfert and Steve Nelson, the songwriting team behind Dusty Springfield's "Living Without Your Love" and Paul Anka's "Let's Start It Over."
Early recording sessions for Songbird were done in New York City, where Streisand's boyfriend, Jon Peters, was producing the movie Eyes Of Laura Mars in November 1977. Streisand turned down the lead role in the supernatural thriller, which went to Faye Dunaway, but she did sing the theme song, "Prisoner." After returning to LA, she finished up the album in six sessions throughout February 1978.
Having "Songbird" and "Prisoner" on the charts at the same time possibly hindered the potential of both, as the former only reached #25 on the Hot 100, while the latter petered out at #21. "Songbird" did, however, reach #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart - Streisand's third consecutive single to top the tally, following "Evergreen" and "My Heart Belongs To Me."
The album reunited Streisand with her Superman (1977) producer Gary Klein, who went on to helm her next album, Wet. But Klein never tried to take the reins away from Streisand.

"Barbra was always deeply involved in every aspect of the song selection process," he told Barbra Archives founder Matt Howe in 2011. "In fact, she was deeply involved in everything concerning the album. Ordering lunch in the studio was a major event."
For the album cover, Streisand's permed locks were styled by Carrie White - not Stephen King's murderous prom queen of the same name, but the hairdresser who created Nurse Ratched's vintage hairdo in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest a few years earlier. The singer is also cradling her fluffy white dog, Sadie II.
The 1978 album also features a solo cover of Neil Diamond's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," which Streisand revisited as a duet with Diamond on her Greatest Hits Volume 2 collection later that year. The duet version was a #1 hit on the Hot 100, making it her first single to top the chart since "Evergreen" two years earlier.

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