The Way He Makes Me Feel by Barbra Streisand

Album: Yentl Soundtrack (1983)

Charted: 40

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This love song was the theme to Streisand's directorial debut, Yentl, which was condemned as a vanity project. Set in 1904 Poland, the unconventional musical follows the story of a Jewish woman (Streisand) who disguises herself as a man so she can study religious law and theology at an all-male institution. Things get even more complicated when she starts to fall for her study partner, Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), and can't make her feelings known without revealing her secret, which is the basis for "The Way He Makes Me Feel."

The ballad was written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics) and Michel Legrand (music), the trio behind the Oscar-winning Thomas Crown Affair theme song, "The Windmills Of Your Mind." The Bergmans also wrote "The Way We Were" for the Streisand film of the same name.
Unlike the other characters in the film, Yentl can't express herself openly, so she is the only character who has a musical inner voice. "Originally I had no intention of using music," Streisand is quoted by Barbra Archives, "but I'm happy it turned out that way. Once Yentl leaves her village, she lives a secret life that cannot be shared with anyone and we all believed that the best way to capture that inner voice was in a musical narrative."
Streisand recorded a new vocal for a modern arrangement of the tune to be released as a single. The contemporary take won over Alan Bergman. "I liked it a lot," he shared in The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits. "The picture was in its period, so there were no drums on the score, no pianos… In order to bring more attention to the song, there was an attempt to contemporize the orchestrations."
One of two singles from the soundtrack (the other being "Papa, Can You Hear Me?"), this was Streisand's eighth and final #1 hit on the Adult Contemporary chart, where it spent two weeks at the top.
Both singles were nominated for Best Original Song at the 1983 Academy Awards but lost to "Flashdance... What a Feeling." The songwriters did win, however, in the Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score category.
Streisand became the first woman to win a Golden Globe Award for Best Director when Yentl earned her the prize at the 1983 ceremony. The film was also named Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy. Surprisingly, she didn't earn any nominations for her directing, writing, or acting work for the movie at the Oscars that year.

Comments: 2

Chris Y from New York, NyI do not completely agree with the comment made by Jerry from Brooklyn, NY. As a classically trained musician, I see much brilliance in Legrand's score and as for lyrics, yes, a couple of songs may be a bit pedestrian but beautiful poetry in others such as Where Is It Written and A Piece of Sky.
Jerry from Brooklyn, NyYes, the movie was a kind of vanity project -- Striesand was in virtually every scene and she was the only one who sang anything. The movie would have been vastly improved if the tedious and often pretentious songs were dropped. It is a rather intriguing story of cultural differences, but the music is just plain awful, and the lyrics from the usually reliable Alan and Marilyn Bergman are pedestrian at best and often rather silly.

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