Songfacts®:

• Barbra Streisand recorded this heartbreak ballad, written by Michael Bolton and Diane Warren, for her third greatest-hits collection. It's about the loss of intimacy in a relationship before a breakup and the last bit of desperate hope that things can work out. Streisand could relate to the sentiment - she had just split with her boyfriend Don Johnson (her duet partner on "Till I Loved You").
  
  Because she was busy directing and starring in the drama The Prince Of Tides (1991), Streisand didn't have time to record a full-length album, so she opted for a compilation that included two new songs, "We're Not Makin' Love Anymore" and a cover of Natalie Cole's "Someone That I Used To Love."
• Bolton, who was in the middle of a divorce from his wife, Maureen McGuire, wrote the first verse late one night in his Manhattan apartment. He called Warren and played it for her over the phone.
  
  "She was all over it in a flash, singing out more lyrics faster than I could write them down," he recalled In his 2013 memoir, The Soul of It All: My Music, My Life.
  
  The following week, they met at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood, California - a popular meeting spot for musicians because it supplies instruments and sound equipment for guests - where they ordered a pair of keyboards and spent the next several days finishing the tune.
• Bolton and Warren mulled over artists to record the ballad and agreed that Streisand had the vocal talent and storytelling ability to pull it off.
  
  "I had no doubt that Barbra would sing the hell out of 'We're Not Making Love Anymore' - and not just because she is one of the world's greatest singers. I began writing the song from the heart during my divorce, and Barbra sang it from heart in the studio," he noted in his memoir.
  
  But he never listens to it. "As much as that song means to me - I'm proud and thankful to have co-written it - I'll never be able to hear it without associating it with a sad time in my life," he continued.
• Warren was also behind some other big hits of 1989, including the #1 hits "Blame It On The Rain" by Milli Vanilli, "Love Will Lead You Back" by Taylor Dayne, and "When I See You Smile" by Bad English. Bolton also landed in the Top 10 that year with the Warren-penned "How Can We Be Lovers?" and "When I'm Back On My Feet Again."
• This was produced and arranged by Narada Michael Walden. As a drummer, songwriter, and producer, Walden worked with several big stars like Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston, but he feared working with Streisand would be a challenge due to her reputation for being difficult. He got ahead of the issue by setting a mellow mood with a candlelit studio.
  
  "So, when she first walked in, all she saw was 100 flickering lights. That disarmed her and made her kind of relax for a moment," he's quoted by The Barbra Archives. "Then, I went to the piano with her to kind of go over the song and that was really comforting for her that we could go to the piano to work things out. This also helped her relax. By the time we were ready to sing, she was fine. Then, you go to the microphones and you hear her voice coming over the speakers, then you know - it's Barbra Streisand, which is always fantastic. She has a great tone and a great presence."
• Walden also helped Streisand with her phrasing and rhythm. "There's a lot of rhythm in that song, even though it seems subtle," he explained. "It's not loose like the song, 'People,' it's 'We're Not Making Love Anymore' - you know what I mean, put it in the pocket."
• The single peaked at #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Streisand didn't reach the Top 10 again until 1996 with the Bryan Adams duet "I Finally Found Someone."
• Bolton did end up recording this as an R&B-style duet with Patti LaBelle in 1991 for his Time, Love & Tenderness album (Warren also wrote the title track) but didn't release it as a single.