Columbia 36750
Producers: Barry Gibb, Abby Galuten, and Karl Richardson
Track listing: Guilty (Duet with Barry Gibb) / Woman in Love / Run Wild / Promises / The Love Inside / What Kind of Fool (Duet with Barry Gibb) / Life Story / Never Give Up / Make It Like a Memory
October 25, 1980
3 weeks (nonconsecutive)
Following the success of Barbra Streisand’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2, the singer’s fortunes dipped with her two final albums of the ’70s. The soundtrack to The Main Event stalled at number 20 in the summer of 1979. Wet, also released that year, climbed to number seven, thanks largely to the Number One duet “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough),” with Donna Summer. To usher herself into the ’80s, Streisand called on the Bee Gees, one of the hottest acts of the ’70s.
Yet Barry Gibb was initially less than enthused about working with Streisand. “I was a little nervous,” he says. “She intimidated me to some extent. In fact, if it hadn’t been for my wife, I don’t think I would have done it. She said, ‘If you don’t do it, I’ll divorce you.’ So I had to do it.”
But Gibb didn’t just go into the project blind. He called on Neil Diamond, who had scored a Number One hit with Streisand in 1978 with “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” “He said that she is an absolute pleasure. Don’t be concerned about it, just go ahead and do it.,,”
He was also aware that Streisand had a proven track record with collaborators and that the project would likely benefit him and his brothers Robin and Maurice, who were asked to contribute five songs for the album. “It was a good career move for both us and her,” says Gibb. “Barbra has a knack of making it a point to work with someone who is hot at the time. She asked to work with us because she realized we were doing particularly well and it was a good combination.” The combination worked so well, in fact, that after the first five songs were presented to Streisand, she requested that the Gibb brothers compose the entire album.
It took approximately six months for the project to be completed. “If there is one thing to say about Barbra, it’s that she is the perfectionist everyone says she is,” says Gibb. Before Gibb signed on to write, co-produce, and duet with Streisand, the pair laid down some ground rules. “We had an agreement at the beginning that we would all be able to be critical,” says Gibb. “If she wasn’t happy, she would be able to say so and so would I, so there would be no arguments. From day one, we left air egos at the front door.”
The pairing of Streisand with the elder Gibb brother, masterminded by executive producer Charles Koppelman, proved to be a winner. Yet the duets weren’t played up initially. Streisand was a bit concerned that the public might be growing tired of her star-studded musical pairings, so Columbia chose to release “Woman in Love” as the first single. That track alone was enough to bring Streisand back to Number One, as the single and Guilty reached the top simultaneously and were there together for three consecutive weeks. The duets with Gibb, which were subsequently released as singles didn’t fare quite as well. “What Kind of Fool” stalled at number 10, while “Guilty” peaked at number three.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of October 25, 1980
1. Guilty, Barbra Streisand
2. The Game, Queen
3. One Step Closer, The Doobie Brothers
4. Diana, Diana Ross
5. Crimes of Passion, Pat Benatar