Songoftheday 5/18/13 - There's no chill and yet I shiver, there's no flame and yet I burn...

Barbra Streisand - "The Way He Makes Me Feel"
from the album Yentl (Original Soundtrack) (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #40 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2

Today's Song of the Day is by maybe the most celebrated American female pop singer ever, Barbra Streisand, who is one of the very few people ever to have won an Emmy, an Oscar, a Grammy, and a Tony (though the latter was an honorary one).

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Barbra (dropping the "a" in her first name) started her singing career at the Greenwich Village gay club The Lion, which led to gigs around New York and eventually across the country, where she landed on The Tonight Show (also after being seen at a gay bar) in 1961.

A year later, Streisand got her breakthrough stage role in the Broadway show I Can Get It For You Wholesale, while also recording her debut album, The Barbra Streisand Album, which won Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal Performance. For a while she cranked out two regular albums a year, with her classic "People" from show Funny Girl and album of the song's name becoming Barbra's first top-10 pop hit in 1964, as well as another Female Vocal Grammy.

Most of the 60's had her covering standards, but as the new decade awaited, Streisand delved more into contemporary pop. Her 1971 single "Stoney End", written by the great Laura Nyro, became her second top-10 single. Then, her turn in the movie The Way We Were with Robert Redford brought Barbra her first #1 hit with the title track in 1974. Another romantic film, A Star Is Born with Kris Kristofferson in 1977, scored a second chart-topper with "Evergreen", and another pair of Grammys. A chance mash-up by a radio station of her and Neil Diamond's separate "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" recordings led to a bonified "official duet" which went to #1 in 1978. And proving that no genre of music eluded her, her disco epic "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" with Donna Summer reigned on the pop chart the following year.

Barbra started out the 80s back in adult contemporary territory, with the Barry Gibb-produced "Guilty" becoming her fifth and so far latest #1 single. In 1983, Barbra put together a film adaptation of the play Yentl, which she had wanted to co-opt since the late 60s. The story of a girl who disguises herself as a boy to receive Orthodox Jewish schooling, where she falls in love with a fellow student but must keep her gender identity hidden. However, straying from the play (and the short story it was based on), Streisand had her title character ultimately reveal herself to her love, and leaves him with the woman Yentl married fraudulently. Barbra served as not only the star, but the producer, director, and screenwriter for the film. The first single pulled from the soundtrack also sung completely by her, "The Way He Makes Me Feel", was written by legends Alan and Marilyn Bergman along with Michael Legrand...

"The Way He Makes Me Feel" racked up another top-40 single for Streisand at the end of 1983, while also becoming her eighth and latest #1 adult contemporary hit. The album became a top-10 hit as well, and the song was nominated for the Oscar for Best Song. losing to "Flashdance...What A Feeling". She also was the first woman to win Best Director at the Golden Globes (which she was snubbed at the Academy Awards for)...The songwriting team did end up with the Oscar for Best Original Score.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


The version heard in the film was a little different, allowing for interplay in the scene...

...and here she is from her tour last year in Philly..

Up tomorrow: Oddly-colored abodes.