Songoftheday 7/19/20 - This time it's different it's all because of you, it's better than it's ever been 'cause we can talk it through...
from the album The Mirror Has Two Faces (Original Soundtrack) (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15
Today's song of the day brought an unusual pairing of singers, with veteran vocalist/actress/producer Barbara Streisand and Canadian rock star Bryan Adams. Streisand, who was filming her latest movie The Mirror Has Two Faces in 1996, had last been on the pop charts since 1988, when her duet with then-boyfriend Don Johnson, "Till I Loved You", made the top-40. A year later, Barbra closed out the decade with a greatest hits set A Collection..., and from it the Michael Bolton/Diane Warren song "We're Not Making Love Anymore" reached the American Adult Contemporary radio format chart at #10. In 1991, Streisand's movie The Prince Of Tides came out, and while the feature song from it, "Places That Belong To You", pretty much stiffed in the states, missing the pop chart and stalling out at #43 on the AC radio chart, it was a top-40 single in the UK at #17. Two years later, she returned with her next studio album, a sequel to her massively successful showtunes album from 1985, Back To Broadway. And again, though American radio, even "easy listening" radio, passed on the #1 record, British airwaves were more inviting, with Barbra landing two more top-40 hits in the UK including a version of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from the musical Sunset Boulevard, which peaked at #20 there.
Meanwhile, Adams' most recent album, 18 Til I Die, which included his own movie #1 hit with "Have You Really Loved A Woman?", was relatively struggling in the states, only scoring with the moderate pop hit "Let's Make A Night To Remember" in the fall of 1996. But like Streisand, the UK was proving a better audience, with the disc landing four top-40 hits there.
For the big ballad from The Mirror Has Two Faces, starring Streisand herself, she brought in Adams, as well as writers Marvin Hamlisch and Robert "Mutt" Lange, as well as producer David Foster, to collaborate on "I Finally Found Someone". To be honest, the pairing of Streisand with Adams was a little odd, and definitely didn't help his cred with the rock crowd, but nevertheless adult radio and fans of both flocked to the song, making it both artists' last big hit on the pop chart...
"I Finally Found Someone" reached the top ten on the American pop Hot 100 in Billboard magazine in December of 1996. The song spent two weeks at #2 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, while getting to #19 on the Adult Top-40 format list. Internationally, the single went to #1 for a week in Ireland, and reached the top ten in Australia (#2), Belgium (#6F/#14W), New Zealand (#6), Sweden (#9), and the UK (#10). It also made the top-40 in the Netherlands (#16), Switzerland (#17), Canada (#18), Austria (#23), Iceland (#34), and France (#40). At the Academy Awards in 1997, the song was up for Best Original Song, losing out to Madonna's Evita turn in "You Must Love Me". The following year, it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration, again losing out, this time to bluesman John Lee Hooker and Irish singer Van Morrison's redo of "Don't Look Back".
Also in 1997, Streisand released a new studio album, Higher Ground. From it a duet with Celine Dion (who sang "I Finally Found Someone" at the Oscars), "Tell Him", was promoted to radio, but not released as a commercial single. The song made it to #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 airplay chart, while going as high as #5 at Adult Contemporary. Again, the song was a much bigger success internationally, going to the top ten in Australia, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK, with the latter rising to #3. Two years later, a follow-up album, A Love Like Ours, produced Barbra's most recent British top-40 hit with "If You Ever Leave Me" with country legend Vince Gill (UK #26). In 2005, Streisand teamed up with Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees for a "sequel" to her 1980 album Guilty, called Guilty Pleasures. The track "Night Of My Life" was remixed into a club banger and went to #2 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, and "Stranger In A Strange Land" becoming her most recent Adult Contemporary radio hit at #39. She has released five studio albums since then, with three of those topping the Billboard 200 sales chart. Barbra's most recent set, Walls, came in at #12 there, and from it the politically defiant "Don't Lie To Me" went to #8 on the Dance Club Play list.
As for Adams, the duet would also be his own final appearance in the pop top-40 in the U.S. After 18 Til I Die, he released his appearance on MTV Unplugged as a live album. He almost reached the top-40 on the pop airplay chart with the new song "Back To You" from the concert set, which stopped at #42 on the Hot 100 Airplay list, though it made it to #38 on Mainstream Rock radio. His next studio set, On A Day Like Today, was ignored in the States in 1998 (with no help from the record company), while in the UK it spun off two top ten hits including "When You're Gone" with Spice Girl Melanie C (Sporty), which went to #3 there. At the start of the millenium, Adams sang on DJ/producer Chicane's single "Don't Give Up", which topped the British chart in 2000 and got to #3 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart (though Bryan was uncredited in the listing). In 2002, he contributed a song to another movie, this time the animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. The result, "Here I Am", went to #5 on the American Adult Contemporary radio chart, as well as the British singles chart (his most recent top tenner on each). It "bubbled under" the American pop Hot 100 at #123. He has released five more studio albums since, with his most recent radio hit being "You Belong To Me", which went to #26 at Adult Contemporary in 2016. His latest studio album, Shine A Light, came out in 2019, where it went to #1 in Canada and #2 in the UK.
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At the Academy Awards, Barbra Streisand had originally passed on performing "I Finally Found Someone" at the ceremony, where it was up for Best Song. However, after replacement Natalie Cole fell ill, Celine Dion, who was already there to perform her own nominated song "Because You Love Me", did double duty, even though Barbra tried last minute to actually perform. Nevertheless, both songs lost to Madonna's "You Must Love Me"...
Here's a little of Barbra performing the song live in concert in Canada in 2012...
And lastly, Bryan Adams live in NYC the following year...
Up tomorrow: Canine G-Funk artist requests attention.
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