Tonight, I was in the mood for some of Barbra Streisand’s wonderful voice … plus I had another motivation. Barbra is an all-time favourite of our friend Ellen, who has been notably absent of late, and … well, frankly I miss the heck out of her and am hoping to lure her back!!! I have played this one before, back in 2019, but that’s long enough, and it is, I think, a beautiful song, sung by a beautiful voice inside a beautiful woman … what more can you ask?
Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees wrote this song. After their wildly successful contributions to the 1978 movie Saturday Night Fever, they were asked to work on an album for Streisand, which became Guilty. It was Streisand’s best-selling album. Two other songs from the album hit US Top 10, and both were duets with Barry Gibb: Guilty and What Kind of Fool. Guilty won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal by Duo or Group. It is her fourth of four Platinum records, and is considered her greatest international hit.
In the UK this was Streisand’s first #1. Having made her British chart debut in 1966 with Second Hand Rose, the 14-year-279-day interval between her first chart appearance and her first number one was then the fourth-longest wait in UK chart history.
Streisand has openly stated that she does not like Woman in Love because she doesn’t believe in the meaning of the lyrics. She has rarely performed the song live.
Woman in Love
Barbra Streisand
Life is a moment in space
When the dream is gone
It’s a lonelier place
I kiss the morning goodbye
But down inside you know
We never know why
The road is narrow and long
When eyes meet eyes
And the feeling is strong
I turn away from the wall
I stumble and fall
But I give you it all
I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again
What do I do?
With you eternally mine
In love there is
No measure of time
We planned it all at the start
That you and I
Live in each other’s hearts
We may be oceans away
You feel my love
I hear what you say
No truth is ever a lie
I stumble and fall
But I give you it all
I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again
What do I do?
I am a woman in love
And I’m talking to you
You know, I know, how it feels?
What a woman can do
It’s a right
I defend over and over again
I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again
Songwriters: Barry Alan Gibb / Robin Hugh Gibb
Woman in Love lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management