You Don't Bring Me Flowers
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"You Don't Bring Me Flowers" is a song written by
Neil Diamond Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adul ...
with
Alan and Marilyn Bergman Alan Bergman (born September 11, 1925) and Marilyn Keith Bergman (November 10, 1928 – January 8, 2022) were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celebrated telev ...
for the daily TV sitcom ''
All That Glitters All That Glitters or All That Glisters may refer to: * '' All that glitters is not gold'', a well-known saying Literature * ''All That Glitters'' (novel), by V. C. Andrews * ''All That Glitters'', a novel by Michael Anthony * ''All That Glitte ...
''. The song was intended to be the theme song, but
Norman Lear Norman Milton Lear (born July 27, 1922) is an American producer and screenwriter, who has produced, written, created, or developed over 100 shows. Lear is known for many popular 1970s sitcoms, including the multi-award winning ''All in the Famil ...
, the show's creator, changed the concept of the show and the song was no longer appropriate. Diamond then expanded the track from 45 seconds to 3:17, adding instrumental sections and an additional verse. The Bergmans contributed to the song's lyrics, which tell the story of two lovers who have drifted apart while they "go through the motions" and heartache of life together. In 1977, Diamond released the album '' I'm Glad You're Here with Me Tonight'', which included the track "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" as a solo performance. Early in 1978,
Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers List ...
covered the song on her album ''
Songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 500 ...
''. These recordings were spliced together by different radio stations, creating unofficial duets, the success of which led to the studio bringing them together for an official duet recording, which reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.


Duet version created

The roots of the duet version, as chronicled in myriad Streisand and Diamond biographies, as well as Streisand's '' Just for the Record...'' box set, revolve around
WAKY (AM) WAKY (620 kHz AM) is a classic hits radio station in the Louisville, Kentucky metropolitan area that simulcasts WAKY-FM (103.5 MHz FM). It is currently owned by William Walters, through licensee W & B Broadcasting Co., Inc. The stati ...
Louisville, KY program director, Gary Guthrie, who spliced the two solo tracks together as a going-away present to his wife, Becky, whom he was in the process of divorcing. Guthrie's spliced-together duet version first aired on WAKY on May 24, 1978. As the real-life story behind the song unfolded, it triggered a media buzz worldwide from ''
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
'' and ''
People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
'' magazine to the ''
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''. Meanwhile, a different version was prepared by Chicago's WGN radio personality
Roy Leonard Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...
and producer Peter Marino. Streisand's album was placed on one turntable and Diamond's on another, and the recording was mixed 'live'. They began with Streisand singing and Diamond's vocal followed. Streisand and Diamond repeated the same lyrics back and forth to each other—there weren't any edits and the recording was mixed in one take. The ''Roy Leonard Show'' version became so popular that years after Columbia Records released their official duet, listeners continued to call in requesting to hear the WGN version. Radio personalities Jack Hood and Gene Kruszewski of WJR-AM/
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
also created a duet version of the song which was a local and regional hit and helped escalate the song's novelty. Interest in the unofficial versions of the duet caused a clamor on the retail level, as the song was commercially unavailable as a duet. Guthrie sent CBS his version of the duet on July 27, and by August 3, both Streisand and Diamond had agreed to the release of a duet version. However, rather than issue any of the spliced-together versions, Columbia Records had Streisand and Diamond record a brand-new "official" studio version, which was released on October 17, 1978. The song reached number one on the Hot 100 chart for two non-consecutive weeks in December 1978, producing the third number-one hit for both singers. The single sold over one million copies, and eventually went Platinum. In 1979, Guthrie sued CBS for $5 million, claiming that he was improperly compensated for his role in making the song a hit. The parties reached an out-of-court settlement. Acknowledgment and gratitude for Guthrie also came from CBS with a Gold record plaque, flowers from Diamond, and a telegram from Streisand. Columbia also presented gold records to both Leonard and Marino, for creating the WGN version, and to Hood and Kruszewski for their WJR version. The solo versions had also drawn attention from other radio stations, resulting in other radio personalities receiving recognition for helping to increase the popularity of a “spliced” duet, further contributing to the decision to create an official duet. The duo performed the song at the 1980 Grammy Awards show, a performance released on the 1994 album ''Grammy's Greatest Moments Volume I''. The story of how it happened was recalled by
Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Col ...
on the CBS network television special, ''My Night at the Grammys'' which aired on November 30, 2007. Keys said, “It might very well have been the first Grammy moment ... they adnever performed the song “live” together, so on February 27, 1980, the lights dimmed at the Shrine Auditorium and Barbara and Neil took the stage to sing one of the classic television duets of all time.” Diamond and Streisand had planned to star in a motion picture based on the song, but such plans were canceled when Diamond starred in a remake of ''
The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolated ...
'' (1980).


Chart history


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


All-time charts


Certifications


Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius version

Concurrent with the success of Diamond and Streisand's version of the song, country singers
Jim Ed Brown James Edward Brown (April 1, 1934 – June 11, 2015) was an American country singer-songwriter who achieved fame in the 1950s with his two sisters as a member of the Browns. He later had a successful solo career from 1965 to 1974, followed by ...
and
Helen Cornelius Helen Cornelius (born Helen Lorene Johnson; December 6, 1941) is an American country music, country singer-songwriter, best remembered for a series of hit duets with Jim Ed Brown, many of which reached the U.S. country singles top ten during th ...
released a country version of the song, which reached number ten on the ''Billboard''
Hot Country Singles Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart in early 1979.


See also

*
List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1978 (U.S.) These are the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one hits of 1978. That year, 11 acts first hit number one, such as Player, Yvonne Elliman, Deniece Williams, John Travolta, The Commodores, A Taste of Honey, Exile, Nick Gilder, Anne Murray, Donna ...


References

{{Authority control Songs about flowers 1977 songs 1978 singles Neil Diamond songs Barbra Streisand songs Jim Ed Brown songs Helen Cornelius songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles Songs with music by Michel Legrand Songs with lyrics by Alan Bergman Songs with lyrics by Marilyn Bergman Songs written by Neil Diamond Song recordings produced by Bob Gaudio Male–female vocal duets Pop ballads Columbia Records singles