Last night, CNN's Piers Morgan celebrated Barbra Streisand on his television show, "Piers Morgan Tonight." At the very end of the show in a segment called "Only in America," Morgan talked about Sunday's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Morgan noted that Barbra Streisand's name might be heard three times that night; twice for her album "What Matters Most" and once more for the song "Barbra Streisand" by Duck Sauce.
Morgan explained, "The world's great music stars will gather for the prestigious award… and they will all be asking the same question: who is the best? Well, here is a clue. One of them is celebrating her 50th year in the business. She's won eight Grammys. She's nominated for two more this year. And she's won four Oscars*, four Emmys and a Tony.
"She's sold 140 million albums, including number one records in five different decades. But on Sunday, she will witness first hand the one truly defining symbol of Grammy superstardom. Another artist has been nominated for an infectious smash hit dance [record] called simply 'Barbra Streisand.'"
Indeed, it's true that no other star has been feted in song like Barbra this past year. "Barbra Streisand," the dance number, has been a blockbuster. "Surely, the greatest symbol you could ever want as a musician," claimed Morgan after playing a clip of the catchy melody.
Armanda Van Helden and A-Track, known as Duck Sauce, created “Barbra Streisand.” According to Piers Morgan, "Nobody -- I repeat nobody -- in musical history has ever been nominated at the Grammys at the same event that somebody else has also been nominated for a song named in their honor. There is quite literally only one Barbra Streisand, the queen of American music. Happy anniversary, your majesty."
Piers Morgan wasn't the only person celebrating Barbra Streisand on Friday night. Bill Simmons, "The Sports Guy," a famous writer and on-air columnist for ESPN as well as the editor-in-chief of Grantland.com, an online magazine, submitted his choice for a YouTube Hall of Fame of Grammy performance. His selection was "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" from the 1980 Grammys, the classic duet by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond of
In his typical acerbic style -- tongue in cheek -- Simmons' analysis of why he chose that YouTube video was as follows:
"Here are four minutes that will make you ask yourself things like, 'Why am I enjoying this so much?' ... 'Are these two just going to start humping on the stage?' ... 'Is there any definitive way to figure out who had a worse hairdo?' ... 'If these two had reproduced, would they have given birth to Moses?' ... 'Am I paying enough attention to my wife? Should I make sure she doesn't identify with these lyrics a little too much?' ... 'Could an NBA team wear Streisand's outfit as warm-ups for a game?' "
"... 'Is it wrong that I keep getting the chills during this performance?' ... 'Was this the greatest Emmys moment of all time?' ... 'Was this the greatest Jewish musical moment of all time?' ... 'Was this the greatest Jewish moment of all time?' ... 'Was this the greatest duet of all time?' ... 'Did this inadvertently lead to hundreds of horrendous duets to come?' ... 'Why is this so fu*king riveting?' ... and most importantly, 'Did any female singer ever have a better voice than Barbra Streisand?'"
There are other reasons why this might be the greatest Grammy moment of all-time that Simmons didn't mention. For instance, it was the first time Barbra and Neil had sung the ballad live in front of an audience. After the Kentucky disk jockey, Gary Guthrie, spliced together the "duet" from tracks of Barbra and Neil's solo renditions on each of their albums, Columbia Records urged the stars to go into the studio and do it for real so they could release a legitimate, finished product.
In September 1978, around the Jewish High Holy days, the two former classmates from Erasmus Hall High School -- they'd been in the Chorale Club at the same time -- rehearsed at Barbra's Malibu house. Lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman were there, since they'd written the words to Neil's music.
Neil and Barbra liked what they'd worked out -- who sang which line, etc. -- and on October 17 at the Cherokee Studios in L.A., they recorded the song. Within weeks, it was released as a single and shot to the top of the charts, reaching number one by November 1978. It was not eligible for a Grammy until the next year because it had missed the cut-off date.
So, by the time the Grammy Awards were broadcast -- February 27, 1980 -- everybody knew "You Don't Bring Me Flowers." It received two nominations -- Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance - Duo, Group or Chorus. The only thing mysterious about the song was that nobody had ever seen Barbra and Neil sing it together. They hadn't appeared anywhere to perform it and there was no music video!
But when it came time to figure out how they would perform the number, Barbra had some thoughts. Last year, when Paul Grein at Grammy.com interviewed her last year, she revealed that the unique staging had been her idea.
"Well, what happened was I came to the rehearsals and they wanted to have three stools there. The one in the middle would hold a bouquet of flowers," she told Grein. "And then Neil and I would sing this song. I said, 'Do you mind if I give you my opinion on how this should be staged' I said Neil and I would come onstage from two different sides. There would be no announcement of our names.
"I made up a whole back-story about this couple [in the song]. We've [been] married for 15 or 20 years and we're breaking up. We really are sad to do it, but we've had it. We don't give each other anything anymore and so we slowly walk together. To me, that's the way it should have been staged — very simply and coming together to say goodbye in a sense."
They rehearsed it just as Barbra -- the director -- envisioned it, even running some videotape to see how it would look. When they reviewed the tape, they realized that it was just right. All they needed was to do was capture that before a television audience of 32 million. Despite her stage fright, which back then was crippling for Barbra, she committed to the appearance…with Neil reassuring her every step of the way.
Ken Ehrlich, the Grammy producer, recalls how that performance changed the Grammys forever. "Our calling card has been you have to watch because there are performances you have not seen before. Point of fact, my first show was with Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand doing 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers' live for the first time. …When Neil (Portnow, president of NARAS) arrived, he said we should do more of them.
A year after that historic TV appearance, Tom Brokaw of NBC News hosted a special called "TV Guide: 1980 the Year In Television," and the clip was rebroadcast. In his words, Streisand and Diamond's Grammy performance was "the best of the year, perhaps the best ever.
Since then, there have been other great Grammy numbers, but to this day, "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" remains the hallmark. And on YouTube, there have been nearly two million hits by people watching it again and again.
* Actually, Barbra has won two Oscars, not four. "Funny Girl" - Best Actress and "Evergreen" - Best Song.
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