"Woman in Love" is a song performed by

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...

and taken from her 1980 album '' Guilty''. The song was written by Barry and

Robin Gibb Robin Hugh Gibb (22 December 1949 – 20 May 2012) was a British singer and songwriter. He gained global fame as a member of the Bee Gees with elder brother Barry and fraternal twin brother Maurice. Robin Gibb also had his own successfu ...

of the

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry Gibb, Barry, Robin Gibb, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in ...

, who received the 1980

Ivor Novello award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. It is her fourth of four Platinum records, and is considered her greatest international hit. After the success enjoyed by the Bee Gees in the late 1970s, the band was asked to participate in musical endeavors for other artists, and Streisand asked Barry Gibb to write an album for her. This album ultimately became ''Guilty''. "Woman in Love", as the lead single, became one of the most successful songs of Streisand's music career. It reached the number-one position on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, Streisand's fifth (and last to date) number-one hit on that chart. It replaced

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

's big-selling hit "

Another One Bites the Dust "Another One Bites the Dust" is a song by the British Rock music, rock band Queen (band), Queen. Written by bassist John Deacon, the song was featured on the group's eighth studio album ''The Game (Queen album), The Game'' (1980). It was a worl ...

", spent three weeks at number one, and was itself replaced by "

Lady ''Lady'' is a term for a woman who behaves in a polite way. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the female counterpart of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. "Lady" is al ...

" by country singer

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (born Kenneth Donald Rogers) (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particul ...

. It also spent five weeks atop the adult contemporary chart, her sixth number one on that tally. The song also proved very popular internationally, reaching number one in many countries, including on the UK Singles Chart. The song sold more than 2.5 million copies up to December 1981, according to ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

''. In 2023, ''

American Songwriter ''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee. History The ''American Songwri ...

'' and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' ranked the song number one and number seven, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Barbra Streisand songs.

Music video

The music video for the song included clips from '' A Star Is Born'', starring Streisand and

Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a m ...

, and from other movies she made in the 1970s.

Track listing

Personnel

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Barry Gibb Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (born 1 September 1946) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Along with his younger fraternal twin brothers, Robin Gibb, Robin and Maurice Gibb, Maurice, he rose to global fame as a member ...

–

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, arrangement *

Pete Carr Jesse Willard "Pete" Carr (April 22, 1950 – June 27, 2020) was an American guitarist. Carr contributed session work to recordings by Joan Baez, Luther Ingram, Bob Seger, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Boz Scaggs, Percy Sledge, The Sta ...

–

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

* Richard Tee – keyboards,

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

*Harold Cowart –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

Steve Gadd Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American jazz fusion drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and most highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction i ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Joe Lala – shaker * Denise Maynelli –

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

* Myrna Mathews - background vocals * Marti McCal – background vocals * Jerry Peel –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Liz McClarnon version

Atomic Kitten Atomic Kitten were an English girl group formed in Liverpool in 1998, whose original lineup comprised Kerry Katona, Liz McClarnon, and Natasha Hamilton. The group was founded by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) members Andy McCluskey an ...

member

Liz McClarnon Elizabeth Margaret McClarnon-Cho (born 10 April 1981) is an English singer, songwriter and actress, who is the longest serving member of the girl group Atomic Kitten, with whom she has scored three number-one singles and two number-one albums. M ...

covered "Woman in Love" after the band's split in 2005. Produced by original songwriter

—whom McClarnon accompanied on his 2005 tour—the cover was released in February 2006 as McClarnon's debut solo single. In the United Kingdom, the song was released as a

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

with a cover of Jackie Wilson's 1968 hit " I Get the Sweetest Feeling". The double A-side peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart on February 19, 2006, staying in the top 100 for six weeks. Elsewhere, "Woman in Love" reached number 21 in Ireland and became a minor hit in Australia, Belgium, and the Netherlands. McClarnon would go on to record another song entitled "Lately", but the track was not released as a single.

Track listings

UK CD single # "Woman in Love" # "I Get the Sweetest Feeling" Scandinavian CD single # "Woman in Love" (radio edit) # "Woman in Love" (Dancing DJs remix) # "Woman in Love" (K-Klub remix) # "Woman in Love" ( Soul Seekerz dub) Australian and New Zealand maxi-single # "Woman in Love" (radio edit) # "Woman in Love" ( K-Klass Klub remix) # "Woman in Love" (Soul Seekerz dub) # "Woman in Love" (Dancing DJs remix)

Charts

Release history

Barry Gibb version

"Woman in Love" is the first demo

recorded for

's album '' Guilty''. This composition by the Gibb brothers Barry and Robin would become the album's very successful first single. It was due to this demo that Barry Gibb became the first male artist to sing the song, though it was originally recorded for Streisand to perform alone on her album.

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

Blue Weaver Derek John "Blue" Weaver (born 11 March 1947) is a Welsh rock keyboardist, session musician, songwriter and record producer. Career Weaver's career as a musician began as a co-founding member of 1960s Welsh rock band Amen Corner and its succ ...

– keyboard *

Albhy Galuten Albhy Galuten (born Alan Bruce Galuten; December 27, 1947) is an American technology executive and futurist, Grammy Award-winning record producer, composer, musician, orchestrator and conductor. Career Musical career Galuten attended Berkle ...

–

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

References

External links

Official site
* {{Authority control 1980s ballads 1980 singles 1980 songs 2006 debut singles All Around the World Productions singles Barbra Streisand songs Barry Gibb songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Bonnier Music singles Cashbox number-one singles Columbia Records singles Dutch Top 40 number-one singles European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Liz McClarnon songs Number-one singles in Australia Number-one singles in Austria Number-one singles in Germany Number-one singles in Italy Number-one singles in Norway Number-one singles in Sweden Number-one singles in Switzerland Number-one singles in South Africa Post-disco songs Rock ballads RPM Top Singles number-one singles Song recordings produced by Albhy Galuten Song recordings produced by Barry Gibb Song recordings produced by Graham Stack (record producer) Song recordings produced by Robin Gibb Songs written by Barry Gibb Songs written by Maurice Gibb Songs written by Robin Gibb UK singles chart number-one singles

Music video

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Liz McClarnon version

Track listings

Charts

Release history

Barry Gibb version

Personnel

See also

References

External links