| "People / I Am Woman" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Barbra Streisand | |
| from the album Funny Girl: Original Broadcast Cast Recording" and "People" | |
| Released | January 1964 |
| Recorded | 20 December 1963 |
| Length | 3:39 |
| Label | CBS Records 4-42965 |
| Writer(s) | Bob Merrill (lyricist) |
"People" is a song that was written by Jule Styne (composer) and Bob Merrill (lyricist) for the Broadway musical Funny Girl (1964) starring Barbra Streisand, who introduced the song. It is often known by a line from its chorus, "People who need people....". It has been recorded by Dionne Warwick, Steve Lawrence, Jack Jones, Aretha Franklin, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, The Supremes and others, but is most closely associated with Streisand as her signature song. The song asserts that "people who need people" — that is, people who love others and are not emotionally cut off from them — are the "luckiest people in the world". It was released as a single with "I Am Woman", a solo version of "You Are Woman, I Am Man", also from "Funny Girl".
Ella Fitzgerald recorded the song live on her CBS release Ella Fitzgerald at the Newport Jazz Festival: Live at Carnegie Hall. The Tymes had a top 40 hit with the song in 1968.[1]
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"People" was one of the first songs written for the musical score of Funny Girl. It is based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.
Composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill were hired to write the musical score and met each other for the first time in 1962 in Palm Beach, Florida. They wrote their songs by day and tested them by night on the Palm Beach socialites at cocktail parties.
As they worked to develop the character of Fanny Brice, they needed to write a special love song depicting her feelings towards Nicky. According to the book, "Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne" by Theodore Taylor, "Jule turned to his collaborator Bob Merrill, 'You told me the other night to work on [the lyric] "a very special person." I think I've got a helluva melody for it.'...'Great,' Merrill yelled. 'But now it's not gonna be just a "special person." Listen.' Then he ad-libbed, while Jule played the melody again: 'People, people who need people'...The song 'wrote' in thirty minutes..." "People" nearly did not get included in "Funny Girl" during early try-outs as the producers did not like it. Bob fought to keep the song in and finally one night, Barbra was allowed to sing it on stage. It stopped the show and history was made.[2]
The single by Streisand was released in January 1964, and peaked at number five on the Billboard pop chart, becoming the singer's first Top 40 hit.[3] It also spent three weeks at number one on the Pop-Standards (adult contemporary) chart in June/July 1964.[4]. This helped to cement its inclusion in Funny Girl, which ran on Broadway from March 26, 1964 to July 1, 1967, and earned Styne and Merrill a nomination for a 1964 Tony Award as Best Composer and Lyricist. The single version was recorded on 20 December 1963 and produced by Mike Berniker.
While the song is considered a signature tune for Streisand, during the mid-1960s, it was also well associated with Florence Ballard of The Supremes. A standard at many of the Supremes' nightclub appearances, it was one of the very few songs Ballard sang lead on during her tenure with the Supremes, as Diana Ross was almost always given lead for any songs the group performed.
The Supremes' version of "People" was essentially a group effort, and has more of a jazz flavor than Streisand's version. When the group performed at the Copacabana nightclub in 1965, the song was first removed from their set, then later given to Ross. The loss of the song crushed Ballard deeply and this led to increased problems in the group, and eventually led to Ballard's departure from the group a couple of years later. [5]