"Comin' In and Out of Your Life," Barbra Streisand
Today (April 24) is Barbra Streisand's birthday - she's 84 - and as it does happen to be her birthday, I thought of making my Music Video Of the Week this week a clip of one of her songs, and then I thought, Well, why not?
"Comin' In and Out of Your Life" is one of only two previously unreleased songs that Streisand released as singles between 1980, when she put out her Bee Gees-produced album Guilty, and 1983, when she premiered her magnum opus movie Yentl and put out its accompanying soundtrack album. (The other one, "Memory," from Cats, doesn't concern us here and never will concern us in this space, because that song, like the musical it comes from, sucks.) Both songs were produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and both appeared on Babs' 1981 compilation Memories.
I like "Comin' In and Out of Your Life." I don't know why I like it, especially when it was produced by Lloyd Webber, whom I can't stand, but it might because he didn't actually write it. It was written by Richard Parker and Bobby Whiteside, two composers who had previously been known for writing ad jingles. Whiteside, according to Wikipedia, made a demo tape of "Comin' In and Out of Your Life" and sent it to a fellow named Jay Landers, who then sent it to Streisand insider Charles Koppelman.
Landers later explained, "I knew [Streisand] a little bit. We met through Charles Koppelman, who . . . was her executive producer at the time. I was an independent music publisher, and Charles asked me to find some material for a compilation he was working on with her, which became Memories. So I brought her "Comin’ In And Out Of Your Life," which was a song I'd come across a few months earlier."
Richard Parker adds to the story behind the song. "Koppelman was so knocked out by it . . .. Ten days later Barbra recorded our song in London. It all happened so fast." Parker later said that "having Barbra Streisand do the song automatically legitimized [my and Bobby Whiteside's] standing as songwriters."
"Comin’ In And Out Of Your Life" reached number eleven on the Billboard singles chart. This clip is the song set to a compilation of TV show clips and TV commercials from 1981, the year of its release. Strange that I couldn't find a video of Streisand singing "Comin’ In And Out Of Your Life," but it's probably as much and afterthought as Stevie Wonder's 1981 single and greatest-hits-album bonus track "That Girl" is. That's a mistake. Bonus tracks on greatest-hits compilations should always be taken seriously.
Unless it's a song Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote.
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