The Story Behind Neil Diamond And Barbra Streisand's Classic 1978 Duet Is True Serendipity

In 1978, the two biggest soft rock superstars of the day, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, teamed up to record a duet — pretty much at the behest of fans who willed the collaboration into existence. One of the best Neil Diamond songs that isn't "Sweet Caroline," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" is a palpably sad ballad, detailing all the ways that the romance and joy have fallen out of a long-term romantic relationship. It's particularly effective as a duet, with both sides of the fizzled love getting to weigh in with their feelings and defend themselves. But it wasn't initially a song for two voices. Diamond co-wrote "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" and made it the title track on a 1978 album. That same year, Streisand recorded "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" for her LP "Songbird."

Then Louisville, Kentucky, radio personality Gary Guthrie discovered the album cuts and found that both had been recorded in the same vocal range, or key. It didn't take all that much work then for Guthrie to cut and paste the tapes together to create a remix, a virtual duet of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers." And then, the song exploded in popularity.

After creating his unauthorized mashup of Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand's separate but similar "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" recordings, Gary Guthrie played the results on his radio show. He was bombarded with listener requests to keep playing it. When Louisville record stores fielded requests from customers who wanted to purchase copies of the superstar duet, Columbia Records took notice. Diamond and Streisand were both signees to that label, and the company insisted that the two convene to record the definitive duet of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers." It was a quick and massive hit. The single debuted on the Hot 100 at a relatively lofty No. 48 in October 1978. Five weeks later, it was the No. 1 song in the country.

The recording was eligible for the 1979 Grammy Awards, where it received nominations for best pop vocal performance by a duo, group, or chorus, and record of the year. In perhaps one of the biggest Grammy snubs of the '70s, "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" lost both categories to different songs by the ever-changing Doobie Brothers, but it fueled the awards ceremony's biggest moment. Diamond and Streisand weren't on the bill of performers, so they surprised the crowd when they emerged from the wings of the stage, separately, to sing "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" together.