Evergreen by Barbra Streisand Song Info
This cut was written jointly by Streisand and Paul Williams, an early '70's phenom who wrote several commercials and notably, We've Only Just Begun. That song originally was the theme for a California bank, then later was a chart topper for The Carpenters. He also wrote "Just an Old Fashioned Love Song" for the group, Three Dog Night and had a very successful solo career in his own right. The pair wrote "Evergreen" as the love song for the Streisand remake of "A Star is Born." The pair shared an Academy Award, Grammy and Golden Globe for Best Song. This track was the single released for radio airplay that same year. Streisand had done this on previous occasions going all the way back to 1964. That Columbia Records single of "People," continues to be vastly superior to and more refreshing than the movie soundtrack version here on last.f,m. primarily because it lacks all the pretense, and audience expectation years subsequent to 1964 generated. By the time the movie was made, the song had become so legendary that to many, despite her best effort to retain its character, she had tried but failed to enjoy singing it anymore. This was not a problem with Evergreen, however, because there are only two versions of it that I'm aware of--this one and the one she did on the soundtrack album with her co-star, Kris Kristofferson. Most of the song in the film version is hers, but he joins her in duet for the last minute or so of the song.
