| "People" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Popular song, Show tune by Barbra Streisand | ||
| Released | January 1964 | |
| Writer | Bob Merrill (lyricist) | |
| Composer | Jule Styne (composer) | |
| Cover versions | ||
|
many others |
||
"People" is a well-known song, written by Jule Styne (composer) and Bob Merrill (lyricist) for the Broadway musical Funny Girl (1964). It is often known by a line from its chorus, "People who need people....". It has been recorded by Barbra Streisand, Richard Clayderman, Perry Como, Florence Ballard 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".
Origins
A longstanding story posits that "People" was originally written for Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, the score Styne and Merrill released directly before Funny Girl.[1] Presumably, it was sung to Scrooge by his fiancee and later by Scrooge after his redemption. However, Theodore Taylor's biography, Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne, would seem to dispute this. It states that People was one of the first songs written for Funny Girl, in late 1962 in Palm Beach, Florida. According to the book, "Jule [said], '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 ain't gonna be "special person." Listen.' Then he ad-libbed, while Jule played the melody again: 'People, people who need people'...The song 'wrote' in thirty minutes..."[2] The single by Barbra Streisand was released in January 1964, and peaked at #5 on the Billboard charts. 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 song has since been used many times on various programs.
References
- ^ Hill, Jim (November 28, 2006). Scrooge U: Part VI -- Magoo's a musical miser. JimHillMedia.com. Retrieved on 2006 12-25.
- ^ Taylor, Theodore (1979). Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-41296-6.
