You Don't Bring Me Flowers

by Neil Diamond

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Neil Diamond, Linda Press, Barbra Streisand (vocals); Richard Bennett, Doug Rhone (guitar); Tom Hensley (piano, keyboards); Alan Lindgren (piano, synthesizer); Reinie Press (bass); Dennis St. John (drums); Vince Charles, King Errisson (percussion); Maxine Willard Waters, Julia Tillman Waters (background vocals).

Containing one hit single in the nostalgic "Forever in Blue Jeans," one characteristic opus in the panoramic "American Popular Song," and one bona fide classic in its title track, a duet with Barbra Streisand, YOU DON'T BRING ME FLOWERS is a classic collection of solid mid-1970s Neil Diamond songwriting, notwithstanding that on many of the cuts Diamond appears to have been hit with the disco stick. There's even a real oddity in the "Dancing Bumble Bee/Bumble Boogie," a bizarre disco take on Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee," and a similar version of the Fortunes' '60s hit "You've Got Your Troubles, I've Got Mine." But it's the singer's duet with Streisand that steals the show here, a timeless piece of '70s pop balladry that's still capable of jerking a tear decades later.