Emotion was Barbra Streisand’s first pop studio album since 1980’s huge hit, Guilty. Barbra was busy for three years producing, writing, directing, and starring in her movie passion project, Yentl, and it was now time to return to the studio for a new album for Columbia Records.
The Emotion album may have suffered from “too many cooks in the kitchen” and an abundance of producers (nine), whereas Guilty had the singular vision of Barry Gibb.
Streisand and her team began collecting songs for the album. One song considered was by Roger Edelman and titled “Over and Over (Am I Strong Enough).” Also considered was “Why Let It Go?” (which was used, instead, on 1988's Till I Loved You album). Meetings were held with Styxx's Dennis DeYoung to record his song, “The First Time” and a new song he was to write for Streisand. Another song, “Dreams on Hold” (writer unknown), was also worked on.
Ironically, the title track, “Emotion,” was the last to be recorded. Richard Perry (Stoney End; Barbara Joan Streisand albums) was brought in to produce it. He tried to replicate Peter Bliss’ original demo tape for Barbra’s version of “Emotion.” Bliss told The Barbra Streisand Music Guide, “Only three days into our recording sessions during the last week of June, Barbra arrived to sing. The track I did in the studio for Barbra was three keys higher than the demo, and I sang the guide vocal for her,” he recalled. “She had a little difficulty finding the phrasing of the song in her first four run-throughs. She took me aside in the control room and asked me to be honest with her regarding her performance. Barbra commented on how great she thought my voice was (something I wish I had on tape) and listened carefully to my instructions. Finally, she thanked me for the song itself and my honesty, then proceeded to sing it better than ever. Because it felt right to Barbra and me, I didn’t mind Barbra changing my line, ‘Sometimes I need to turn the beat around’ to ‘Sometimes I need to turn it all around.’”
