This single was released in the summer of 1964, right in the middle of the run of Funny Girl on Broadway. But both of the songs on this record weren't even in the show!

“Funny Girl” was an up-tempo song supposedly written for and cut from the show. It is not the same tune that was written for the movie version, by the way. It has never appeared on a Barbra Streisand album.

“Absent Minded Me” ended up, two months later, on Barbra's album People. Curiously, Julie London first recorded the song on her 1962 album, Sophisticated Lady. Bob Merrill was the only writer credited on that album for the song.  Two years later, when Streisand recorded it, the song was credited to Bob Merrill (lyrics) and Jule Styne (music).

If you compare the lyrics and melody of the 1962 and 1964 versions, they are the same.  One wonders if “Absent Minded Me” is a Merrill “trunk song,” put into service to publicize Funny Girl? In several Streisand bios it was stated that “Absent Minded Me” was written for, then cut from the show. But that's just not clear.