“If I Close My Eyes” was written as the theme song of Barbra Streisand's 1973 movie, Up the Sandbox.

Composer Billy Goldenberg told Time Magazine that Streisand would phone him at 2:30 a.m. after shooting the film all day. “Hum me the music for tomorrow,” she would request. One late night, Streisand asked Goldenberg if he could turn the movie’s theme into a song ... by 4:00 p.m. the next day!

“I wrote like mad,” Goldenberg said. “When she called, I hummed her the tune. She liked it, and the next day we got the word writers, Marilyn and Alan Bergman, to fit it out with a lyric.”

After recording Streisand’s vocal, Columbia Records released it as a single, although, ultimately Streisand decided against using the song in the movie.

Years later, Streisand included the single on her compilation album, Just For The Record. The instrumental version remains unreleased digitally.

This single did not chart.