"Songbird" is the title track and first single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 released from Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

's 1978 album

Songbird (Barbra Streisand album)

Songbird is a studio album by Barbra Streisand, released in 1978. The album includes Streisand's solo version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers". She also subsequently recorded this song as a duet with Neil Diamond and this version topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two non-consecutive weeks in...

. It was written by Dave Wolfert and Steve Nelson and produced by Gary Klein

Gary Klein (producer)

Gary Klein is an American songwriter and record producer.In 1962, he co-wrote " Bobby’s Girl".Klein later turned to producing records and has worked with many artists, including...

.

On the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 chart, the song peaked at number 25. It spent two weeks atop the Billboard easy listening chart in July and August 1978, her fifth song to accomplish this feat.

One theory as to why "Songbird" was less successful on the U.S. pop chart is that Streisand recorded the theme to the 1978 film Eyes of Laura Mars

Eyes of Laura Mars

Eyes of Laura Mars is a 1978 thriller film starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones and directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, adapted from a spec script titled Eyes, written by John Carpenter, was Carpenter's first major studio film...

, which was released as a single a few weeks after "Songbird" came out. The "Love Theme from Eyes of Laura Mars (Prisoner)" reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and may have created competition with herself for pop radio airplay and single sales.