Enough is Enough -- is she Guilty?

June 20, 2012 6:44 AM

Can anyone help me track down this factoid (if it's even true)? Way before podcasts existed, I remember hearing a radio host or music pundit call Barbra Streisand a career annihilator (though I think he had a catchier name for it). He claimed that she held a unique position in pop music: that every number-one charting artist who released a duet with her a) saw that duet reach number 1 on the charts, and b) never had another number 1 hit again. I have never been able to find this statement again anywhere.

I'm guessing that since her Duets album that wouldn't be true anymore, regardless. But I'd love to know if it ever was actually the case, and who made the claim.

posted by Mchelly to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

As best I can tell, Barbra only had five singles to hit #1 in the US. Two of them were duets: "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" with Neil Diamond and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" with Donna Summer. It doesn't look like either Neil or Donna had another #1 song after that (Barbra herself only had one more), so the factoid may well be true, but only for two people. Neil had had two #1s before his duet and Donna had had three.
posted by argonauta at 7:11 AM on June 20, 2012

Neil Diamond also had arguably his most successful album - The Jazz Singer soundtrack - after "You Don't Bring Me Flowers".
posted by DWRoelands at 7:23 AM on June 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

It depends on which chart you're talking about. "Enough is Enough" with Donna Summer hit #1 on the Hot 100, but "She Works Hard for the Money" by Donna Summer alone hit #1 on the US R&B charts (#3 on the Hot 100).
posted by xingcat at 7:40 AM on June 20, 2012

(To clarify, "Enough is Enough" was in 1979, and "She Works Hard for the Money" is from 1983.)
posted by xingcat at 7:43 AM on June 20, 2012

I don't know the quote or who said it, but it clearly isn't correct. Donna Summer had a hit afterwards, and Celine Dion did a duet with Barbra (Tell Him) and then followed that with My Heart Will Go On...
posted by gwenlister at 8:48 AM on June 20, 2012