Let’s take some time out to reflect on one of the greatest disco songs of a generation.
During the 1970’s Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer were the Beyonce and Taylor Swift of their era. Streisand’s brand of contemporary pop was morphing into disco with the release of The Main Event/Fight, the title song from her movie with Ryan O’Neal. Summer was already the Queen of Disco with songs such as I Feel Love, Heaven Knows and Hot Stuff topping the world charts.
No More Tears: Enough Is Enough by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer
The idea of the two singers recording a duet was inevitable and in 1979 the planets aligned and No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) was created. Full of rhythmic soul and a powerful disco beat, it hit number one on the American Billboard Hot 100 making it the first duet by two women to top the chart. Produced by the Father of Disco himself, Giorgio Moroder, it features his trademark synthesiser ‘click’.
In November 1979 the song’s success surpassed other acts such as Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder, The Eagles and funnily enough Summer herself with the single Dim All the Lights.
Strangely, the song’s evolution began in Streisand’s Jacuzzi! While the singer was soaking in her spa, she thought the surrounding tiles would make a great backdrop for an album cover. Thus, the Wet album was born. Among the water-themed songs, No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) was the breakout song, but it almost missed the cut. It made it through the persistence of the songwriters and Bab’s twelve-year-old son Jason Gould.
The Wet Album by Barbra Streisand
Paul Jabara and Bruce Roberts had already found success with The Main Event/Fight, but Enough Is Enough (which took ten minutes to write) lacked one important element for Streisand’s new concept album – water. The singer asked for new lyrics and got them. “It’s raining, it’s pouring, my love life is boring me to tears,” was inserted as well as a title change to No More Tears (Enough Is Enough).
Jabara, who was friends with Donna Summer, flagged the idea of the two stars recording the song together but he had difficulty in contacting Streisand. Finally, when ringing her directly, Jason answered the phone. Like any young gay boy at the time, he adored Summer and earnestly relayed the message to his mum. Subsequently, everyone met and the recording took place.
In her autobiography ‘My Name Is Barbra’, Streisand states she felt out of place in Summer’s disco world, and asked if it was okay sometimes to sing off the beat. According to Streisand Summer stared at her saying, “You’re Barbra Streisand, and you’re asking ME how to sing?” Streisand also points out that during rehearsals while reaching the high crescendo (lasting around seventeen seconds), Summer passed out on the floor from lack of oxygen.
As well as appearing on Streisand’s Wet album, No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) featured simultaneously on Summer’s On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II. Streisand’s label at the time was Columbia Records and Summer’s was Casablanca. In 2012, Roberts told the Hollywood Reporter that because the song was recorded so quickly it was out in the stores before any record company legal issues could interfere.
On The Radio By Donna Summer
Over the following years, there have been cover versions from Kym Mazelle and Jocelyn Brown, Delta Goodrem and Claire Richards, Amber and Zelma Davis and even a parody from ‘ahem’ Eddie Murphy.
Although they remained friends, Streisand and Summer never sang the song live. In 2019 Ariana Grande joined Streisand on stage for a rendition and in her later years Summer performed the duet live with among others, Tina Arena.
No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) has become special for many reasons. It’s an infectious song full of musical loops, reverberated vocals, high crescendos, electric piano and a four-on-the-floor beat reminding us that Disco lives on. It’s also a timepiece for two of the most talented and prolific female singers of the Twentieth Century.
