Thirty-one years ago this week, Barbra Streisand peaked at #48 with “Promises,” the fourth single from 1980’s Guilty. The best-selling album of the 70-year-old entertainer’s career was written and produced by Barry Gibb, with his brothers and Bee Gees’ producers Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson also having a hand in the effort.

The poor performance of “Promises” had to come as something of a shock, as Streisand’s previous three singles from Guilty — “Woman In Love,” the title track, and “What Kind Of Fool” — had all reached the top ten. At the same time, the lukewarm reception to “Promises” couldn’t have been entirely unsurprising. Guilty‘s obvious disco number (written by Barry and his brother Robin) was released as a single as the genre was in steep decline after being culturally maligned (“Disco Sucks” as a slogan, Chicago’s Disco Demolition of 1979, etc.).

Knowing now that “Promises” failed to connect and didn’t receive much airplay, how I ever heard Streisand’s song in the first place is a mystery. The song failed to climb high enough to reach American Top 40, but perhaps a Chicago station gave it a few spins? However it happened, I do recall specifically requesting that my mom and sister buy the “Promises” 45 for me when they went out shopping one weekend. (We didn’t own Guilty, nor did I have any of the album’s other singles.)

Such music requests without me in tow weren’t always successful, but when my mom and sister returned home late Sunday, they’d kept their word. I made “Promises” a hit on the stereo at home, with the song scoring my own private wonderland. Today, it remains a sublime slice of late-disco pop. “I am the love, don’t let me die away…”

In 2005, Streisand reunited with Barry Gibb for a sequel of sorts, Guilty Pleasures. The following year, Gibb released The Guilty Demos, featuring the original recordings of the songs that formed the bulk of Streisand’s classic album.

Purchase Barbra Streisand – “Promises” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.