Songfacts®:

• Fresh off the success of A Star Is Born and its hit theme song, "Evergreen," Barbra Streisand issued Superman as a bid to stay on the pop charts with covers of contemporary tunes by the likes of Billy Joel ("New York State Of Mind") and Roger Miller ("Baby Me Baby"). The album's first and only single was the pop ballad "My Heart Belongs To Me," which finds the singer taking back ownership of her heart after the sad end of a love affair.
  
  It was written and first performed by Alan Gordon, a songwriter known for his collaborations with Gary Bonner on hits like The Turtles' "Happy Together" and Three Dog Night's "Celebrate." His own version went nowhere in 1976, but Streisand took it to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following year.
• Streisand's version was produced by Gary Klein and Charlie Calello, the team behind Glen Campbell's hit "Southern Nights." The pair was initially tapped to retool songs from A Star Is Born that Streisand wasn't satisfied with, but their mixes ending up being shelved once the movie took off. Instead, the singer enlisted them to work on her next album.
  
  During their first rehearsal on "My Heart Belongs To Me," Calello played the piano while Streisand sang the lyrics. They also brainstormed a new introduction and break that was different from Gordon's original. But that wasn't enough for Streisand. After Calello returned to his hotel room, the singer kept ringing him up with new ideas.
  
  "She would call me every 10 minutes. 'Charlie! I can sing it higher!'" Calello explained in The Billboard Book Of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits. "Seriously, she was really a motivating factor in making that record better."
• The producers rounded up a stellar team of LA session musicians to cut the instrumental track, including drummer Jeff Porcaro (later of Toto), guitarist Larry Carlton (Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell), and pianist David Foster. The recording session lasted from 7 p.m to 4 a.m., and the next day Streisand laid down her vocals with an orchestra of around 50 musicians.
• This was the second in a string of three consecutive #1 hits for Streisand on the Adult Contemporary chart, in between "The Way We Were" and "Songbird."
• The album's cover image, shot by photographer Steve Schapiro, is a nod to a popular scene from A Star Is Born, where Streisand dons a near-identical outfit.
  
  "I wore a Superman T-shirt and not much else!" she recalled. "I'm only kidding. I wore little shorts, and sneakers, and high knee socks. Those were the days when I was 119 pounds, too."
• Streisand went with the superhero theme because she liked the idea that a woman could be thought of as Superman. She held the title until December 1978 when Christopher Reeve made his debut as the Man of Steel in Superman: The Movie. (Coincidentally, A Star Is Born producer Jon Peters, who was Streisand's boyfriend at the time, bought the film rights to the Superman franchise in the '90s.)