Songfacts®:

• Four years after starring in the Broadway musical Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand reprised the lead role of Fanny Brice in the 1968 film adaptation, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1969. Set in early 1900s New York City, the story loosely follows the comedienne's ascent to stardom and her tumultuous relationship with gambler Nicky Arnstein in early 1900s New York City.
  
  Although it didn't feature in the stage production, one of the standout numbers in the film was the finale, "My Man," an emotional ballad about Brice's love for her flawed partner, who chose a life of crime over a life of love. Streisand first recorded Brice's signature song for her 1965 album My Name Is Barbra, and the single peaked at #79 on the Hot 100 and #17 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
• My Name Is Barbra was the first of two studio album releases to accompany her debut TV special of the same name, which was broadcast on CBS on April 28, 1965. The special won five Emmy Awards, and the first album - featuring "My Man" - earned her a Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance at the 1966 ceremony.
• Based on the French song "Mon Homme," by Maurice Yvain, Jacques-Charles and Albert Willemetz, the English version was written by playwright Channing Pollock for Brice to perform in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921. Pollock's interpretation played on the singer's strained relationship with Arnstein, who was doing time for a stolen securities plot while she was left to raise their two children alone. When he was released from prison in 1927, he abandoned his family, and Brice filed for divorce.
• During the filming of Funny Girl, Streisand had an affair with her co-star Omar Sharif, who played Arnstein. Director William Wyler knew about the tryst and instructed Sharif to talk to Streisand in between takes of "My Man" so the emotions surrounding their dwindling romance would inform her performance.
• Streisand's Best Actress Oscar win was a tie with Katharine Hepburn, who took the prize for her part in The Lion In Winter. Since its inception in 1929, the Academy Awards have had just six instances of ties, with the Streisand/Hepburn win being the only example from the Best Actress category.
• Brice's version, which was covered by the likes of Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee, not only referenced her lover's philandering ways, but also claimed he was abusive. She sings:
  
  He isn't good, he isn't true
  He beats me too
  What can I do?
  
  Arnstein insisted he never beat Brice, so he would've been happy to hear Streisand's take, which omitted the offending verse.
• Lea Michele sang this on Glee in the 2011 episode "Funeral." Like her character, Rachel Berry, Michele went on to land the lead role in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, replacing Beanie Feldstein in 2022. Keeping true to the original production, the revival didn't include "My Man."
• Whitney Houston sang this at the 1991 Billboard Music Awards in a medley with "All The Man That I Need."