Songfacts®:

• In this Emotion track, Barbra Streisand has found a way to travel back in time and relive the moments that shaped her life, and, she sings, we can too as long as we have our memories:
  
  In every heart beats a time machine
  Where you can be what you want to be
  Love is your memory
  You can relive your life
• This was produced by Earth, Wind & Fire singer Maurice White, who wrote the song with Martin George Page and Brian Fairweather. White was one of many artists invited to write and produce tracks for the album.
  
  In his 2016 memoir, My Life with Earth, Wind, & Fire, he recalled being surprised that Columbia didn't have songs at the ready, and scrambling to find tunes to pitch to Streisand. For this one, he told her "it was a story about having the ability to look back over your life and understand its changes, the theme being that your life makes sense in the end."
  
  White also produced the cuts "Heart Don't Change My Mind" and "When I Dream."
• Martin George Page and Brian Fairweather also wrote tracks for Earth, Wind & Fire's 1983 album, Electric Universe and worked with White on his self-titled solo debut in 1985.
• According to White, he was asked to contribute to the album because it didn't have a strong first single, so he was disappointed when none of the tracks he produced were chosen to be singles (instead they issued "Left In The Dark," "Make No Mistake, He's Mine," and "Emotion").
  
  "They could have been hits," he told the Los Angeles Times of his overlooked tunes. "I know it. I talked to Columbia about it but they didn't have the final say on the selection of singles. The whole thing was very frustrating."
• Emotion was Streisand's first pop album since 1980's Guilty. In the meantime, she finally brought her 15-year passion project to fruition by starring, directing, co-writing, and co-producing the film Yentl, which hit theaters in 1983. That soundtrack yielded the #1 AC hit "The Way He Makes Me Feel."