Barbra Streisand And James Brolin Inspired Aerosmith’s First No. 1 Hit Song

True stories are oftentimes more remarkable and powerful than the wildest fiction. That’s exactly how the love story between EGOT winner Barbra Streisand and Golden Globe recipient James Brolin, especially for the band Aerosmith, who composed the song that would put them on the map thanks to the power couple.

Streisand met in ’96 after mutual friends set them up for a blind date and some dinner. She made a teasing comment about his hair and Brolin was star-struck. So much so he would later wax poetics to Streisand about wanting to savor every instance with her, featuring a line that would inspire musical artists for years.

James Brolin said a line to Barbra Streisand that would resonate with artists, including Aerosmith

Barbra Streisand is sharing all sorts of inside secrets from her personal life in her new memoir, My Name is Barbra, which was released on November 7. The two lovebirds were lounging in bed one night but rest was not on Brolin’s mind.

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“I don’t want to fall asleep,” he told her that relaxed evening. When Streisand asked why that was, Brolin smoothly replied, “Cause I’ll miss you.” Streisand was awed by the response. “What a beautiful, poetic thing to say,” she mused in her memoir. “And it captured a moment of complete bliss… physical, emotional, spiritual.” Streisand told this story in interviews soon after and it reached the ears of a certain songwriter and, eventually, Aerosmith.

Aerosmith would perform a song based on Streisand and Brolin’s fairytale romance and become a household name

In a 1997 interview for 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters, Streisand recounted the story of Brolin’s sweet, powerful line to her that night. Who should be watching but renowned songwriter Diane Warren, who wrote down that information for later. Warren is the brain behind Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time,” Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me,” and LeAnn Rimes’s “How Do I Live,” among others.

Warren took that exchange between Brolin and Streisand, and with it created “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” which would be recorded by none other than Aerosmith. In 1998, the track served as the theme song for the science fiction disaster film Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis as well as Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler’s daughter Liv starred.

At the 71st Academy Awards, the song was nominated for an Oscar as Best Original Song. Warren originally wrote it for “Celine Dion or somebody like that,” but Aerosmith performed so well, it became their very first number 1 hit.