🎤💫 When Babs Stepped Onto the Dancefloor: The Untold Story of The Main Event

The Twelve Inch 192 : The Main Event (Barbra Streisand)

You probably have a few soundtracks you love even though you’ve never seen the film, and never felt the need to. The Main Event is exactly that for me. I know the plot, but I’ve never watched it. The soundtrack, though, has spent plenty of time on my turntable. I was obsessed with the title track by Barbra Streisand, especially since the album includes the full 11-minute-40-second version, breakdowns, builds, and all.

The Main Event is classic 1979 Hi-NRG disco and one of Bob Esty’s finest productions. Esty, one of the true greats of the genre, teamed up with writers Bruce Roberts and Paul Jabara to create the LGBTQ+ powerhouse behind Barbra’s move onto the disco floor. That shift gave her two major hits: “The Main Event” and, later that same year, the duet with Donna Summer, “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough).”

Barbra scored six No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 during her career, and only seven other songs even made the U.S. Top 10. She never had a No. 2 hit, but she did have two No. 3s,…