"People" is a song by Jule Styne, with lyrics by Bob Merrill, written for the 1964 Broadway musical Funny Girl, in which Barbra Streisand introduced it as Fanny Brice. The musical depicts comedian Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with gambler Nicky Arnstein, and Brice sings the song to Arnstein, with whom she falls in love. It was one of the first songs written for the score. The producers initially disliked it during the out-of-town tryouts and nearly cut it, but Merrill fought to keep it, and Streisand was allowed to perform it on stage, where it stopped the show.
Streisand's Columbia single, released in January 1964 with "I Am Woman" on the A-side, reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, her first Top 40 hit, and spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Pop-Standards chart in 1964. Her version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and ranked #13 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs in 2004, and it is considered one of her signature songs. She later recorded a duet version with Stevie Wonder for Partners (2014). Other recordings include versions by Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin and Jennifer Lopez.
