Fairytale of New York undergoing rewrites and aborted attempts at recording, and losing its original female vocalist along the way, before finally being completed in August 1987. Although the single never reached the coveted UK Christmas number one, being kept at number two on its original release in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys' cover version of "Always on My Mind", it has proved enduringly popular with both music critics and the public: to date the song has reached the UK Top 20 on fifteen separate occasions since its original release in 1987, including every year since 2005, and was certified double platinum in
The Way We Were (song) the Gladys Knight & the Pips version was more successful than Streisand's. It peaked at number four in that country, becoming their first top ten single; it would tie with their 1977 single "Baby, Don't Change Your Mind" as their highest-peaking track. The Way We Were (song) "The Way We Were" is a song recorded by American vocalist Barbra Streisand for her fifteenth studio album, "The Way We Were" (1974). It was physically released as the record's lead single on September 27, 1973 through Columbia Records. The 7" single was distributed in two different formats, with the standard edition featuring