Prior to singing "Being Alive", Robert reflects on the relationships of five couples, his "good and crazy married friends"—Susan and Peter, Sarah and Harry, Amy and Paul, Jenny and David, Joanne and Larry—along with three girlfriends: April, Kathy, and Marta.
He wrote in his 2009 memoir Finishing the Hat that he worried a plainly optimistic approach would be "unearned and pandering, not to mention monotonous, since there would be only one thing to say: namely, marriage is wonderful".
After Jones's short tenure playing the role, his replacement Larry Kert also recorded the song, which has since been included as a bonus track on reissues of the original cast album.
"Being Alive" has become popular outside its original musical setting, and while written for a male part, the song is frequently performed by women: Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Barbra Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Margaret Whiting, Lea Salonga, Ute Lemper, and Lauren Samuels, among others.
In the 2019 film Marriage Story, written and directed by Noah Baumbach, lead character Charlie Barber (portrayed by Adam Driver) performs much of the song in a New York piano bar.