It has been covered by Jennifer Lopez, Billy Eckstine, Dionne Warwick, Steve Lawrence, Jack Jones, Aretha Franklin, Nat King Cole, Wes Montgomery, Gabor Szabo, Perry Como, The Supremes and others, but is considered one of Streisand's signature songs.

In 2004, Streisand's version on the soundtrack of Funny Girl finished at #13 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

It is based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedian Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.

Composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill were hired to write the musical score and met each other for the first time in 1962 in Palm Beach, Florida.

As they worked to develop the character of Fanny Brice, they needed to write a special love song depicting her feelings towards Nicky Arnstein.

"[2] The single by Barbra Streisand was released in January 1964, and peaked at number five on the Billboard pop chart, becoming the singer's first Top 40 hit.

It has been said that People was originally written for the animated television special Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol,[5] but Theodore Taylor's biography of Styne disputes this.

Notably, it is also one of the few songs on which Ballard sang lead vocals after the Supremes achieved commercial success, since Motown head Berry Gordy favored Ross.