Arthur was happy with the finished track, feeling it had the hit potential of his one previous mega-success: the 1975 hit "At Seventeen" by Janis Ian; however (Brooks Arthur quote:) "I get a call a couple of days later from Bette [at around] two, three, four in the morning, and she says: 'I don't want to release the song...My manager Aaron Russo didn't feel the album needed another gushy ballad, it needed more energy.'

Eventually Russo solicited Atlantic Records honcho Ahmet Ertegun to side with him against the release of "Someone That I Used to Love": with Ertegun opining to replace the track with a high-spirited number along the lines of Midler's first two singles "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Friends", and ultimately "Someone That I Used to Love" was dropped in favor of Midler's new recording of the 1954 Sarah Vaughn hit "Make Yourself Comfortable".

[1] Three years passed before "Someone That I Used to Love" was recorded and released, with Michael Masser producing and playing piano on the Natalie Cole version, issued as the lead single from her 1980 album Don't Look Back.

[7] Masser produced "Someone That I Used to Love" for Barbra Streisand, one of two new tracks for her 1989 anthology A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More,[8] issued as an "airplay only" single that reached #25 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

[9] "Someone That I Used to Love" was released in Europe with the 1981 Barry Gibb duet "What Kind of Fool" as B-side but did not become a major hit, peaking at #86 on the Dutch Single Top 100.