“Flim Flam Man” (Barbra Streisand/Laura Nyro)

Today’s classic song of the day is a Laura Nyro composition that was a hit when recorded by Barbra Streisand. The song is “Flim Flam Man” and it’s a good one.

Ms. Nyro wrote “Flim Flam Man”—originally titled “Hands Off the Man (Flim Flam Man)”—back in 1967 and included it on her debut album, More Than a New Discovery. When that album was rereleased as The First Songs in 1969 with a slightly different track listing, the song was retitled as simply “Flim Flam Man.”

Some people claim that Ms. Nyro wrote the song for the 1967 movie, The Flim-Flam Man, which starred George C. Scott as a shady con artist. There’s no evidence that this is case, however, other than the similar names; the song itself is not included in and has nothing to do with the movie.

In 1971, Broadway sensation Barbra Streisand dipped her toes into the mainstream pop market with her album, Stoney End. That album included three Laura Nyro songs: “Stoney End” (a top ten hit), “Time and Love” (peaked at #57 on the Billboard chart), and “Hands Off the Man (Flim Flam Man).” This last song, released as a single under the title of “Flim Flam Man” in May of 1971, only hit #82 on the Billboard Hot 100 but peaked at #7 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart. It, along with the other two singles, exposed millions of new listeners to the talent of Laura Nyro.

The lyrics have the singer warning other ladies to stay away from a man who is an inveterate fraud:

Hands off the man, the flim flam man
His mind is up his sleeve and his talk is make believe
Oh lord, the man’s a fraud, he’s flim flam man
He’s so cagey, he’s a flim flam man

You know the type. He hardly has a cent so he pays his monthly rent with charm—he’s a flim flam man.