The 1976 version is where the story went fully into the music world. After one of his concerts, singer John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson), goes to a bar where he first sees Esther Hoffman (Barbra Streisand) performing. They leave together and quickly fall in love.
John starts bringing Esther on stage with him and it doesn't take long for her career to flourish. As John's career hits a downslide, he decides he wants to turn things around to stay relevant but his band has already left him behind.
It's at the Grammy Awards, where Esther is accepting her award for best female performance, that John drunkenly makes a scene. John ends up cheating on Esther with a journalist, but he and Esther work it out. However, John runs his car off the road while driving to the airport at the end, killing himself.
Esther, in a tribute to John, introduces herself as Esther Hoffman Howard and performs a song of his that she found on a cassette after he died.