Latest news with #MarilynBergman
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist, dies at 99
Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with his wife, Marilyn, for an enduring and loving partnership that produced such old-fashioned hits as How Do You Keep the Music Playing?, It Might Be You and the classic The Way We Were, has died aged 99. Bergman died late on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine said in a statement on Friday. The statement said Bergman had, in recent months, suffered from respiratory issues 'but continued to write songs till the very end'. The Bergmans married in 1958 and remained together until her death, in 2022. With collaborators ranging from Marvin Hamlisch and Quincy Jones to Michel Legrand and Cy Coleman, they were among the most successful and prolific partnerships of their time, providing words and occasional music for hundreds of songs, including movie themes that became as famous as the films themselves. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and many other artists performed their material, and Barbra Streisand became a frequent collaborator and close friend. Blending Tin Pan Alley sentiment and contemporary pop, the Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognized the writers had they walked right past them. Among their most famous works: the Streisand-Neil Diamond duet You Don't Bring Me Flowers, the well-named Sinatra favorite Nice 'n' Easy and the topical themes to the 1970s sitcoms Maude and Good Times. Their film compositions included Ray Charles's In the Heat of the Night from the movie of the same name; Noel Harrison's The Windmills of Your Mind, from The Thomas Crown Affair; and Stephen Bishop's It Might Be You, from Tootsie. The whole world seemed to sing and cry along to The Way We Were, an instant favorite recorded by Streisand for the 1973 romantic drama of the same name that co-starred Streisand and Robert Redford. Set to Hamlisch's tender, bittersweet melody, it was essentially a song about itself – a nostalgic ballad about nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the past, starting with one of history's most famous opening stanzas: 'Memories / light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were.' The Way We Were was the top-selling song of 1974 and brought the Bergmans one of their three Oscars, the others coming for Windmills of Your Mind and the soundtrack to Yentl, the Streisand-directed movie from 1983. At times, the Academy Awards could be mistaken for a Bergman showcase. In 1983, three of the nominees for best song featured lyrics by the Bergmans, who received 16 nominations in all. The Bergmans also won two Grammys, four Emmys, were presented numerous lifetime achievement honors and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand's 2011 album of Bergman songs, What Matters Most. On Lyrically, Alan Bergman, Bergman handled the vocals himself. Although best known for their movie work, the Bergmans also wrote the Broadway musical Ballroom and provided lyrics for the symphony Visions of America. Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They didn't meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, attended the same children's concerts at Carnegie Hall and moved to California in the same year, 1950. They were introduced in Los Angeles while working for the same composer, but at different times of the day. Their actual courtship was in part a story of music. Fred Astaire was Marilyn's favorite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, That Face, which Astaire agreed to record. Acetate in hand, Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed. Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and granddaughter. Bergman had wanted to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He majored in music and theater at the University of North Carolina, and received a master's from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he befriended Johnny Mercer and became a protege. He and Marilyn at first wrote children's songs together, and broke through commercially in the late 1950s with the calypso hit Yellowbird. Their friendship with Streisand began soon after, when they visited her backstage during one of her early New York club appearances. 'Do you know how wonderful you are?' was how Marilyn Bergman greeted the young singer. The Bergmans worked so closely together that they often found themselves coming up with the same word at the same time. Alan likened their partnership to housework: one washes, one dries, the title of a song they eventually devised for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to name a favorite song, but cited A Love Like Ours as among their most personal: 'When love like ours arrives / We guard it with our lives / Whatever goes astray / When a rainy day comes around / A love like ours will keep us safe and sound.'
CBS News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist who helped write "The Way We Were," dies at 99
Oscar-winning lyricist Alan Bergman, who worked with his wife, Marilyn, in a partnership that produced hits such as "The Way We Were," "It Might Be You" and "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?," has died, his family announced. He was 99. The family's spokesman, Ken Sunshine, said the legendary lyricist died late Thursday night at his Los Angeles home with his daughter, writer and film producer Julie Bergman, present. "Bergman suffered from respiratory issues in recent months, but continued to write songs till the very end," Sunshine said in a statement. The Bergmans married in 1958 and remained together until Marilyn's death in 2022. With collaborators ranging from Marvin Hamlisch and Quincy Jones to Michel Legrand and Cy Coleman, they were among the most successful and prolific partnerships of their time, providing words and occasional music for hundreds of songs, including movie themes that became as famous as the films themselves. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and many other artists performed their material, and Barbra Streisand became a frequent collaborator and close friend. Blending Tin Pan Alley sentiment and contemporary pop, the Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognized the writers had they walked right past them. Among their most famous works: the Streisand-Neil Diamond duet "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," the well-named Sinatra favorite "Nice 'n' Easy" and the topical themes to the 1970s sitcoms "Maude" and "Good Times." Their film compositions included Ray Charles' "In the Heat of the Night" from the movie of the same name, Noel Harrison's "The Windmills of Your Mind" from "The Thomas Crown Affair," and Stephen Bishop's "It Might Be You" from "Tootsie." The whole world seemed to sing and cry along to "The Way We Were," an instant favorite recorded by Streisand for the 1973 romantic drama of the same name that co-starred Streisand and Robert Redford. Set to Hamlisch's tender, bittersweet melody, it was essentially a song about itself — a nostalgic ballad about nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the past, starting with one of history's most famous opening stanzas: "Memories / light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were." "The Way We Were" was the top-selling song of 1974 and brought the Bergmans one of their three Oscars, the others coming for "Windmills of Your Mind" and the soundtrack to "Yentl," the Streisand-directed movie from 1983. At times, the Academy Awards could be mistaken for a Bergman showcase. In 1983, three of the nominees for best song featured lyrics by the Bergmans, who received 16 nominations in all. The Bergmans also won two Grammys, four Emmys, were presented numerous lifetime achievement honors and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand's 2011 album of Bergman songs, "What Matters Most." On "Lyrically, Alan Bergman," Bergman handled the vocals himself. Although best known for their movie work, the Bergmans also wrote the Broadway musical "Ballroom" and provided lyrics for the symphony "Visions of America." Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They didn't meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, attended the same children's concerts at Carnegie Hall and moved to California in the same year, 1950. They were introduced in Los Angeles while working for the same composer, but at different times of the day. Their actual courtship was in part a story of music. Fred Astaire was Marilyn's favorite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, "That Face," which Astaire agreed to record. Acetate in hand, Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed. Bergman had wanted to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He majored in music and theater at the University of North Carolina and received a master's from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he befriended Johnny Mercer and became a protege. He and Marilyn at first wrote children's songs together, and broke through commercially in the late 1950s with the calypso hit "Yellowbird." Their friendship with Streisand began soon after, when they visited her backstage during one of her early New York club appearances. "Do you know how wonderful you are?" was how Marilyn Bergman greeted the young singer. The Bergmans worked so closely together that they often found themselves coming up with the same word at the same time. Alan likened their partnership to housework: one washes, one dries, the title of a song they eventually devised for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to name a favorite song, but cited "A Love Like Ours" as among their most personal: "When love like ours arrives / We guard it with our lives / Whatever goes astray / When a rainy day comes around / A love like ours will keep us safe and sound." Alan Bergman is survived by his daughter and granddaughter, Emily Sender, whom Sunshine said just completed a master's degree in global food studies.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist, dies at 99
Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with his wife, Marilyn, for an enduring and loving partnership that produced such old-fashioned hits as How Do You Keep the Music Playing?, It Might Be You and the classic The Way We Were, has died at 99. Bergman died late Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine said in a statement Friday. The statement said Bergman had, in recent months, suffered from respiratory issues 'but continued to write songs till the very end'. The Bergmans married in 1958 and remained together until her death, in 2022. With collaborators ranging from Marvin Hamlisch and Quincy Jones to Michel Legrand and Cy Coleman, they were among the most successful and prolific partnerships of their time, providing words and occasional music for hundreds of songs, including movie themes that became as famous as the films themselves. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and many other artists performed their material, and Barbra Streisand became a frequent collaborator and close friend. Blending Tin Pan Alley sentiment and contemporary pop, the Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognized the writers had they walked right past them. Among their most famous works: the Streisand-Neil Diamond duet You Don't Bring Me Flowers, the well-named Sinatra favorite Nice 'n' Easy and the topical themes to the 1970s sitcoms Maude and Good Times. Their film compositions included Ray Charles's In the Heat of the Night from the movie of the same name; Noel Harrison's The Windmills of Your Mind, from The Thomas Crown Affair; and Stephen Bishop's It Might Be You, from Tootsie. The whole world seemed to sing and cry along to The Way We Were, an instant favorite recorded by Streisand for the 1973 romantic drama of the same name that co-starred Streisand and Robert Redford. Set to Hamlisch's tender, bittersweet melody, it was essentially a song about itself – a nostalgic ballad about nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the past, starting with one of history's most famous opening stanzas: 'Memories / light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were.' The Way We Were was the top-selling song of 1974 and brought the Bergmans one of their three Oscars, the others coming for Windmills of Your Mind and the soundtrack to Yentl, the Streisand-directed movie from 1983. At times, the Academy Awards could be mistaken for a Bergman showcase. In 1983, three of the nominees for best song featured lyrics by the Bergmans, who received 16 nominations in all. The Bergmans also won two Grammys, four Emmys, were presented numerous lifetime achievement honors and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand's 2011 album of Bergman songs, What Matters Most. On Lyrically, Alan Bergman, Bergman handled the vocals himself. Although best known for their movie work, the Bergmans also wrote the Broadway musical Ballroom and provided lyrics for the symphony Visions of America. Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They didn't meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, attended the same children's concerts at Carnegie Hall and moved to California in the same year, 1950. They were introduced in Los Angeles while working for the same composer, but at different times of the day. Their actual courtship was in part a story of music. Fred Astaire was Marilyn's favorite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, That Face, which Astaire agreed to record. Acetate in hand, Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed. Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and granddaughter. Bergman had wanted to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He majored in music and theater at the University of North Carolina, and received a master's from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he befriended Johnny Mercer and became a protege. He and Marilyn at first wrote children's songs together, and broke through commercially in the late 1950s with the calypso hit Yellowbird. Their friendship with Streisand began soon after, when they visited her backstage during one of her early New York club appearances. 'Do you know how wonderful you are?' was how Marilyn Bergman greeted the young singer. The Bergmans worked so closely together that they often found themselves coming up with the same word at the same time. Alan likened their partnership to housework: one washes, one dries, the title of a song they eventually devised for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to name a favorite song, but cited A Love Like Ours as among their most personal: 'When love like ours arrives / We guard it with our lives / Whatever goes astray / When a rainy day comes around / A love like ours will keep us safe and sound.'
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning ‘The Way We Were' and ‘The Windmills of Your Mind' lyricist, dies at 99
Alan Bergman, the decorated lyricist who over the course of seven decades penned songs including 'The Windmills of Your Mind,' 'The Way We Were,' and 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers' with wife Marilyn Bergman, has died. He was 99. Bergman died late Thursday evening in his home in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine confirmed in a statement to The Times on Friday. The songwriter 'suffered from respiratory issues' in recent months but remained steadfast in his songwriting 'till the very end.' A Brooklyn native, Bergman was best known for his collaborations with his wife, Marilyn, which spanned music, television and film. The husband and wife, after meeting through composer Lew Spence, married in 1958. Together, they penned music for a variety of high-profile acts including Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, John Williams and Barbra Streisand, with the last eventually becoming the couple's muse. The Bergmans were three-time Oscar winners. The couple won their first Oscar in 1969 for the moody 'Windmills of Your Mind,' featured in 'The Thomas Crown Affair,' shared with French composer Michel Legrand. Their second and third Oscar wins stemmed from works with Streisand: the title song from 'The Way We Were' in 1974 (shared with Marvin Hamlisch) and in 1984 for the score of 'Yentl,' shared with Legrand. The composers and their work were consistent contenders at the Oscars, with their contributions to films 'The Happy Ending,' 'Tootsie,' 'Yes, Giorgio' and the 1995 remake of Billy Wilder's 'Sabrina' also receiving nominations from the academy. On the small screen, the Bergmans left their personal touch on numerous TV series from the 1970s to the 1990s, providing the theme music for shows including 'Good Times,' 'Alice,' 'In the Heat of the Night' and Norman Lear's 'Maude.' In addition to Oscars, the Bergmans also won four Emmys, two Golden Globes and two Grammys, including the song of the year award for 'The Way We Were.' Alan Bergman, born Sept. 11, 1925 in Brooklyn, was a son of a salesman and knew from an early age that songwriting was his passion. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and pursued his graduate studies in music at UCLA. He briefly worked as a television director for Philadelphia station WCAU-TV but returned to Los Angeles to fully pursue songwriting, at the behest of mentor Johnny Mercer. Alan and Marilyn Bergman are members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, which awarded the duo its Johnny Mercer Award in 1997. They also received the Grammy Trustee Award for lifetime achievement, the National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Music Publishers Assn. Lifetime Achievement Award and honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music and the University of Massachusetts. In 2011, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill honored Bergman with a distinguished alumnus award. Marilyn Bergman died in January 2022 of respiratory failure at 93. After her death, Alan continued working, most recently collaborating with jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, who will record his nine songs co-written with Bergman later this year for an upcoming album. Alan Bergman is survived by his daughter Julie Bergman and granddaughter Emily Sender. He will be laid to rest at a private graveside burial. Ruth Price's Jazz Bakery announced earlier this month it would celebrate Bergman's 100th birthday with a tribute concert at Santa Monica's Broad Stage in September. The performance will go on as planned, The Times has learned. The family ask that donations be made in Bergman's name to the ASCAP Foundation Alan and Marilyn Bergman Lyric Award and the Johnny Mercer Foundation. Times pop music critic Mikael Wood contributed to this report.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Reuters
Alan Bergman, great American lyricist, dies at 99
NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters) - Alan Bergman wrote a song with his future wife on the day they first met. Over the next 60 years they never stopped making music together. Bergman was one half of one of the greatest American songwriting duos. The other was his wife Marilyn, who died in 2022. Together, the couple wrote the lyrics for "The Way We Were" and "The Windmills of Your Mind," tunes for the film "Yentl," and the theme songs for 1970s television comedies "Maude," "Alice" and "Good Times." "It was a terrible song, but we loved the process," Bergman said in 2011 of that first collaboration. "And from that day on, we've been writing together." The songwriting team went on to win three Oscars, four Emmys and two Grammy awards, and to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980. Their lyrics were set to the music of composers including Michel Legrand, Marvin Hamlisch, John Williams and Quincy Jones. Singers ranging from Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra to Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand and Sting recorded their songs. Bergman died on Thursday, aged 99, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine told Reuters. Bergman wrote his first song when he was 13 years old and continued to pen lyrics into his 90s, after his wife's death. The song "Wherever I May Go (for Marilyn)" was a tribute to her. 'It's such a deeply personal song,' composer Roger Kellaway told the San Francisco Classical Voice newsletter in 2022. "You could look at this, like, that's how committed Alan is to the relationship and how committed he is to songwriting." Alan Bergman was born in September 1925 in Brooklyn, New York in the same hospital as his wife a few years later. But the couple didn't meet until 1956 when they were introduced by the composer Lew Spence in Los Angeles. Bergman studied at the University of North Carolina and completed a Master's degree in music at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he met songwriter Johnny Mercer. Mercer, who wrote the lyrics of "Moon River" for the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in 1961, became his mentor. Despite his desire to write songs, Bergman first worked as a TV producer in Philadelphia. At Mercer's urging he moved to California in the 1950s. "I was writing both music and lyrics in those days, and he would listen to what I was writing and critique it and encourage me," Bergman told JazzTimes magazine last year. "I would not be here today without him. He was a great influence." Bergman liked to use a baseball analogy to explain the couple's writing process - pitching and catching ideas back and forth. He preferred to have the music before he began to write the lyrics. Composers would leave their compositions with the couple. They would then write words that fit the notes. "We believe that words are at the tips of those notes and it's our job to find them," he told radio station NPR in 2011. "That's the adventure." "Yellow Bird" was the duo's first money-making song, but their big break came with Frank Sinatra's 1960 album "Nice 'n' Easy." The crooner became a friend of the couple. He referred to them as "the kids." They had another career breakthrough when they worked with composer and producer Quincy Jones in 1967 on the song "In the Heat of the Night" for the film of the same name. They won their first Academy Award for best original song for writing "The Windmills of Your Mind" the following year, with Michel Legrand, for the film "The Thomas Crown Affair." They were awarded another Oscar in 1974 for "The Way We Were" with Marvin Hamlisch, as well as a Grammy for Song of the Year in 1975. In 1983, the couple were the first songwriters to have written three of the five Oscar-nominated songs. Two years later they took home their third Academy Award for "Yentl," starring Barbra Streisand. The singer became a friend and frequent interpreter of their music. Streisand recorded more than 50 of their songs. She released the album "What Matters Most" as a tribute to the Bergmans and their music. "When she does our songs, she finds things that always surprise us," Bergman told Reuters in 2011. "She deepens them. She gets all the nuances, everything, so it's thrilling." The couple's Emmys included awards for the TV movies "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom" (1975) and "Sybil" (1977), and the song "Ordinary Miracles" from the 1995 Streisand special "Barbra: The Concert." The couple married in 1958 and had one daughter. Bergman said he loved songwriting. Doing it for so long with someone he loved made it that much more beautiful.
