“Forgotten Hollywood”- Keep the Music Playing…

Posted on January 8, 2022 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

“`Marilyn Bergman was the Oscar-winning lyricist who collaborated with husband Alan Bergman on How Do You Keep the Music Playing, The Way We Were and many other compositions.  They teamed with some of the top contemporary composers such as Marvin Hamlisch, Cy Coleman and Michel Legrand, and were covered by the world’s best singers, including Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson.

“`The Bergmans, who wed in 1958, were among the most enduring and productive songwriting partnerships, specializing in introspective ballads for film, television, and the stage that combined the romance of Tin Pan Alley with a polish of contemporary pop. Their style defined music of the 1960s and 1970s.

“`The collaborative process began when they penned the title tracks for Dean Martin’s album Sleep Warm and Frank Sinatra’s album Nice ‘n’ Easy. Their songs included the Streisand-Neil Diamond duet You Don’t Bring Me Flowers. They also helped develop the uptempo themes to the 1970s sitcoms Alice, Maude and Good Times.

“`But they were best known for their contributions to movies. Among the highlights: Stephen Bishop’s It Might Be You from Tootsie; Noel Harrison’s The Windmills of Your Mind from The Thomas Crown Affair; and they wrote they lyrics for In the Heat of the Night with music by Quincy Jones for the 1967 film. Their work with Legrand on Yentl won them the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score, with the songs Papa Can You Hear Me? and The Way He Makes Me Feel from the film also being nominated for Best Original Song.

“`Marilyn served as president and chairman of American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for fifteen years from 1994 to 2009. She also was the president of the National Recording Preservation Board.

“`Marilyn Bergman was ninety-three.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 8th, 2022 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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