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Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
How Alan Bergman kept the music playing
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Honorees Alan, left, and Marilyn Bergman arrive at the ASCAP Film and Television music awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Tuesday, May 6, 2008. Matt Sayles/Associated Press Advertisement Before teaming up with Marilyn in 1958, Alan worked at a Philadelphia television station. Though both Bergmans were born in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, and often attended the same events, they didn't meet until they worked separately for composer Lew Spence. It was Spence who suggested the two collaborate. The trio wrote several songs, including Frank Sinatra's 'Nice 'n' Easy' and Dean Martin's 'Sleep Warm.' The Bergmans's first movie song inadvertently described their career. They always found the right approach for the material, and their first song for a movie was the theme for the 1961 drama, 'The Right Approach.' But it wasn't until six years later that they began their streak of cinematic successes. Advertisement In the opening credits of Norman Jewison's 1967 masterpiece, 'In the Heat of the Night' Mr. Virgil Tibbs ( Sidney Poitier, center, in the 1967 film 'In the Heat of the Night.' United Artists The song is a blues number meant to evoke a sense of dread. Charles nailed the haunting vocal, and Billy Preston's organ playing added a gospel-like quality. Quincy Jones provided the music that set the tone for this murder mystery, but it's the Bergmans's lyrics that provide the protagonist's innermost thoughts. Tibbs is a Black man who is about to be stuck in racist Sparta, Mississippi during Jim Crow. As the song tells us, he'll have 'trouble wall-to-wall.' In his memoir 'This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me,' Jewison recalls Charles asking Jones if the people who wrote the lyrics were Black. 'No, Ray, they're white,' Jones responded. 'Can't be, man!' Charles said. 'Not with lyrics like that.' Indeed, 'In the Heat of the Night' contains some of the most soulful lyrics the Bergmans wrote. It's one of many examples where they understood the assignment. It really does sound like a Black man's lament, setting the stage for whatever will befall Virgil Tibbs as he deals with Rod Steiger's irascible racist, Chief Gillespie. Proving their versatility, the Bergmans also wrote lyrics for the country songs the Sparta characters listen to on their car radios and jukeboxes. These ditties are as far away from the blues as you can get. Glen Campbell sings a catchy yet hilarious one called 'Bowlegged Polly.' Advertisement The songwriters would take a more serious country music route by writing Charley Pride's 'All His Children' for the 1971 Paul Newman film, 'Sometimes a Great Notion,' but I'm getting ahead of the story. Steve McQueen in "The Thomas Crown Affair." United Artists Though it won best picture, 'In the Heat of the Night' was robbed of a best song nomination for its theme. The Academy made up for it a year later, giving Regardless, Noel Harrison's original version was a hit, and it was later covered by Dusty Springfield, Sting (for the Pierce Brosnan remake of 'Thomas Crown'), and a very, very anxious Muppet on 'The Muppet Show.' In total, Legrand and the Bergmans would earn seven Oscar nominations and two Oscars. Conversely, the next Oscar win by the Bergmans wasn't with Legrand, and it was for a song that everyone loves but me. Thanks to their fellow Brooklynite, Barbra Streisand, 'The Way We Were' may be the duo's most famous movie composition. A frequent collaborator, Streisand brought them on for 'Yentl,' where they earned their third Oscar. Streisand also sang the worst thing the Bergmans wrote, that hideous hit duet with Neil Diamond, 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers.' Advertisement 'The Way We Were''s Oscar win in 1974 capped a three Oscar night for the song's composer, From left, Ralph Carter, Esther Rolle, John Amos, Jimmie Walker, and BernNadette Stanis in a scene from "Good Times." CBSAlso in 1974, the Bergmans wrote the famous theme song to the Chicago sitcom, 'Good Times,' with Dave Grusin. The trio had previously collaborated on Donny Hathaway's ' If that wasn't confusing enough, 'Good Times' is saddled with and one of those lyrics (the one after 'scratchin' and survivin'') is practically unintelligible. I recall reading an article where Alan provided the lyric that's been misheard for the past 50 years. You can look it up, because I don't believe him! Grusin was also part of the Bergmans's biggest Oscar year, in 1983. He wrote the music for 'It Might be You' from 'Tootsie,' one of the couple's three best song nominations that night. They were also up with John Williams for 'If We Were in Love,' from the atrocious Luciano Pavarotti movie, 'Yes, Giorgio.' Their third nod that evening was for ' Advertisement I admit it's a bit ironic for me to devote so much time to discussing an Oscar category whose choices are so bad that I wish it would be retired. But songwriters like Alan and Marilyn Bergman and their collaborators remind me why the category exists in the first place. Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
Mint
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Alan Bergman dies at 99: Oscar-winning lyricist of ‘The Way We Were' worked with Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand
Oscar-winning lyricist Alan Bergman, who delivered classics such as 'The Windmills of Your Mind,' passed away at the age of 99. The celebrated writer who left a significant mark in the music industry with 'The Windmills of Your Mind,' 'Nice 'n' Easy' and 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers' breathed his last on July 18. He collaborated with several artists, including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand.
USA Today
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning songwriter for Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand, dies at 99
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 half was his wife Marilyn, who died in 2022. On July 17, Alan Bergman died at 99, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine told Reuters. Together, the Bergmans 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. Johnny Mercer of 'Moon River' fame mentored Bergman Alan Bergman was born in September 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, in the same hospital where his wife was born a few years later. But the couple didn't meet until 1956, when they were introduced by the composer Lew Spence in Los Angeles. The couple married in 1958 and had one daughter. 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. 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 in 2024. "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 NPR in 2011. "That's the adventure." Alan Bergman, wife Marilyn Bergman's big break came on Frank Sinatra's 'Nice 'n' Easy' "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, recording more than 50 of their songs. She released the album "What Matters Most" as a tribute to the Bergmans and their music. 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."
Leader Live
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Oscar-winning The Way We Were lyricist Alan Bergman dies aged 99
Bergman died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine said in a statement. 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. The Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognised 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 favourite 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 favourite 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 watercolour 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 honours and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand's 2011 album of Bergman songs, What Matters Most. Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They did not meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighbourhood, 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 favourite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, That Face, which Astaire agreed to record. Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed. Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and granddaughter.
North Wales Chronicle
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- North Wales Chronicle
Oscar-winning The Way We Were lyricist Alan Bergman dies aged 99
Bergman died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine said in a statement. 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. The Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognised 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 favourite 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 favourite 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 watercolour 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 honours and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand's 2011 album of Bergman songs, What Matters Most. Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They did not meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighbourhood, 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 favourite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, That Face, which Astaire agreed to record. Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed. Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and granddaughter.
