Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed along with his spouse, Marilyn, for an everlasting and loving partnership that produced such old school hits as “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?,” “It Might Be You” and the basic “The Way We Were,” has died at 99.
Bergman died late Thursday at his dwelling in Los Angeles, household spokesperson Ken Sunshine stated in a press release Friday. The assertion stated Bergman had, in latest months, suffered from respiratory points “but continued to write songs till the very end.”
The Bergmans married in 1958 and remained collectively till her loss of life, in 2022. With collaborators starting from Marvin Hamlisch and Quincy Jones to Michel Legrand and Cy Coleman, they had been among the many most profitable and prolific partnerships of their time, offering phrases and occasional music for a whole bunch of songs, together with film themes that turned as well-known because the movies themselves. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and lots of different artists carried out their materials, and Barbra Streisand turned a frequent collaborator and shut good friend.
Mixing Tin Pan Alley sentiment and modern pop, the Bergmans crafted lyrics recognized by tens of millions, lots of whom wouldn’t have acknowledged the writers had they walked proper previous them. Amongst their most well-known 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 Seventies sitcoms “Maude” and “Good Times.” Their movie compositions included Ray Charles’ “In the Heat of the Night” from the film of the identical identify; Noel Harrison’s “The Windmills of Your Mind,” from “The Thomas Crown Affair”; and Stephen Bishop’s “It Might Be You,” from “Tootsie.”
The entire world appeared to sing and cry alongside to “The Way We Were,” an on the spot favourite recorded by Streisand for the 1973 romantic drama of the identical identify that co-starred Streisand and Robert Redford. Set to Hamlisch’s tender, bittersweet melody, it was basically a tune about itself — a nostalgic ballad about nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the previous, beginning with one in every of historical past’s most well-known 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 tune of 1974 and introduced the Bergmans one in every of their three Oscars, the others coming for “Windmills of Your Mind” and the soundtrack to “Yentl,” the Streisand-directed film from 1983. At instances, the Academy Awards could possibly be mistaken for a Bergman showcase. In 1983, three of the nominees for finest tune featured lyrics by the Bergmans, who obtained 16 nominations in all.
The Bergmans additionally received two Grammys, 4 Emmys, had been introduced quite a few lifetime achievement honors and obtained tributes from particular person artists, together with Streisand’s 2011 album of Bergman songs, “What Matters Most.” On “Lyrically, Alan Bergman,” Bergman dealt with the vocals himself. Though finest recognized for his or her film work, the Bergmans additionally wrote the Broadway musical “Ballroom” and offered lyrics for the symphony “Visions of America.”
Their very lives appeared to rhyme. They didn’t meet till they had been adults, however had been born in the identical Brooklyn hospital, 4 years aside; raised in the identical Brooklyn neighborhood, attended the identical youngsters’s concert events at Carnegie Corridor and moved to California in the identical yr, 1950. They had been launched in Los Angeles whereas working for a similar composer, however at totally different instances of the day. Their precise courtship was partly a narrative of music. Fred Astaire was Marilyn’s favourite singer on the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a tune, “That Face,” which Astaire agreed to report. Acetate in hand, Bergman rushed dwelling to inform Marilyn the information, then proposed.
Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and granddaughter.
Bergman had needed to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He majored in music and theater on the College of North Carolina, and obtained a grasp’s from the College of California, Los Angeles, the place he befriended Johnny Mercer and have become a protege. He and Marilyn at first wrote youngsters’s songs collectively, and broke by way of commercially within the late Fifties with the calypso hit “Yellowbird.” Their friendship with Streisand started quickly after, after they visited her backstage throughout one in every of her early New York membership appearances. “Do you know how wonderful you are?” was how Marilyn Bergman greeted the younger singer.
The Bergmans labored so intently collectively that they typically discovered themselves arising with the identical phrase on the identical time. Alan likened their partnership to house responsibilities: one washes, one dries, the title of a tune they finally devised for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to call a favourite tune, however cited “A Love Like Ours” as amongst their most private:
“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.”
