08/10/16 Alan and Marilyn Bergman – Celebrated Songwriters/Lyricists for TV Shows, Films and Musicals
Two of the world’s most distinguished
lyricists, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, have been contributing to the Great
American Songbook for more than five decades.
During their celebrated career, Alan
and Marilyn’s songs have been nominated for sixteen Academy Awards, for which they have won three: "The
Windmills of Your Mind" in 1968, "The Way
We Were" in 1973, and
the score for "Yentl" in 1984. "Windmills"
and "The Way We Were" also
earned Golden Globe Awards, and "The Way We Were" earned two Grammys.
The first songwriters to be nominated
for three Academy Awards for Best
Song out of the five nominated songs, 1983 brought them nominations for "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?"
from "Best Friends;" "It
Might Be You" from "Tootsie;” and "If We Were In Love" from "Yes, Giorgio.”
In 1984, they again received three
nominations: for the score for “Yentl”
(for which they were awarded the Oscar)
and two for the songs, "The
Way He Makes Me Feel" and "Papa, Can You Hear Me?”
In 1995, they wrote the Golden Globe, Academy Award and Grammy
nominated song “Moonlight” performed by Sting in the Sydney Pollack film,
“Sabrina.” Among
their principal collaborators are Michel Legrand, Dave Grusin, Johnny Mandel,
John Williams, Quincy Jones, James Newton Howard and the late Cy Coleman, Henry
Mancini and Marvin Hamlisch.
Alan Marilyn’s long list of television credits includes the theme
songs for "Maude," "Good Times," "Alice”, "Brooklyn Bridge “ and
“In the Heat of the Night."
They have received four Emmy
Awards: For the award-winning drama,"Sybil,” and
for the first made-for-TV dramatic musical, "Queen of the Stardust
Ballroom”. Another for their original song “Ordinary Miracles”, from
the HBO Special “Barbra Streisand: The
Concert.”
They won their fourth Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for “A Ticket to Dream” from AFI’s 100 Years
100 Movies Special.
Among their songs are… for Frank Sinatra “Nice ‘n’ Easy”, for Ray
Charles “In the Heat of the Night”, for Fred Astaire “That
Face”, and “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”, “What
Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?",
“So Many Stars”, “The Summer Knows”, “Where Do You Start?”, “On My
Way to You”, “You Must Believe In
Spring”, to name but a few.
Alan and Marilyn are
currently working on projects with Michel Legrand and playwright, Josh
Ravetch. They have just completed two
songs with composer Dave Grusin. “Hurry
Home” for the film “Max Rose” premiering this month and “Just
Getting Started” for the “Vitality After 90” film to be released later this
year.