Alan Bergman, Oscar-Winning Lyricist Who Helped Write ‘The Way We Were,’ Dies at 99
(AP) Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teams up with his wife, Marilyn, for a lasting and loving partnership that produced old-fashioned tubes such as “How do you keep music to play?” “It could be you” and the classic “the way we were”, died at 99.
Bergman died late Thursday at his home in Los Angeles on Thursday, the Ken Sunshine family spokesman said on Friday in a statement. The press release indicates that Bergman had suffered, in recent months, suffered from respiratory problems “but continued to write songs until the end.”
The Bergmans were married in 1958 and stayed together until his death, in 2022. With collaborators going 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 occasional words and music for hundreds of songs, including films that have become also famous. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and many other artists interpreted their equipment, and Barbra Streisand has become a frequent collaborator and a close friend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjjvleg8Whm
Mixing Tin Pan Alley feeling and contemporary pop, the Bergmans have designed known words of millions, many of which would not have recognized the writers if they had passed right in front of them. Among their most famous works: the Streisand-Neil Diamond Duo “You don’t Bring Me Flowers”, the favorite aptly named “Nice ‘N’ Easy” and the topical themes in the sitcoms of the 1970s “Maude” and “Good Times”. Their film compositions included Ray Charles “in the Heat of the Night” of the film of the same name; “The Christmas windmills of Christmas Harrison”, “the Thomas Crown affair”; And “it m to you” by Stephen Bishop, of “Tootsie”.
The whole world seemed to sing and cry in “The Way We Wast”, an instant favorite recorded by Streisand for the romantic drama of 1973 of the same name which played Streisand and Robert Redford. Fixed on Hamlisch’s tender and sweet-bitter melody, it was essentially a song on itself-a nostalgic ballad on nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the past, starting with one of the most famous stars of opening in history: “Memories / Light the Corners of My Mind / Misty Watercolor Memories / Of The Way We was”.
“The Way We Wre” was the best -selling song of 1974 and brought the three Oscars, the others for “Windmills of Your Mind” and the soundtrack of “Yentl”, the film led by Streisand from 1983. Sometimes the Oscars were able to be mistaken with a window by Bergman. In 1983, three of the nominees for the best song presented lyrics from The Bergmans, which received 16 nominations in all.
The Bergmans also won two grammys, Four Emmys, have received many honors of life realization and received tributes from individual artists, including the album of Streisand in 2011 of Bergman songs, “the most What Matters”. On “Lyrically, Alan Bergman”, Bergman managed the song itself. Although better known for their cinema work, the Bergmans have also written the Broadway musical “Ballroom” and provided lyrics for the symphony “Visions of America”.
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Their very life 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 district of Brooklyn, attended the same children’s concerts at Carnegie Hall and moved to California the same year 1950. They were introduced in Los Angeles while working for the same composer, but at different times of the day. Their real courtyard was partly 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 to his home to announce the news to Marilyn, then proposed.
Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and her granddaughter.
Bergman had wanted to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He specialized in music and theater at the University of North Carolina and obtained a master’s degree from the University of California in Los Angeles, where he became friends with Johnny Mercer and became a protégé. He and Marilyn first wrote children’s songs together and burst commercially in the late 1950s with the Calypso “Yellowbird” hit. Their friendship with Streisand started shortly after, when they visited her behind the scenes during one of his first appearances at the New York club. “Do you know how wonderful you are?” It was how Marilyn Bergman praised the young singer.
The Bergmans worked so closely together that they often found themselves finding the same word at the same time. Alan compared their partnership with household work: we wash, we dry, the title of a song they finally designed for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to name a favorite song, but quoted “A Love Like Bear” as among their personal:
“When love like ours arrives / We keep it with our lives / everything that gets lost / when a rainy day arrives / a love like ours will keep us safe and healthy.”
