Marilyn Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with husband
Alan Bergman on “The Way We Were,” “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?”
and hundreds of other songs, died at her Los Angeles home Saturday. She
was 93.
She died of respiratory failure not related to COVID-19, according to
a representative, Jason Lee. Her husband, Alan, was at her bedside when she
died.
The Bergmans, who married in 1958, were among the most enduring,
successful and productive songwriting partnerships, specializing in
introspective ballads for film, television and the stage that combined
the romance of Tin Pan Alley with the polish of contemporary pop. They
worked with some of the world’s top melodists, including Marvin
Hamlisch, Cy Coleman and Michel Legrand, and were covered by some of the
world’s greatest singers, from Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand to
Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson.
“If one really is serious about wanting to write songs that are
original, that really speak to people, you have to feel like you created
something that wasn’t there before — which is the ultimate
accomplishment, isn’t it?” Marilyn Bergman told The Huffington Post in
2013. “And to make something that wasn’t there before, you have to know
what came before you.”
Alan Bergman (before he addressed the audience at the L.A. Jewish Film Festival a few years ago) discussed with JewTube their body of work (e.g., "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life") and Jewish cultural and artistic influences on them. He opined on why so many Jewish-Americans made careers in the arts - writing, music, theater, and film.
Their songs included the sentimental Streisand-Neil Diamond duet “You
Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” Sinatra’s snappy “Nice ’n’ Easy” and Dean
Martin’s dreamy “Sleep Warm.” They helped write the uptempo themes to
the 1970s sitcoms “Maude” and “Good Times” and "Alice" collaborated on words and
music for the 1978 Broadway show “Ballroom.”
But they were best known for their contributions to films, turning
out themes sometimes remembered more than the movies themselves. 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, for “Best Friends,” the James Ingram-Patti Austin duet
“How Do You Keep the Music Playing?”
 |
Alan and Marilyn Bergman share Oscars with
Marvin Hamlisch for "The Way We Were" in 1974 |
Their peak was “The Way We Were,” from the Streisand-Robert Redford
romantic drama of the same name. Set to Hamlisch’s moody, pensive
melody, with Streisand’s voice rising throughout, it was the top-selling
song of 1974 and an instant standard, proof that well into the rock era
the public still embraced an old-fashioned ballad.
Fans would have struggled to identify a picture of the Bergmans, or
even recognize their names, but they had no trouble summoning the words
to “The Way We Were”:
“Memories, may be beautiful and yet / What’s too painful to remember /
We simply choose to forget / So it’s the laughter / We will remember /
Whenever we remember / The way we were.”
The Bergmans won three Oscars — for “The Way We Were,” “Windmills of
Your Mind” and the soundtrack to Streisand’s “Yentl” — and received 16
nominations, three of them in 1983 alone. They also won two Grammys and
four Emmys and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Fellow composer Quincy Jones called news of her death crushing. “You,
along with your beloved Alan, were the epitome of Nadia Boulanger’s
belief that ‘an artist can never be more or less than they are as a
human being,’” he tweeted.
“To those of us who loved the Bergmans’ lyrics, Marilyn takes a bit
our our hearts and souls with her today,” tweeted Norman Lear, creator
of “Maude” and “Good Times.”
Marilyn Bergman became the first woman elected to the American
Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and later served as the
chair and president. She was also the first chair of the National
Recorded Sound Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.
Streisand worked with them throughout her career, recording more than
60 of their songs and dedicating an entire album, “What Matters Most,”
to their material. The Bergmans met her when she was 18, a nightclub
singer, and soon became close friends.
“I just love their words, I love the sentiment, I love their
exploration of love and relationships,” Streisand told The Associated
Press in 2011.
On Saturday, she posted a picture of herself with the Bergmans on
Twitter, saying they were like family, as well as brilliant lyricists.
“We met over 60 years ago backstage at a little nightclub, and never
stopped loving each other and working together,” Streisand wrote. “Their
songs are timeless, and so is our love. May she rest in peace.”
Like Streisand, the Bergmans were Jews from lower-middle-class
families in Brooklyn. They were born in the same hospital, Alan four
years earlier than Marilyn, whose unmarried name was Katz, and they were
raised in the same neighborhood and were fans of music and movies since
childhood. They both moved to Los Angeles in 1950 — Marilyn had studied
English and psychology at New York University — but didn’t meet until a
few years later, when they were working for the same composer.
The Bergmans appeared to be free of the boundaries and tensions of
many songwriting teams. They likened their chemistry to housework (one
washes, one dries) or to baseball (pitching and catching), and were so
in tune with each other that they struggled to recall who wrote a given
lyric.
“Our partnership as writers or as husband and wife?” Marilyn told The
Huffington Post when asked about their relationship. “I think the
aspects of both are the same: Respect, trust, all of that is necessary
in a writing partnership or a business partnership or in a marriage.”
Besides her husband, Bergman is survived by their daughter, Julie Bergman, and a granddaughter.
Written by Hillel Italie. AP media writer David Bauder contributed to this report.
For more information see Marilyn and Alan Bergman's website.
