Marilyn Bergman and her husband Alan were responsible for an untold number of classic songs for films, theatre and television. Michael Darvell takes a glimpse at their back catalogue.
Where do you begin with the Bergmans? Well, they started life in the same New York hospital in Brooklyn where they were both born, Alan in 1925 and Marilyn three years later. Alan was the son of Samuel Bergman, a seller of children’s clothes, and Ruth, a community volunteer. Marilyn was the daughter of another Jewish family, Albert Katz and his wife Edith. Alan secured his music degree at the University of California in Los Angeles while Marilyn studied at New York’s High School of Music and Art prior to taking a course in psychology and English. Although they lived in the same city for over a quarter of a century, neither had met until they decided to move independently to Los Angeles.
Songwriter Johnny Mercer suggested Alan should move to LA and Marilyn also had the same idea, although, once there she only became, as in the best stories, a songwriter by accident. She had trained to become a concert pianist but after she suffered a fall, her injury prevented her from playing, so she took up writing lyrics – as you do! So, after a freak accident a very successful lyric-writing team was born. They married in 1958.
They both began writing with the American songwriter Lew Spence, the results being songs for Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. In 1961 they wrote their first film song, the title track to The Right Approach, which the 20th Century Fox studio had bought for Elvis Presley, although the film went to Frankie Vaughan, with Martha Hyer and Juliet Prowse. This was followed by their first Broadway musical, Something More! in 1964. It was bursting with talent with a cast including Barbara Cook, Arthur Hill, Ronny Graham, Paula Kelly and Hal Linden. Based on Gerald Green’s novel Portofino PTA, it had music by Sammy Fain and was directed by Jule Styne. However, it lasted for just under 30 performances.
One of the Bergmans’ most successful songs was the title number for the Norman Jewison film In the Heat of the Night, with the late Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. The song, which had music by Quincy Jones, was a big hit for Ray Charles. Alan and Marilyn seemed to have the extraordinary knack of writing film songs that stayed around long after the films had disappeared into the archives. Much of their work survives to this day in the nightclub and cabaret acts of umpteen famous performers.
To prove it, just think of the work they did with French composer Michel Legrand. In 1968 with Legrand they had written ‘The Windmills of Your Mind’ for Norman Jewison’s The Thomas Crown Affair with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. It won them their first Oscar for Best Original Song and was a chart hit for Noel Harrison. Also with Legrand they wrote ‘What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?’ for Richard Brooks’ film The Happy Ending, which he had written for his wife Jean Simmons who was nominated for an Academy Award, as were Legrand and the Bergmans. They also worked with Legrand on Ice Station Zebra and The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart.
Later on they collaborated with Legrand on ‘How Do You Keep the Music Playing?’ from the film Best Friends with Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn. It was Oscar-nominated in the 1983 Academy Awards alongside other Bergman songs, ‘It Might Be You’ from Tootsie, and ‘Papa, Can You Hear Me?’ and ‘The Way He Makes Me Feel’ from Yentl.
In 1973 the combination of the Bergmans, Marvin Hamlisch and Barbra Streisand had produced the enormous hit title song from the film of The Way We Were which secured more Oscars for Hamlisch and the Bergmans, as well as Golden Globes and a Grammy Award. Another collaboration in 1999 with Marvin Hamlisch produced A Time to Dream, for the American Film Institute’s 100 Years 100 Movies special. All three received Primetime Emmy Awards.
Alan and Marilyn continued to work with Streisand when they wrote her One Voice concert in 1987 and they had also written other material for her 1984 concert tour. Their Home Box Office special won them an Emmy Award. In 2011 Streisand paid tribute to the Bergmans in her album What Matters Most, performing ten of their hitherto unrecorded songs.
In 1975 they wrote lyrics for Billy Goldenberg’s television musical Queen of the Stardust Ballroom with the incomparable Maureen Stapleton and with choreography by Marge Champion. Three years later it became the Broadway show Ballroom starring Dorothy Loudon with choreography by Michael Bennett.
During their long career together the Bergmans also contributed songs to the films Sabrina, with music by John Williams, and At First Sight, to music by Mark Isham. Both were nominated for Academy Awards. Away from films, TV and concerts, the Bergmans were asked to write An American Reunion for the opening in 1993 of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC for Bill Clinton’s inaugural first term as President. In 2001 they were commissioned to collaborate on a song cycle with composer Cy Coleman called Portraits in Jazz.
You can’t keep a good lyricist down and, in all the fields they worked in, Alan and Marilyn Bergman were the best that there is. Apart from the songs mentioned above, they were also responsible for writing such unforgettable numbers as ‘Yellow Bird’, ‘Nice ‘n’ Easy’, ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers’, ‘Summer Wishes, Winter Deams’, ‘Never Say Never Again’ and so many more including, would you believe, ‘Champion the Wonder Horse’. It is unlikely that we will ever see their like again.
Marilyn Bergman was born on 10 November 1928, and died on 8 January 2022. She is survived by her husband Alan Bergman and their daughter Julie, and granddaughter, Emily. R.I.P.
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