Biography
Alan Bergman (born September 11, 1925) is a prolific American lyricist and songwriter.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UCLA. His involvement in the entertainment industry began in the early 1950s as a director of children's television shows. Both he and his wife Marilyn Bergman, whom he married in 1958, were born in the same hospital and raised in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, but they didn't meet until each had relocated to Los Angeles. Together they have written the music and lyrics for numerous television shows, films, and stage musicals.
In 1983, the couple became the first songwriters ever to have written three of the five tunes nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song - "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" from Best Friends, "It Might Be You" (with Dave Grusin) from Tootsie, and "If We Were in Love" (with John Williams) from Yes, Giorgio.
Bergman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980, and in 1995 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Berklee College of Music. He is a member of the board of The Streisand Foundation.
Alan and Marilyn Bergman's credits include:
• lyrics for "The Windmills of Your Mind", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", "Yellow Bird", "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?", "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?", and the score from Yentl, with music by Michel Legrand;
• lyrics for "The Way We Were", with music by Marvin Hamlisch;
• lyrics and music for Ballroom, a 1978 Broadway musical; "Never Say Never Again", from the film of the same name; the theme songs for the television series Maude and Good Times; and "Moonlight", featured in the film Sabrina;
• and lyrics for "I Knew I Loved You", the Quincy Jones-produced Céline Dion song that was the theme for the movie Once Upon a Time in America.
Bergman's talents can be seen on Jones' podcast, The Quincy Jones Show.
In 2007, at the age of 81, Bergman released his first album as a vocalist, Lyrically, Alan Bergman, featuring some of the Bergmans' most well-known songs.
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