Saying Good-Bye to Marilyn Bergman

When I was in my 20’s, I was lucky enough to premier a song by Marilyn and Alan Bergman at the ASCAP workshop. Today I learned that Marilyn Bergman, passed away due to respiratory failure not related to COVID-19.

Marilyn Bergman, was an Oscar-winning lyricist who teaming with husband Alan Bergman gave us “The Way We Were,” “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?,” “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”, “Nice ‘n’ Easy,” “It Might Be You” from “Tootsie,””The Windmills of Your Mind” from “The Thomas Crown Affair”

You know her work from the themes to the 1970s sitcoms “Maude” and “Good Times”

On Broadway they collaborated on words and music for the 1978 Broadway show Ballroom, as well as Something More!.

Singers who sang their work Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Kathleen Battle, Quincy Jones, Celine Dion, Noel Harrison, Michael Jackson and more. Streisand worked with the Bergman’s since she was 18, recording more than 60 of their songs and dedicating an entire album, “What Matters Most,:” to their material.

Alan and Marilyn were one of the most successful songwriting partnerships, writing for film, television and the stage winning 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.

Marilyn 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.

Besides her husband, Bergman is survived by their daughter, Julie Bergman.