You’ve heard their words a thousand times. Maybe you were crying in a dark theater when Barbra Streisand sang about the "misty water-colored memories" of the way we were. Or perhaps you were humming along to the groovy, dizzying rhymes of "The Windmills of Your Mind" without realizing how complex that lyric actually is.
Alan & Marilyn Bergman didn't just write songs. They wrote the emotional architecture of the 20th century.
They were a husband-and-wife team that somehow survived sixty years of marriage and professional collaboration without killing each other. Honestly, that’s as impressive as the three Oscars. Most couples can’t agree on what to have for dinner, but the Bergmans spent decades sitting in the same room, staring at the same legal pads, searching for the one perfect syllable that would make a melody fly.
The Brooklyn Hospital Coincidence
Kinda weirdly, they were both born in the same hospital in Brooklyn—Beth Moses—just four years apart. Alan came first in 1925, Marilyn in 1929. They didn't meet there, obviously. They didn't even meet in New York. It took a move to Los Angeles and a mutual friend named Lew Spence to bring them together in the mid-1950s.
Spence was a composer who worked with Alan in the mornings and Marilyn in the afternoons. One day, he basically said, "You two should meet."
They did. They wrote a song that same day.
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By their own admission, that first song was pretty terrible. But the process? The process felt right. They got married in 1958 and basically became a single creative entity. If you asked them who wrote which line, they usually couldn't tell you. It was a true "marriage of two minds," as people liked to call it.
Why Their Lyrics Hit Differently
Most pop songs are about "I love you" or "You left me." The Bergmans were more interested in the "How" and the "Why." They wrote for adults.
Take "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" It’s not a song about falling in love; it’s a song about the terrifying realization that staying in love is hard work. It asks the questions people are usually too scared to ask out loud.
- Complexity: They weren't afraid of big words or intricate metaphors.
- The Cinema Connection: They specialized in "the song within the story." They didn't just write hits; they wrote character arcs.
- The Legrand Factor: Their partnership with French composer Michel Legrand produced some of the most haunting music ever written, like "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?"
In 1982, they pulled off a feat that will probably never be repeated. They were nominated for three out of the five Academy Awards for Best Original Song in a single year. They were literally competing against themselves.
The Barbra Streisand Connection
You can't talk about Alan & Marilyn Bergman without talking about Barbra. She was their muse, their friend, and their greatest interpreter. Streisand has recorded over 60 of their songs.
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When she decided to make Yentl, she went to "the kids" (as Frank Sinatra used to call them). They didn't just write the lyrics for the movie; they helped her structure it. They suggested the songs should be Yentl's internal monologue because, in the original story, the character couldn't express her thoughts out loud.
It was a gamble. A woman playing a man in a musical about the Talmud? Hollywood thought it was nuts. But "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and "The Way He Makes Me Feel" became iconic. They won an Oscar for the score, and it cemented their legacy as the poets of the movie musical.
The "Nice 'n' Easy" Secret
Before they were the kings of the film ballad, they were writing for the Chairman of the Board. "Nice 'n' Easy" was written for Frank Sinatra in 1960.
It’s a masterclass in tone. It’s cool, it’s relaxed, and it’s perfectly tailored to Sinatra's persona. Marilyn once said that writing for Frank was like "making a tailor-made suit." You had to know how he moved, how he breathed, and how he'd lean into a consonant.
They never pitched songs. Not once.
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They waited to be asked. They wanted to know the script, the character, and the singer before they put pen to paper. It’s a level of craftsmanship that feels a bit lost in the era of "songwriting camps" where ten people are credited for one three-minute track.
How to Listen Like a Pro
If you want to understand why they matter, don't just put on a "Best Of" playlist. You have to listen to the structure.
Look at "The Windmills of Your Mind." The lyric is a series of circles. "Like a wheel within a wheel / Never ending or beginning / On an ever-spinning reel." The words mimic the melody, which mimics the circular motion of the thoughts in the character's head. It’s genius. Pure and simple.
Actionable Insights for Aspiring Writers
- Find a "Third Voice": The Bergmans claimed that when they worked together, a third person emerged who was smarter than either of them alone. Collaboration isn't about compromise; it's about alchemy.
- Specific is Universal: They wrote very specifically for characters in movies, yet those songs became wedding standards. The deeper you go into a specific emotion, the more people will relate to it.
- Read the Script First: Never write in a vacuum. Whether you're writing a song, a blog post, or a speech, understand the "why" before the "what."
- Embrace the Silence: They were known for spending hours in silence, just thinking. Good writing requires a lot of not-writing.
Alan passed away in early 2022, just a few years after Marilyn. It felt like the end of an era—the final chapter of the Great American Songbook. But their work isn't going anywhere. As long as someone is feeling nostalgic for "the way we were" or wondering "how do you keep the music playing," the Bergmans will be right there, providing the words.