Tuesday, August 7, 2012
MARVELOUS: Legendary EGOT (plus Pulitzer) winning composer Marvin Hamlisch has passed away at the age of 68. Just listen to his "Training Camp" music from Woody Allen's Bananas and thank him for bringing Scott Joplin to the masses, and I think we can forgive him for the Barbra Streisand/Bryan Adams duet "I Finally Found Someone" and Melissa Manchester's "Through the Eyes of Love."
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Hey, I loved that Melissa Manchester song! Okay, I was pretty young at the time,
ReplyDeleteRIP. We often say "we shall not see his like again," but here it's powerfully true.
A couple of other notable achievements:
ReplyDelete1. Co-writing "Nobody Does It Better," one of the better Bond theme songs.
2. Winning 3 Oscars in one night in 1973--dramatic score and song for Way We Were, and song score/adapted score for The Sting. (Second biggest one night winner of all time, behind Walt Disney in 1954.)
So basically there were two 1970s. There was the seedy-underbelly 70s, an era of Sticky Fingers and Blaxploitation and muscle cars and the Allman Brothers and Curtis Mayfield and gangsters in polyester suits. And there was the popular 1970s, an era of Barry Manilow and Huffy bikes and Debbie Boone and Eight is Enough and the Theme from Mahogany and Bruce Jenner and Wonderbread and Swanson's Dinner and people's parents in polyester suits. What you think about when you think about Marvin Hamlisch is probably hugely predictive of which 1970s (if either) you have nostalgia for.
ReplyDeleteAs a junior high schooler in the early '80s, a lot of our "pops" music had the name Marvin Hamlisch at the top. I can't remember all of them, but I know we played the theme from "The Way We Were", selections from "The Sting," and definitely "What I Did for Love."
ReplyDeleteAlso, as a little kid, I played the "Chorus Line" soundtrack almost constantly and sang "Dance: Ten; Looks: 3" nearly constantly as a 5-year-old. I sang the very age-inappropriate chorus while dancing around the house until my parents sat me down and told me that when grandma and grandpa came to live with us I couldn't sing that song anymore. It was catchy--I had no idea what it meant!
As a junior high schooler in the early '80s, a lot of our "pops" music had the name Marvin Hamlisch at the top. I can't remember all of them, but I know we played the theme from "The Way We Were", selections from "The Sting," and definitely "What I Did for Love."
ReplyDeleteAlso, as a little kid, I played the "Chorus Line" soundtrack almost constantly and sang "Dance: Ten; Looks: 3" nearly constantly as a 5-year-old. I sang the very age-inappropriate chorus while dancing around the house until my parents sat me down and told me that when grandma and grandpa came to live with us I couldn't sing that song anymore. It was catchy--I had no idea what it meant!
We need to forgive him for "The Way We Were" as well. But man, that score for The Sting is still simply fabulous. After that...well, Ordinary People and Ice Castles (*shudder*). But Chorus Line is still pretty damn good.
ReplyDeleteAs a junior high schooler in the early '80s, a lot of our "pops" music had the name Marvin Hamlisch at the top. I can't remember all of them, but I know we played the theme from "The Way We Were", selections from "The Sting," and definitely "What I Did for Love."
ReplyDeleteAlso, as a little kid, I played the "Chorus Line" soundtrack almost constantly and sang "Dance: Ten; Looks: 3" nearly constantly as a 5-year-old. I sang the very age-inappropriate chorus while dancing around the house until my parents sat me down and told me that when grandma and grandpa came to live with us I couldn't sing that song anymore. It was catchy--I had no idea what it meant!
No. I cannot thank him for bringing Scott Joblin to the masses. In sixth grade, in 1974, our music teacher taught us the FREAKING LYRICS to "The Entertainer". And I have been stuck with that annoying earworm ever since.
ReplyDeleteEvery GD ice cream truck. And now, with my son's piano lessons, it's in my home. "Now the curtain is going up...". I won't give you anymore than that. You do not need to share my curse.
--bd
<span>No. I cannot thank him for bringing Scott Joplin to the masses. In sixth grade, in 1974, our music teacher taught us the FREAKING LYRICS to "The Entertainer". And I have been stuck with that annoying earworm ever since.
ReplyDeleteEvery GD ice cream truck. And now, with my son's piano lessons, it's in my home. "Now the curtain is going up...". I won't give you anymore than that. You do not need to share my curse.
--bd</span>
And aren't some of the best things about the 70's when those two worlds collide. I'm thinking of what are essentially easy listening songs done by rock or funk bands like Sly and the Family Stone's cover of "Que Sera Sera" or the Stones' "Angie" or Kiss's "Beth." Or rock songs done by pop groups like the Carpenter's "Superstar." What brought this to mind was Gladys Knight's great cover of Hamlisch's "The Way We Were," recorded live with a half-spoken/half-sung introduction incorporating "Try to Remember" from the Fantastiks. Everytime I hear it, I get verklempt.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/06KJr8-Wc8k" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
I'm not sure I'm with you on any of your worlds-colliding examples, but Helen Hunt freaking out and going through the window on angel dust (seedy-underbelly 70s) in an Afterschool Special (popular 70s) is one of the greatest moments of TV history, so you may have a point.
ReplyDelete"The Way We Were" will always mean something to me since that's one of the first school band songs we were taught in the 7th grade.
ReplyDeleteI've been singing "One" all day to the cat. I think he may want to go back to the shelter now.
http://www.youtube.com/v/R_DqM9iqERg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
Hamlisch was scheduled to be the guest conductor with the York Symphony Orchestra here is South Central PA this fall, something I was looking forward to.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's the one. The clothes (and Wiki) tell me that that's 1982, but I've always maintained that the 1970s ended in 1983 or 1984 anyway.
ReplyDeleteJen, I'm right there with you. I'm sure I wore out my Chorus Line album. I spent many hours in the basement/playroom of my house belting out all the songs at the top of my lungs as if it were my very own audition. And...I spent many of my trips back and forth to college listening to Barbra Streisand...so Marvin has played a big role in my life. It's an enormous loss...hopefully his music will live on for many more generations.
ReplyDeleteI liked that duet a great deal too! I wasn't that young, but I still unabashedly love the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces it is my ultimate comfort movie.
ReplyDelete