Anyone here is capable of WRITE (melody & lyric) a song or two, but I believe very few of us here really KNOW how to accomplish that without copying from the mass out there (I've seen quite a few of them)
Composer Marvin Hamlisch dies at 68 in Los Angeles
By CHRIS TALBOTT | Associated Press – 31 minutes ago.
Marvin Hamlisch, who composed the scores for dozens of movies including "The Way We Were" and the Broadway smash "A Chorus Line," has died in Los Angeles. He was 68.
Family spokesman Jason Lee said Hamlisch collapsed and died Monday after a brief illness. Other details were not released.
Hamlisch's career included composing, conducting and arranging music from Broadway to Hollywood, from symphonies to R&B hits. He won every major award in his career, including three Academy Awards, four Emmys, four Grammys, a Tony and three Golden Globes.
His music colored some of film and Broadway's most important works.
Hamlisch composed more than 40 film scores, including "Sophie's Choice," ''Ordinary People" and "Take the Money and Run." He won his third Oscar for his adaptation of Scott Joplin's music for "The Sting." His latest work came for Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!"
On Broadway, Hamlisch received both a Tony and the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for the long-running favorite "A Chorus Line" and wrote the music for "The Goodbye Girl" and "Sweet Smell of Success." He was scheduled to fly to Nashville, Tenn., this week to see a production of his musical "The Nutty Professor," according to his publicist.
The Julliard School of Music graduate even reached into the pop world, writing the No. 1 R&B hit "Break It to Me Gently" with Carole Bayer Sager for Aretha Franklin. He won the 1974 Grammys for best new artist and song of the year, "The Way We Were," performed by Barbra Streisand.
That ballad exemplified Hamlisch's old-fashioned appeal — it was a big, sentimental movie ballad that brought huge success in the rock era. He was extremely versatile, able to write for stage and screen, for soundtracks ranging from Woody Allen comedies to a somber drama like "Ordinary People."
Hamlisch also had a place in popular culture. Known for his nerdy look, complete with thick eyeglasses, that image was sealed on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" during Gilda Radner's "Nerd" sketches. Radner, playing Lisa Loopner, would swoon over Hamlisch.
Hamlisch was principal pops conductor for symphony orchestras in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Dallas, Pasadena, Seattle and San Diego at the time of his death. He was to be announced to the same position with the Philadelphia Orchestra and also was due to lead the New York Philharmonic during its upcoming New Year's Eve concert.
Here's the digest of his 68 years into a 26 minutes of "Getting to know him" if you may;
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