Carole Bayer Sager
Carole Bayer Sager (born Carol Bayer on March 8, 1944) is an American lyricist, singer, songwriter,[3] and painter.
Carole Bayer Sager
- Lyricist
- singer
- songwriter
- author
- painter
-
Andrew Sager(m. 1970–1978)
Early life and career[edit]
Carole Bayer was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Anita Nathan Bayer and Eli Bayer.[4] Her family was Jewish.[5] She graduated from New York University, where she majored in English, dramatic arts, and speech. She had already written her first pop hit, "A Groovy Kind of Love", with Toni Wine, while still a student at New York City's High School of Music and Art.[6] It was recorded by the British invasion band The Mindbenders, whose version was a worldwide hit, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. This song was later recorded by Sonny & Cher, Petula Clark, and Phil Collins, whose rendition for the film Buster reached number one on both the UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot 100 in 1988.[3]
Solo albums[edit]
Bayer Sager's first recording as a singer was the 1977 album Carole Bayer Sager, produced by Brooks Arthur. It included the hit single "You're Moving Out Today", a song which she co-wrote with Bette Midler and Bruce Roberts.[7] The single became a 1977 Australian number one single and also reached number 6 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1977. Paul Buckmaster provided horn and string arrangements for the album. The album also included Bayer Sager's versions of two songs previously recorded by Melissa Manchester – "Home to Myself" and the oft-covered "Come in from the Rain". It went platinum in Japan and Australia.
It was followed by ...Too in 1978, also produced by Brooks Arthur, which included all-star cameos by the likes of Michael McDonald, Alice Cooper and Manchester. It also included the first recording of "It's the Falling in Love" which subsequently would be covered by Michael Jackson on his 1979 multi-platinum album Off the Wall.
In 1981, she recorded Sometimes Late at Night, which was co-produced by future husband Burt Bacharach with Brooks Arthur, and included the single "Stronger Than Before", later recorded by Chaka Khan and Dionne Warwick. The song became Bayer Sager's only song to hit Billboard's American Top 40 as a performer, peaking at number 30. The track "Just Friends" featured a vocal cameo from Michael Jackson, who also co-produced the track with Bacharach, while Neil Diamond also co-produced and played guitar on the track "On The Way To The Sky" which he also recorded as the title track of his concurrent album On the Way to the Sky.
Visual Art[edit]
Sager is an accomplished visual artist whose work includes large-scale photorealistic paintings.
Personal life[edit]
She married record-producer Andrew Sager in 1970, and they divorced in 1978.[17] Bayer Sager was involved in a romantic relationship with composer Marvin Hamlisch in the late 1970s.[17] On April 3, 1982, she married composer and pianist Burt Bacharach after over a year's co-habitation: in December 1985 the couple adopted an infant son, whom they named Cristopher Elton Bacharach.[18] Bacharach and Sager divorced in 1991.[19]
Since June 1996, Bayer Sager has been married to Robert Daly,[20] former chairman of Warner Brothers and former chairman / CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, and currently chairman of the American Film Institute (AFI). They live in Los Angeles.[18]
In October 2016, Bayer Sager published her memoir, They're Playing Our Song: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster).[21] She also narrated the audiobook version.
Television