Carole Bayer Sager (born Carol Bayer on March 8, 1947) is an American lyricist, singer, and songwriter.

[toc heading_levels=”2,3,4,5″]

Early life and career

Bayer Sager was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Anita Nathan Bayer and Eli Bayer. Her family was Jewish. 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. 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, the latter whose rendition for the film Buster reached number one in 1988.

Solo albums

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. 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.

Her final album, 1981’s Sometimes Late at Night, 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 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.

Songwriting

Bayer Sager had many hits during the 1970s. She co-wrote many songs with Melissa Manchester that appeared on Manchester’s solo albums of the period including “Come In From The Rain” and “Midnight Blue” which would go on to be covered by many other artists. She also worked with Australian songwriter Peter Allen crafting hits like “I’d Rather Leave While I’m In Love” and “Don’t Cry Out Loud”. She also scored major hits collaborating with Albert Hammond (“When I Need You”) and Bruce Roberts (“You’re The Only One”).

With Marvin Hamlisch and Neil Simon, she wrote the lyrics for the 1978 stage musical They’re Playing Our Song, which was loosely based on her relationship with Hamlisch. The musical ran for over three years on Broadway. Many of Bayer Sager’s 1980s songs were co-written with her former husband, the composer Burt Bacharach.[6] She executive-produced the eponymous solo album for June Pointer, of The Pointer Sisters, in 1989.

Bayer Sager has won an Academy Award (out of six nominations), a Grammy Award (out of nine nominations), and two Golden Globe Awards (out of seven nominations). She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987. Bayer Sager won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1982 for “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)”, which was the theme song of the movie Arthur.

Bayer Sager received the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1987 for the song “That’s What Friends Are For”, which she co-wrote with Bacharach. This song was originally written for the movie Night Shift (1982), and it was recorded for this movie by Rod Stewart. The song was popularized in a 1986 cover version by Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and Elton John.

Her song with David Foster, “The Prayer”, originally recorded by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli, won the Golden Globe, and is one of few songs to be sung at weddings and funerals alike.

She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Bayer Sager received the New York University Steinhardt Distinguished Alumni award in 2006. She received the 2019 “Johnny Mercer Award” from the Songwriters Hall of Fame during their 50th anniversary induction ceremony. She was the sixth female songwriter to ever be awarded this honor.[9]

She occasionally collaborated with Neil Sedaka, with 11 songs co-written between the two.

Along with Bruce Roberts and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Bayer Sager helped write the song, “Stronger Together”, sung by Jessica Sanchez. The song was played after Hillary Clinton’s speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. The song’s title is named after the slogan that the Clinton campaign used as a show of uniting behind the Democratic nominee. The song was well received, and was praised by celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian.

In 2018, she co-wrote the song “Living in the Moment” for the film Book Club, recorded by Katherine McPhee, as well as two songs on Barbra Streisand’s album Walls: “Better Angels” and “What’s on My Mind”. She contributed lyrics to “GhostTown” on Kanye West’s album Ye.

On April, 2020 Lady Gaga closed out her “One World: Together At Home concert with a new rendition of “The Prayer” performed by Gaga, Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, John Legend and classical piano great Lang Lang. The performance helped raise 127 million dollars for the World Health Organization battling COVID-19 cases in America.

In September 2020, Bayer Sager along with Bette Midler, and Bruce Roberts released an updated version of their hit song ‘You’re Moving Out Today’ in protest of the presidency of Donald Trump.

Personal life

She married record-producer Andrew Sager in 1970, and they divorced in 1978. Bayer Sager was involved in a romantic relationship with composer Marvin Hamlisch in the late 1970s. 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.  Bacharach and Sager divorced in 1991.

Since June 1996, Bayer Sager has been married to Robert Daly, 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), Bayer Sager and her husband live in Los Angeles.

In October 2016, Bayer Sager published her memoir They’re Playing Our Song: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster). She also narrated the audiobook version.