Carole Bayer Sager
b. 1946, New York City, New York, USA. Sager's career as a hit songwriter stretches over three decades, from the catchy pop of Groovy Kind Of Love to the charity ballad That's What Friends Are For, which has raised over $1m. for AIDS research. She began songwriting in the early '60s while as a student at New York's High School of Music and Art. Sager was talent-spotted by Don Kirshner and signed to his Screen Gems publishing company, with her first big hit coming in 1966 with Groovy Kind Of Love. Co-written by Toni Wine, the song was first recorded by Patti Labelle And The Bluebelles, but it became an international best-seller in the version by the Mindbenders. It was equally successful when revived by Phil Collins for the soundtrack of BUSTER in 1989. In 1970, Sager wrote lyrics for the Broadway musical GEORGY before co-writing Midnight Blue, Melissa Manchester's 1975 US Top 10 hit. Her own recording career had begun on Metromeadia in 1972, and in 1976 Richard Perry produced You're Moving Out Today. Co-written with Bette Midler, it was a UK Top 10 hit on Elektra Records. Even more successful was the dramatic When I Need You, a chart-topper for Leo Sayer on both sides of the Atlantic. 1979 brought a Broadway hit when Sager collaborated with Marvin Hamlisch on They're Playing Our Song, a semi-autobiographical piece about the romantic entanglement of a songwriting team. In 1981, she recorded for CBS, having her biggest US hit with Stronger Than Before. Her most important partnership has turned out to be with Burt Bacharach, with whom Sager wrote the Oscar-winning Arthur's Theme a big hit for Christopher Cross. She subsequently married Bacharach and collaborated with him on That's What Friends Are For, which became a US number 1 hit in 1986 when recorded by Dionne Warwick And Friends. Other notable Sager compositions from the '80s include Nobody Does It Better (the James Bond film theme recorded by Carly Simon) and the Patti Labelle/ Michael McDonald duet On My Own.