They're Playing Our Song
A Memoir
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times bestseller from Grammy and Academy Award–winning songwriter Carole Bayer Sager shares “a delightful and funny tell-all crammed with famous names and famous songs” (Steve Martin), from her fascinating (and sometimes calamitous) relationships to her collaborations with the greatest composers and musical artists of our time.
For five decades, Carole Bayer Sager has been among the most admired and successful songwriters at work, responsible for her lyrical contributions to some of the most popular songs in the English language, including “Nobody Does It Better,” “A Groovy Kind of Love,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” and the theme from the movie Arthur, “The Best That You Can Do” (about getting caught between the moon and New York City).
She has collaborated with (and written for) a dizzying number of stars, including Peter Allen, Ray Charles, Celine Dion, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Clint Eastwood, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Carole King, Melissa Manchester, Reba McEntire, Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand.
But while her professional life was filled with success and fascinating people, her personal life was far more difficult and dramatic. In this memoir that “reads like a candid conversation over a bottle of Mersault on a breezy Bel Air night” (Vanity Fair), Carole Bayer Sager tells the surprisingly frank and darkly humorous story of a woman whose sometimes crippling fears and devastating relationships inspired many of the songs she would ultimately write.
“This exceptionally candid memoir” (Los Angeles Times) will fascinate anyone interested in the craft of songwriting and the joy of collaboration, but They’re Playing Our Song is also a deeply personal account of how love and heartbreak made her the woman, and the writer, she is. “Carole Bayer Sager is simply the finest….and this book is one of the best, most lasting songs she has ever written” (Carly Simon).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sager's daily scene was something most only dream about: celebrity parties and red carpets, decked-out studios, and trips cross-country to create the perfect song. Carole Bayer Sager, known in her circle as "the woman with many names," is a prolific songwriter who's been sought after for decades. In this memoir, its title taken from the Broadway musical that Neil Simon based on her life in the early 1980s with composer Marvin Hamlisch, Sager tenderly illustrates an insider's account of life behind the music. She has hundreds of hits to her credit, including "Don't Cry Out Loud," "That's What Friends Are For," and, more recently, "The Prayer"; her songs are treasured the world over. She recalls her friendship with Elizabeth Taylor and notes that Michael Jackson often called on her to ease his nerves. After Hamlisch, Sager spent a decade of her life, love, and talent with the once-unstoppable composer Burt Bacharach and for the last 20 years has shared her life with studio giant Bob Daly. Underscoring the glitz of her circle are a rich songwriting vocabulary, an emotional well, and an endless need to create. As a girlfriend and wife, she didn't feel she measured up; as a woman, she rarely felt beautiful or thin enough; as a mom, she felt she could be doing more; but as a songwriter, she's always had everything needed to create magical works of music. Sager's writing is comfortably conversational, and her stories are lovingly told.
