here’s a summary of the provided text about Bergman:
Alan Bergman began his career as a TV producer in Philadelphia before moving to California in the 1950s at the urging of his partner, Mercer. He described their songwriting process as a “pitching and catching” of ideas, with Bergman preferring to write lyrics to pre-existing music. He believed their job was to “find” the words at the “tips of those notes.”
Their early success included the song “Yellow Bird,” but their major breakthrough came with Frank Sinatra’s 1960 album “Nice ‘n’ Easy.” They later collaborated with Quincy Jones on “In the Heat of the Night” in 1967.
The Bergmans achieved important recognition, winning their first Academy Award for “The Windmills of Your Mind” in 1968. They received another Oscar in 1974 for “The Way We Were” and a Grammy for Song of the Year in 1975. In 1983, they were the first songwriters to have three nominated songs in the same year, and they won a third Oscar in 1985 for “Yentl.”
Barbra Streisand became a close friend and a frequent interpreter of their music, recording over 50 of their songs and releasing a tribute album. Bergman expressed his admiration for Streisand’s ability to “deepen” their songs and find surprising nuances.
The couple also won Emmys for their work on TV movies “Queen of the Stardust ballroom” and “Sybil,” and also for the song “Ordinary Miracles” from a Streisand special. They married in 1958 and had one daughter. Bergman expressed his enduring love for songwriting.
