Sager, Carole Bayer (8th March 1947-Present)

She is a singer-songwriter, lyricist and painter born in Manhattan, New York, who was attending New York City High School of Music and Art when she co-wrote her first hit with Archies songstress Toni Wine, “A Groovy Kind of Love”, which Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders took to #2 on the Billboard pop chart.

It was only the beginning of an illustrious, award-winning career. In the 1970s, Sager teamed up with Melissa Manchester and co-wrote “Midnight Blue” and “Don’t Cry Out Loud”. She also wrote “Through the Eyes of Love” which Manchester recorded for the 1978 film Ice Castles.

A year earlier, Sager recorded her eponymous debut album and it yielded her a solo hit entitled “You’re Moving Out Today” which went to #1 in several countries. The album itself was also an international success, going platinum in Australia, Germany, Japan and the U.K. Burt Bacharach co-produced her follow-up … Too in 1978 and Sometimes Late At Night in 1981. That same year, they pooled their songwriting talents, along with Peter Allen and Christopher Cross, to produce the Oscar-winning “Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do)”.

A year later, Bacharach and Sager tied the knot. This literal songwriting marriage produced a couple of blockbuster hits. The prophetically titled “On My Own”, recorded by Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald, went to #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary, pop, and R&B charts, an unprecedented trifecta.

In 1987, Bacharach and Sager raised AIDS awareness by resurrecting an old song of theirs called “That’s What Friends Are For” and having it recorded by Elton John, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Stevie Wonder. (It was originally recorded in 1982 by Rod Stewart for the Michael Keaton break-out hit Night Shift.) The Grammy-winning song raised over two million dollars for the American Foundation For AIDS Research.

Four years later, Bacharach and Sager were divorced. In 1996, she re-wed to ex-Dodgers and Warner Brothers chairman Robert Daly. The two of them continue to be civically active as co-chairs of L.A.’s DonorsChoose Advisory Board, a not-for-profit organization that allows peer-to-peer philanthropy to benefit local schools. Sager’s philanthropic efforts do not stop there. She has helped raise moneys for the Neil Bogart Children’s Cancer Research Labs in L.A., volunteered her songwriting talents to Elizabeth Glaser’s Pediatric AIDS charity, and donates her time to “Spirituality for Kids”, a group dedicated to helping inner-city children.

Sager has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987.

Diana Ross recordings
It’s My Turn (Michael Masser/Carole Bayer Sager)

Sources:

Sager, Carole Bayer (8th March 1947-Present)

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