Carole Bayer Sager

Carole Bayer Sager (born March 8, 1944, Brooklyn, New York, United States) is an American lyricist, songwriter and singer.

She had already co-written her first pop hit, "A Groovy Kind of Love", with Toni Wine, while still a student at the New York City High School of Music and Art. It was recorded by the British invasion band The Mindbenders, whose version was a worldwide hit, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100). The song was subsequently recorded by Sonny & Cher, Petula Clark, and Phil Collins, whose rendition for the film Buster hit #1 in 1988.

Her first recording as a singer was the 1977 album Carole Bayer Sager, which included the #1 international single "You're Moving Out Today", a song which she co-wrote with Bette Midler. (Paul Buckmaster provided horn and string arrangements for the album.) The album went platinum in Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. It was followed by ...Too in 1978 and a third and last album, co-produced by Burt Bacharach, entitled Sometimes Late at Night (1981), which included a top 30 hit single "Stronger Than Before", later recorded by Dionne Warwick and Chaka Khan.

Many of Sager's early songs were co-written with her former husband, composer Bacharach. She has also collaborated with Neil Diamond, Marvin Hamlisch, Michael Masser, Peter Allen, Melissa Manchester, Sheena Easton, Bruce Roberts, Neil Sedaka, David Foster, Albert Hammond, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Michael McDonald, James Ingram, Donald Fagen, Babyface and Clint Eastwood (for the film True Crime).

Sager has won an Oscar (six nominations), a Grammy (nine nominations), two Golden Globe (seven nominations). She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987. Sager won the Academy Award for Best Song in 1981 for "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)", the theme song from the film Arthur. She shared the award with co-writers Peter Allen, Burt Bacharach, and Christopher Cross.

Sager received the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1987 for "That's What Friends Are For", which she co-wrote with Bacharach. The song was originally written for the 1982 film Night Shift and was recorded for the movie by Rod Stewart. The song was honored for its 1986 cover version by Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and Elton John, which became a number one hit, raising millions of dollars for AIDS research.