Carole Bayer Sager

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Carole Bayer Sager is an American lyricist, singer, songwriter, and painter from New York City. She was born Carol Bayer on March 8, 1944, into a Jewish family and studied English, dramatic arts, and speech at New York University.

As a student she co-wrote the pop hit “A Groovy Kind of Love” with Toni Wine. The Mindbenders released the hit version, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart and was later covered by artists like Sonny & Cher and Phil Collins for the film Buster.

Sager began recording her own music in 1977 with the album Carole Bayer Sager, which included “You’re Moving Out Today” (co-written with Bette Midler and Bruce Roberts). The album also featured her takes on songs she wrote for others and went platinum in Japan and Australia. She followed with the 1978 album ...Too and the 1981 album Sometimes Late at Night, which included songs that became popular in later years, and she collaborated with Michael Jackson and Neil Diamond on several tracks.

She wrote many songs with Melissa Manchester and Peter Allen, and worked with Albert Hammond and Bruce Roberts on other hits. With Marvin Hamlisch and Neil Simon, she helped create the Broadway musical They’re Playing Our Song. She also wrote the lyrics to “Nobody Does It Better” for The Spy Who Loved Me.

In the 1980s many songs were written with her then-husband Burt Bacharach. Sager has won major honors, including an Academy Award for Arthur’s Theme, a Grammy Award for Song of the Year for “That’s What Friends Are For,” and Golden Globes for “The Prayer.” She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as receiving the NYU Steinhardt Distinguished Alumni Award and the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Johnny Mercer Award. She was recognized as a BMI Icon in 2022 and published a memoir in 2016.

Personally, Sager has been married three times (Andrew Sager, Burt Bacharach, and Robert Daly) and adopted a son with Bacharach. She is also a visual artist who creates large photorealistic paintings.