If that haunting music in the season finale of "Severance" on Apple TV+ sounded familiar, that's because "The Windmills of Your Mind" has been around for 57 years, won an Oscar and has been recorded by more than 300 artists the world over. Lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, the husband-and-wife duo, wrote "Windmills" with composer Michel Legrand. In a legendary career, they won three Oscars and were finalists another 16 times, not to mention their four Emmys and two Grammys. In the Library's collections, we look at their lyrics sheets and interviews to see how they and Legrand combined to put together "Windmills."
Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin accepted the Library's 2024 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during a tribute concert last night in Washington, as a star-studded lineup saluted them by performing some of their biggest songs. Garth Brooks and Joni Mitchell (both prior Gershwin honorees) performed, as did Annie Lennox, Billy Porter, Brandi Carlile and Charlie Puth.
When the San Francisco Opera debuted “Doctor Atomic,” an opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams based on physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the test of the first atomic bomb, its first lines contained a scientific error. Marvin L. Cohen, president of the American Physical Society, was in the audience and caught it immediately. Here's how he and Adams changed it.
Pop hits, R&B grooves and Broadway anthems thumped through the Coolidge Auditorium Wednesday night as the We Write the Songs concert burst back into life for the first time in four years, featuring songwriters such as Jermaine Dupri, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Madison Love and Matthew West. The 90-minute showcase is an annual event (save for the recent COVID-caused gap) by the Library and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Foundation. It demonstrates to an audience heavy with members of Congress and Capitol Hill staffers, often in danceable fashion, why the rights of creative artists have to be protected.
Danny Elfman has composed or produced scores for more than 100 films, including blockbusters such as “Batman” and “Men in Black.” He’s composed themes for TV hits, as classic as “The Simpsons” and as recent as “Wednesday.” He was at the Library this week to present something more subtle: the world premiere of his latest classical work. “Suite for Chamber Orchestra,” commissioned by the LIbrary, debuted Thursday night at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in D.C. In this interview, he talks about his cinema and classical works, as well as original rock band, Oingo Boingo.
The Library’s Mark Hartsell, in the Communications Office, and Mark Horowitz, in the Music Division, contributed to this post. Burt Bacharach, the elegant songwriter and composer whose lifetime of work the Library honored with the 2012 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, died yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 94. Bacharach’s iconic career stretched for more than …
Lionel Richie smiled, the cameras flashed, the bass thumped, the music soared and the concert celebrating the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song popped back into life two years after COVID-19 shut down much of public life in the nation’s capital.
Lionel Richie, the Alabama-born songwriter with a smooth voice and a deft touch for the romantic ballad, is the 2022 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song honoree.
