In Memoriam

Marvin Hamlisch, 1944-2012

By August 7, 2012No Comments

Bananas

Woody Allen and the empty string quar­tet in Bananas, 1971; one of Hamlisch’s most rauc­ous, inspired, out-there scores. 

In terms of ver­sat­il­ity, melod­ic sense, eru­di­tion, and humor, no one could touch him, really.

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No Comments

  • Owain Wilson says:
    August 7, 2012 at 11:07 am

    What a ter­rible shame.
    Mr Hamlisch com­posed my favour­ite Bond title song, Nobody Does It Better, which is also my favour­ite song of all time. He cap­tured Roger Moore’s par­tic­u­lar screen pres­ence and charm with that one song. Very clev­er man. Plus, his score for The Spy Who Loved Me is prop­er bonkers, just like the film itself. Perfect, in oth­er words.
    You men­tion the humour in his music, Glenn. I imme­di­ately thought of his score for The Informant!, and in par­tic­u­lar the scene where the FBI raid Matt Damon’s work­place. The cue for this scene is inspired. The track is called The Raid and it’s on YouTube. Give it a listen, folks.

  • Petey says:
    August 7, 2012 at 11:11 am

    Huh. Peering over the filmo­graphy, I did­n’t real­ize The Informant!. May be a good excuse to re-watch.
    (Didn’t real­ize The Swimmer either.)

  • lazarus says:
    August 7, 2012 at 12:10 pm

    Our loc­al NPR sta­tion ran an inter­view with Hamlisch not too long ago, and he singled out his work in Bananas as being among his favor­ites, feel­ing it was often over­looked by people talk­ing about his credits.
    Also, I recently fin­ished read­ing the Groucho Marx bio­graphy Hello, I Must Be Going, and Hamlisch fea­tures prom­in­ently in there, hav­ing been Groucho’s accom­pan­ist for a while, and fre­quent vis­it­or to his home. Came off like a thought­ful guy.

  • E.W. Swackhamer says:
    August 7, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    Still can­’t believe he had a three-way with Kay Lenz and Sybil Danning in Arthur Hiller’s jac­uzzi in front of the likes of David Janssen, Elmer Bernstein, and Stanley Donen. Supposedly he was killing it. Sybil Danning took a nap on a chaise lounge afterwards.

  • lipranzer says:
    August 7, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    I was a per­form­ing arts geek in high school, being in music­al theat­er, band, and, my seni­or year, mad­rig­al choir, and in all of them, got to either per­form or hear (mostly the lat­ter) songs from “A Chorus Line”, which remains today my favor­ite work involving Hamlisch (“Nobody Does it Better” and the score for BANANAS being a close second).
    Lazarus, accord­ing to a com­ment on the New York Times obit, Groucho used to intro­duce Hamlisch as the best musi­cian he ever worked with.

  • Petey says:
    August 7, 2012 at 1:30 pm

    “Groucho used to intro­duce Hamlisch as the best musi­cian he ever worked with.”
    Makes sense for why Woody decided to start his fea­ture career using him before he got more DIY.

  • Jonathan H. says:
    August 7, 2012 at 4:27 pm

    Here’s Marvin with Cindy Garvey who left ball­play­er Steve to be with the maestro:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/marvin-hamlisch-composer-of-a-chorus-line-and-the-sting-dies/2012/08/07/7482b356-e09a-11e1-a19c-fcfa365396c8_gallery.html#photo=5
    Love his work on THE SWIMMER, made all the more impress­ive by the fact that he was in his early 20s and still in, or barely out of, music school when he did it.