Marvin Hamlisch

You don't get to be the only person other than Richard Rodgers ever to win a GRAMMY®, Emmy®, Tony®, Oscar®, Golden Globe®, and a Pulitzer Prize by being a one-hit wonder. Whether you realize it or not, composer extraordinaire Marvin Hamlisch has worked his way inextricably into your head and heart. How did he do it? By time-traveling Scott Joplin's ragtime piano riffery into the '70s for The Sting's Oscar-endorsed theme, "The Entertainer." By making millions swoon via penning Carly Simon's saucy "Nobody Does It Better" for The Spy Who Loved Me. By giving Barbra Streisand her first #1 hit with the title song from The Way We Were. Hamlisch accomplished all this and plenty more, including composing the soundtrack for Steven Soderbergh's 2009 feature film The Informant!, starring Matt Damon. Be sure to stick around for the rest of the story.

Find out why the ladies love Marvin, in Next Steps.

Anyone with ears can tell you Marvin Hamlisch has a romantic soul and silky, sophisticated style, so it's not surprising that his songs have provided powerful moments for some of pop's most potent women. The Way We Were burned his relationship with Barbra Streisand into history, but by the time of her platinum platter Wet, he was still stoking her flame with lush, luxurious ballads, like "Niagara." Hamlisch shifted seamlessly from his trademark uptown urbanity to sun-and-surf pop, giving Lesley Gore her biggest latter-day hit with the sand-between-your-toes sway of "California Nights." But he's never cut closer to the bone than with the semi-autobiographical show They're Playing Our Song, about his relationship with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager — theater thrush Gemma Craven brings it home with the couple's ode to possibility "I Still Believe In Love."

From passion plays to super spies, take a trip to the movies with Marvin, in Deep Cuts.

Hamlisch has always had a knack for finding the sounds deep inside a movie and crafting just the right kind of musical window to open up and set them free. Besides '70s smashes, like The Sting and The Spy Who Loved Me, he cut straight to the intense emotional core of one of the '80s' most acclaimed films, Sophie's Choice, scoring tender moments like "Stingo and Sophie Together" amid the movie's heart-wrenching upheavals. And if you're Steven Soderbergh in need of the perfect sonic settings for your '09 blockbuster-in-the-making, The Informant!, like the bold, brassy, Lalo Schifrin-worthy "Car Meeting," who are you gonna call? Precisely. And the '00s finds Hamlisch still a theater powerhouse, setting the tough-as-nails film-noir classic Sweet Smell of Success to taut, tart tunes like "Don't Look Now."

It can be exhausting simply listing the accomplishments of Marvin Hamlisch, the man behind the music for — deep inhale — Broadway legends like A Chorus Line and They're Playing Our Song, and monumental movies The Sting, The Way We Were, and The Spy Who Loved Me; the master craftsman whose tunes have taken wing through the voices of Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Peggy Lee, and many more. From A Chorus Line's "One" and "What I Did For Love" to "I Finally Found Someone" — from The Mirror Has Two Faces — Hamlisch has proven that the door didn't slam shut on writing true standards when the Tin Pan Alley era passed. From silver-screen soundtrack glory to pure pop perfection, we've served up the brightest moments of Hamlisch's unparalleled five-decade journey for your listening pleasure.