Marvin Hamlisch, a Singular Sensation – PPC

Pencils and Pop Culture: Marvin Hamlisch, a Singular Sensation

The music world lost one of its greats this week with the unexpected passing of songwriter, composer and musician Marvin Hamlisch. Once called, “The Fastest Pencil in the Country” in a New Yorker profile due to his ability to compose music quickly and cleanly, Hamlisch passed away after a brief, unspecified illness at just 68 years old. While his name might not be widely known to many modern songwriters and singers, Marvin Hamlisch was responsible for some of pop music’s most iconic ballads, including “The Way We Were,” “Nobody Does it Better” and “Looking Through the Eyes of Love” (the last two were in collaboration with Carole Bayer-Sager).

As a musical theatre composer, Hamlisch was perhaps best known for as the composer of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, “A Chorus Line,” which charts an afternoon in the life of nineteen dancers going through a Broadway audition. Its music and lyrics perfectly captured the fears and hopes of every actor whose ever wondered what the director, sitting in the darkness, must be thinking.

In his  decades-spanning career, Hamlisch worked with virtually every great singer and performer to grace the Broadway stage, from Barbra Streisand to Idina Menzel, Liza Minelli to Bernadette Peters. Of his legendary attention to detail and perfectionist streak, Hamlisch once said, “I think that when NASA works on a moon shot, they know too well that all of the people working on it must do their job at 110 percent. Sometimes they probably put in 18 hour days, but they’re aiming for the moon, and that’s what counts.” It’s poignant that the same week that Marvin Hamlisch passed away, NASA put a rover on Mars, far outstripping any expectations.

With the passing of this legendary composer comes the reminder that talent and inspiration alone aren’t enough to realize your dreams – dedication, hard work, and a whole lot of 18-hour-days get you there as well. Marvin Hamlisch exemplified the best of both, and his genius as a songwriter and a composer will be missed.