Where do I begin?

We bade a sad adieu to another of the all-time great composers this week - M Francis Lai, the man who composed hits for (among many others) Edith Piaf, Engelbert Humperdinck, Perry Como, Petula Clark, Yves Montand, Johnny Hallyday, Françoise Hardy, Charles Aznavour and Nana Mouskouri; wrote scores for blockbuster moves and also for soft porn (notably Emmanuelle); and worked with an esoteric mix of the great and the good, including Roger Vadim, Elton John, Michael Winner, Bryan Forbes, Peter Hall and Alan Delon.

And here, for your delectation, is a soupçon of his prodigious output...

Mireille Mathieu - Un homme et une femme

Yves Montand - La Bicyclette

Carly Simon - Hard To Be Tender

Zizi Jeanmaire - Je me champs élyse

Shirley Bassey - (Where Do I Begin?) Love Story

RIP Francis Albert Lai (26th April 1932 - 7th November 2018)

There's some kind of magic inside

Marvin Hamlisch, the multi-talented, multi-award-winning composer of The Way We Were, One (Singular Sensation), What I Did For Love and dozens of other songs for the likes of Babs, Liza, Leslie Gore and Aretha Franklin; the mastermind behind glitzy shows such as Liza With a Z and A Chorus Line; and orchestrator of music for Bond movies and other mega-hits such as The Sting and Sophie's Choice (and much, much more), has died at 68 after a short illness.

A very sad and sudden loss indeed.

Here's Miss Carly Simon with a fitting tribute...

Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better

RIP

Marvin Hamlisch obituary

Read my blog on the occasion of his birthday in 2010