The Monkees, seen on the back of this 1966 record cover, were formed as a fictitious television band, but became one of the most successful pop music groups of the 1960s.
It started with the Charlie McCarthy doll, then it went to poems, then it went to songs. I always felt better when I was expressing myself. There was no fear it was the one lane that was left completely free. When I was writing, everything was okay with the world. She’d call all the time and say, “So? What’s happening? Any parties? Any notables? Did you meet any notables?” Bob Daly, my husband, used to say to her, “Anita, the people we meet aren’t notables. And so songwriting, in many ways, saved my life because it gave me a life.Īs my success grew, the once-critical mother became the proud mother. I think that was the extension into writing songs and having other people sing them, because the songs could say things for me that I might not say directly. Even then, the dummy was saying things for me that I couldn’t say for myself. I would happily pick up my Charlie McCarthy dummy and perform. My parents used to ask me to perform for their friends when we stayed in the Beach Colony in Rockaway, Long Island, and Far Rockaway. When I was very small, I had a ventriloquist act. But he was the more passive parent and hid behind the newspaper if my mother was in a rage. To my father, there was nothing I could do that didn’t please him, and he just saw sunshine when he saw me. Aside from being a loving mother, she was a critical mother. I think some of it was a result of my mom, who I love, because I wouldn’t be here today and be who I am were it not for her, being who she was. I mean, just about everything frightened me. Charlie McCarthy and his human, the ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, got their start on radio in 1936, then had success in other media through the 1970s.īut I was a very frightened child. I think the first musical they ever took me to see was Pajama Game. My early life was very informed by musicals because I grew up in New York City and my mom was a fan of musical theater, as was my dad. She was sort of a combination of Gypsy, from the musical Gypsy, and Auntie Mame, from that musical. This narrative is excerpted from an interview with the National Museum of American History, September 28, 2017. Carole Bayer Sager is a lyricist, singer, and songwriter her songs have been recorded by such artists as Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, Celine Dion, and Reba McEntire, among others.
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