American composer and conductor Marvin Hamlish was born on this day in 1944.  He is one of a handful of people to win the “EGOT” (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards).

Marvin’s first film score was in 1968 for The Swimmer. He also wrote the score for The Way We Were, the theme music to Good Morning America, and the score of the Broadway Musical A Chorus Line. He was also conductor for symphony orchestras in San Diego, Buffalo, Dallas and Pittsburgh. It is obvious to say that he was musically busy.

He may be best known for adapting the music of Scott Joplin for the movie The Sting in 1973.

The Entertainer is a rag that was composed by Scott Joplin, the first classically trained black composer to become a household name in America. The piece was copyrighted December 29, 1902; copies were received by the Copyright Office, January 8, 1903.

Joplin died in April 1917; although his place in the history of contemporary music was already secured, he predicted that he would not receive the recognition he deserved until 25 years after his death. He had no Idea that his music would go on to chart success over 50 years later!

Marvin Hamlisch on adapting Joplin’s tunes for The Sting:

“From the beginning, [director] George Roy Hill’s idea had always been to use the ragtime music of Scott Joplin. I was well aware that there were other musicians who knew the music of Scott Joplin far more intimately than I, men who had popularized Joplin’s famous piano ‘rags.’ But I knew how to write for film, marrying music to the length of each scene, and I could also play the piano ‘rags’ – those Juilliard piano lessons were about to pay off.

The real fun came for me when we started recording the soundtrack. We didn’t have a full-size orchestra, as with The Way We Were, but we had eight or nine great musicians, with yours truly at the keyboard. We spent hours making ragtime; the piano player in me had found a long-lost brother in Scott Joplin.”

Hamlisch’s rendition peaked at #3 on the Hot 100 in May 1974. It hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary charts.

Happy Birthday, Marvin Hamlish!