The Songwriters Hall of Fame announced today that Carole Bayer Sager will be the 2019 recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award at its 50 th induction and awards dinner on June 13 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York.
The award, the hall’s highest honor, is reserved for a songwriter or songwriting team who has already been inducted in a prior year, and whose body of work is deemed “of such high quality and impact that it upholds the gold standard set by the legendary Johnny Mercer,” according to the announcement. Bayer Sager was inducted into the hall in 1987.
Inductees at this year’s event include Dallas Austin, Missy Elliott, Tom T. Hall, John Prine, Jack Tempchin and Yusuf / Cat Stevens. Veteran music publisher Martin Bandier will be receiving the Visionary Leadership Award, with more honorees to be announced.
SHOF Chairman Nile Rodgers said, “If you are going to be the honored recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award you better be one of the greatest lyricists of all time. From ‘Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)’ to ‘When I Need You’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ to ‘That’s What Friends Are For’, ‘Groovy Kind Of Love’, ‘Nobody Does It Better’ and so many more, the incomparable Carole Bayer Sager has been a powerful female voice that has made the world a gentler and more beautiful place.”
Bayer Sager, a Grammy and Academy Award–winner, has contributed lyrics to songs including “Nobody Does It Better,” “A Groovy Kind of Love,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” the Oscar-winning theme from the movie Arthur, “The Best That You Can Do,” and “That’s What Friends Are For,” which raised over two million dollars for AIDS research. She has collaborated with (and written for) Burt Bacharach (to whom she was married for a decade), Ray Charles, Celine Dion, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Hamlisch, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Carole King, Reba McEntire, Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand, among others.