Official Buddy Bregman Website

Songwriters

I have worked with and/or knew the following very well personally. All of them inspired me.

JULE STYNE (worked with and was my uncle - my mother's brother)
ALAN/MARILYN BERGMAN (That Face lyrics for my #1 hit recording with Fred Astaire).
ALAN J. LERNER - FRITZ LOWE - My younger brother Bobby and I spent time with them when they had "backers" auditions for a new Broadway Show entitled "The Day Before Spring" - didn't work but "My Fair Lady" did!
BETTY COMDEN & ADOLPH GREEN - Spent tons of time with them - lots of special family moments as they wrote tons of Broadway Show Scores with my Uncle Jule Styne. Great people and I learned a lot from them. Adolph was incredibly funny whilst Betty was always "quietly elegant". I had such a crush on Phyllis Newman - Adolph's adoring, brilliantly-talented and especially caring wife. She was brilliant on stage in an off-Broadway Musical I first saw her in - and she knew I liked her and I think she also liked me - until she met Adolph - they were "IT" immeditaely - he was always so funny and "loveable" - as was she - especially with only a towel on - in Subways Are For Sleeping - that the "talented threesome" wrote the score for. Especially the big comedy number she did with Orson Bean - I Can't Wait Till I See You With Clothes On - unbelievably fabulously funny - and she looking so gorgeous and attempting to understand where this guy is coming from - totally insanely funny! And even when her "husband to be" performed it in Uncle Jule's living room it was also a riot. Phyllis Newman Green lived with Adolph through the great hit Broadway Shows times as well as when he was also brilliant playing a writer on a TV Show-acting in My Favorite Year with Peter O'Toole and Joe Bologna -- as well as the tough times when Adolph lost his sight. Phyllis was always there for him - and still looks gorgeous!!! I sat with them all during the wedding ceremony when Uncle Jule married My-Aunt-To-Be Margaret Brown - and we had to hold onto each other when Jerome Robbins walked down the aisle with such a solemn look on his face and a Yarmulke on his head holding hands with my wife Suzanne (who is a Christian) and who was Maid of Honor! It was so moving and beautiful until I glanced at Betty Comden and we all almost collapsed in laughter!
BOB MERRILL - Wrote the lyrics to "Funny Girl" - Uncle Jule wrote the music - spent a lot of time with him - and also was a friend of his wife - our mothers were pals - bad ending to his life unfortunately!?!
BOB HILLIARD - Wrote the lyrics for Jule's music on the Broadway Show Hazel Flagg - very strange man to be around and an even stranger wife - looked like the Black Dahlia!
BOB RUSSELL - "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" - wrote the lyrics for Duke Ellington's great music. Spent some wonderful times with him playing baseball when my brother and I were kids and played on The Sinatra Swooners Baseball Team! Sid Caesar used to play against us. While Frank was our Captain.
BOB WELLS (wrote the Christmas Song with Mel Torme' and I worked with him on many many live shows - especially with his wife Lisa Kirk).
BOBBY TROUP - great singer, piano-player and song-writer. Route 66 alone made him a legend - and married to Julie London, another legend. I loved to watch him night-after-night playing in a great bar/restaurant somewhere in LA - and learned so much from him whilst enjoying his performances immensely!
BURT BACHARACH (worked with him when he was Vic Damone's musical director - I did Vic's arrangements for his Night Club/Cabaret shows)
DONALD KAHN & STANLEY STYNE (Beautiful Friendship for Ella Fitzgerald +++)
FRAN LANDSMAN - very funny lady - very talented lady - wrote the ultimate jazz singer's fabulous ballad - "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most" - Kay Ballard introduced it and afterwards became my daughter Tracey's God Mother!
FRANK LOESSER - "Guys & Dolls" - brilliant man - who knew he and Jule would be two of the all-time greatest when they were under contract to Republic pictures writing songs for Roy Rogers and Gene Autry movies! Love his widow Jo Sullivan Loesser - brilliant lady and great singer! Starred in his most incredible Broadway Opera: THE MOST HAPPY FELLA!
FRED ASTAIRE (Very very good friend; also recorded an album with him singing his own songs!)
HAROLD ARLEN (knew through my Uncle Jule) - Strange man with an even stranger wife.
HENRY NEMO - Lyricist for Duke Ellington - wrote "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" plus others with Duke; but "Heart" is THE ONE! Henry's real last name is Bregman and swears we are cousins. Okay, if he wants it to be it is! Funny guy.
HERB NEWMAN & STAN LEBOWSKY ("The Wayward Wind" - my hit record with Gogi Grant)
HERB NEWMAN (lyrics for many recorded songs with my music for Gogi +++)
HUGH MARTIN - Great songwriter ("Trolley Song" for Judy) +++ and wrote a great score for a Broadway Show Uncle Jule produced entitled MAKE A WISH - one of my most treasured CDs - play it at least once a week to get my fix! I also know Hugh and revere his talent and graciousness as a friend. Also wrote the most incredible vocal arrangements for Jule's "Gentleman Prefer Blondes Show".
JERRY HERMAN - fun friend for a few months as I was friendly with his good friend - found him very very charming and funny and self-effacing!
JERRY LIEBER & MIKE STOLLER ("Bazoom: I Need Your Lovin'" - wrote my very first hit record on Capitol with The Cheers)
JIMMY McHUGH (My Hollywood Bowl Concert performing all his music with my orchestrations/conducting The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra of 115 pieces) starring Bobby Darin, Vic Damone, Anna Maria Alberghetti)
JOHNNY MERCER (knew quite well and recorded his songs with many of the artists I arranged/conducted/produced for) Spent many wonderful nights at Margaret Whiting's house when I was going to UCLA - and Johnny would come over almost nightly - to "have a few" as well as rant and rave about certain social issues that are difficult to go into as he was not sober when making the tirades!
LEO ROBIN (Uncle Jule's lyric writer on "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" - lived across the street from each other in Beverly Hills) Worked with Leo on "Ruggles of Red Gap" Bell Telephone Hour - a Broadway Musical written especially for TV - with Jule and Leo writing the score. I was Musical Director/Musical Arranger and also Conductor of the 50-piece NBC Symphony Orchestra as well.
LEW SPENCE ("That Face" - music) Great talent - wonderful guy personally - wrote "Nice 'n Easy" for Frank Sinatra and 10,000 others who also recorded it!
PAUL ANKA (I did the arrangements for his album of French Songs + his own compositions on the album that Quincy Jones and Don Costa produced)
RICHARD ADLER ("Pajama Game": Hired me to do the orchestrations and background score on the Warner bros. Film of the Broadway Show)
RICHARD MALTBY JR. - Met him when I produced "Ain't Misbehavin'" on TV for NBC. Richard directed the original Broadway Show. Talented man. I won an EMMY nomination and the Image Award as Best TV Producer of the Year for my work on the show!
RICHARD RODGERS (worked with re: my "Too Good For The Average Man Off-Broadway Show" I produced/directed; also recorded the Rodgers & Hart Songbook with Ella Fitzgerald)
SAMMY CAHN (very good friend - who also wrote lyrics for Uncle Jule for the songs they wrote for Frank Sinatra)
SIR GEORGE MARTIN (The Beatles world-famous Recording Producer hired me to write the arrangements for British singer Matt Monro - George produced the album)
STANLEY STYNE (my cousin/Jule Styne's son; wrote lyrics for my music in many recordings and films I worked on)
STEPHEN SONDHEIM - Wrote "Gypsy" with Uncle Jule - have had few and far between wonderful moments with Stephen - the most memorable one was opening night in London of "Gypsy" with Angela Landsbury in the lead - I sat between Jule and Stephen; "memorable" is an understatement: I wish I could have recorded the wonderful dialogue between the two of them + Arthur Laurents who wrote the book for the show - priceless moment amongst other priceless ones with Stephen and Jule. Wrote the female lyrics for my recording with Annie Ross of the jazz version of "Gypsy" score for "All I Need is a Girl" - translated (with me scribbling Stephen's incredible new lyrics while cradling the receiver) to "All I Need Is a Boy"!!!