Norman Bergen
American musician
Norman Bergen (born 17 May 1945) is an American pianist, arranger, record producer, band leader, musical director, and vocalist. He is known for his work in Broadway productions, hit pop recordings, and disco productions of the 1970s. He co-wrote the standard "Only A Fool Breaks His Own Heart", which has seen international success with more than 60 cover versions.
Biography
Early years
Norman Bergen comes from a musical family. He is the younger son of Pauline and Sam Bergen. The largest item in their small apartment was a baby grand piano which was played by his mother Pauline. His older brother Danny played trumpet. Norman started playing piano at the age of three. Bergen's early influences were the pianists played by New York DJs Alan Freed and Symphony Sid: Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Thelonious Monk, Ramsey Lewis, and Dave Brubeck.
Catskill Mountains
Bergen went on to perform in New York's Catskill Mountains sitting in with his brother's band in 1957.
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This entry incorporates text from “Norman Bergen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.