Passport to Hollywood

Abstract This chapter begins in 2011, when Legrand sings “Les Moulins de mon cœur” (better known in the English-speaking world by its original title, “The Windmills of Your Mind”) for a scene in a movie. The author then takes us back to 1967–68, the time when the song was born. He describes family life in California, and how much his children loved the sunshine and the lifestyle. He discusses his friendship with Henry Mancini, which opens doors for him in Hollywood, and a young composer whom he meets through Mancini, whose name is John Williams. Finally, he is asked to compose the music for the Steve McQueen movie The Thomas Crown Affair, which at the time is five hours long and an unedited mess. Legrand offers to write the music for the movie first, so that the filmmakers can edit it around his score: a crazy idea that somehow works. He is introduced to a lyric-writing couple, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and together they write “The Windmills of Your Mind,” which briefly makes its singer, Noel Harrison, a superstar. Legrand and the Bergmans become friends and continue writing songs together. Legrand is highly successful in Hollywood but he ends up having a nervous breakdown that almost kills him and deciding that he can no longer live there. He is so depressed on the night that he wins an Oscar for Best Song that he cannot even speak.