Who Am I? April 2018

I was born in NYC and raised in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Dad was a publisher and mom a singer. Our family had a summer home in Stamford, CT. Among our neighbors was a legendary baseball player. My mom, Andrea, became a close friend of his wife .My siblings, me, and their kids all became close friends. We went on picnics, attended ball games and had sleepovers at one another’s houses. I attended Sarah Lawrence but never graduated because I decided to pursue a musical career. 

At first I sang with my sister. We found jobs as a folk duo performing at coffee houses and such. Sis decided to get married and so I embarked on a solo career. In the early ‘70’s I wrote a song and cut a record about a haughty guy whose identity became a matter of conjecture for decades. 1977 was a good year for me too because I wrote a song that was chosen for a Hollywood movie theme. The year after that I was in your neighborhood when I performed in concert at Bergen Community College in Paramus. I’m pretty sure some of you might have come out to see me. 

At one time I was married to a fellow singer-songwriter who was pretty famous in his own right. I have had an amazing musical career that has earned me entry in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame. I’ve earned an Academy Award and a Golden Globes Award. I am also credited with writing several children’s books.

That’s me holding my favorite doll in the picture below. (1a)Who Am I? (1b)What was the name of our famous ballplayer neighbor? (2)Who is the enigmatic haughty person I wrote one of my first hits about? What was the name of that song? (3)Who was my singer-songwriter husband? (4)What is “Aja” to me and how did Aja get its name? (5)What was the first movie theme I wrote? In what film did it appear?