Hollywood On 52nd Street
What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? is a song with lyrics written by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman and original music written by Michel Legrand for the 1969 film The Happy Ending. The song was nominated for an Academy Award For Best Original Song but lost out to Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.
Alan Bergman would recall that after Michel Legrand had written eight melodies that were somehow not viable for the film, Marilyn Bergman suggested the opening line “What are you doing the rest of your life?”, and Legrand then completed the song’s melody based on that phrase.
Marilyn Bergman would later comment on the double meaning of the phrase “What are you doing the rest of your life?” within its parent film: as the romantic theme song’s title the question overtly references the marriage proposal Mary Spencer (played by Jean Simmons) received and accepted sixteen years earlier but, as Mary’s present-day angst becomes apparent, “What are you doing the rest of your life?” is recast as a question Mary must ask herself.
What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? was sung in The Happy Ending by Michael Dees whose version was included on the film’s soundtrack album.
The Story
1953: Through the course of a Colorado autumn and winter, Mary Spencer (Simmons) and Fred Wilson (Forsythe) lead an idyllic existence. Mary drops out of college (with 6 months to go) to marry Fred. Their perfect wedding mirrors the happy endings of the films Mary loves. However, there are no fairytale happy endings and sixteen years later Mary is off to find her happiness, leaving behind her husband and daughter, which she eventually does despite her mother and her husband’s pleas.
