Michael Masser

Michael Masser (born Michael William Masser on March 24, 1941 in Chicago), a former stockbroker, is a composer and producer of popular music. He attended the University of Illinois College of Law, but left to pursue his interest in music. Masser and his wife Ogniana live in Palm Desert, California.

Masser's first major composition hit, co-written with Ron Miller, was "Touch Me in the Morning," recorded by Diana Ross. He co-wrote several other hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s, including three made famous by Whitney Houston, "Greatest Love of All," "Didn't We Almost Have It All," and "Saving All My Love for You."

Other hit songs include "Hold Me" (Teddy Pendergrass and Whitney Houston), "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" (Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson), "If Ever You're in My Arms Again" (Peabo Bryson), "In Your Eyes" (Jeffrey Osborne, George Benson), "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You" (George Benson, Glenn Medeiros), "Miss You Like Crazy" (Natalie Cole) and "Someone That I Used To Love" (Natalie Cole), "The Greatest Love of All" (George Benson), "So Sad the Song" (Teddy Pendergrass, Gladys Knight), and "It's My Turn" and "Last Time I Saw Him" (Diana Ross). A country cover of "Last Time I Saw Him" by Dottie West also became a hit, peaking at #8 on the country charts. Masser was nominated for an Academy Award in 1976 for Best Music, Original Song, for "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)," which he wrote with Gerry Goffin. The song had actually been first recorded (also in 1975) by fellow Motown labelmate Thelma Houston as a planned single but was pulled before release so that Diana Ross could release it as a theme song (and single) for her film Mahogany.

Among the many recordings that he has produced are Barbra Streisand's "Someone That I Used to Love" (originally a hit for Natalie Cole) and the duet by Judy Collins and T. G. Sheppard, "Home Again."

In April 1987, songwriter Gordon Lightfoot filed a lawsuit, claiming that Masser's melody for the song "The Greatest Love of All" stole 24 bars from Lightfoot's 1971 hit song "If You Could Read My Mind." The transitional section that begins "I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadow" of the Masser song has the same melody as "I don't know where we went wrong but the feeling's gone, and I just can't get it back" of Lightfoot's song. Lightfoot later stated that he did not want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser.

In 2002, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. Masser was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.