What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? is a 1969 show tunes song written for the film The Happy Ending, with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman and music by Michel Legrand. It was performed by Michael Dees on the movie’s soundtrack, The Happy Ending, released December 21, 1969. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards but lost to Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head. Marilyn Bergman suggested the opening line that inspired Legrand to write the melody, and the phrase carries a double meaning in the film as the heroine faces love and life decisions. The tune has been covered by artists such as Sarah Vaughan on the 1972 album Sarah Vaughan with Michel Legrand (which won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist), Barbra Streisand (a 1969 promotional single later released on The Way We Were, 1974), and Frank Sinatra on Some Nice Things I’ve Missed (1974); a later Chris Botti and Sting version on To Love Again (2005) won the Grammy for Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist.
