Kenneth Ascher (born October 26, 1944, Washington, D.C.), also known as "Ken" or "Kenny" Ascher, is an American musician (keyboards), songwriter and musical arranger. is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Washington, D.C. (disambiguation). ... “Instrumentalist” redirects here. ... The layout of a typical musical keyboard A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers on a musical instrument which cause the instrument to produce sounds. ... A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. ... In music, an arrangement loosely describes rewriting a piece of pre-existing music for a specific set of instruments or voices, often in harmony or with additional original material. ...

Ascher's work through the years has included keyboard parts and string arrangements on John Lennon's album Walls and Bridges and Yoko Ono's A Story, lyrics to several tunes from Barbra Streisand's remake of A Star Is Born (where he also served as music coordinator), and arrangements for portions of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf's masterpiece, Bat out of Hell (produced by Todd Rundgren). John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980), (born John Winston Lennon, known as John Ono Lennon) was an iconic English 20th century rock and roll songwriter and singer, best known as the founding member of The Beatles. ... Walls and Bridges is an album by John Lennon released in 1974. ... Yoko Ono Lennon (小野 洋子 Ono Yōko), born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese-American artist and musician. ... A Story was recorded in 1974, during the lost weekend sessions in which Lennon produced Mind Games. ... Barbra Streisand (pronounced STRY-sand, IPA: ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, theatre and film actress, composer, liberal political activist, film producer and director. ... Video cover showing Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand The 1976 version, helmed by Frank Pierson and starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, updated the story by bringing it into the rock era. ... Jim Steinman (born November 1, 1947 in New York City, New York)[1] is a record producer, composer, and lyricist responsible for several hit songs. ... This article is about the singer. ... This article describes the album by Meat Loaf. ... Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, USA), is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. ...

Ascher is also notable for his many songs cowritten with singer-songwriter and actor Paul Williams, including "The Rainbow Connection", sung by Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Movie. Ascher's own rendition of the song was featured in the closing credits of The Break-Up (starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston). Ascher also plays keyboard for the Birdland Big Band, the house band for the Birdland jazz club in New York City. The term singer-songwriter refers to performers who both write and sing their own material. ... Paul Hamilton Williams (born September 19, 1940, in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American composer, songwriter, and actor. ... The Rainbow Connection is a popular song written by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher and originally performed by Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) in The Muppet Movie in 1979. ... Kermit singing Bein Green in the first season of Sesame Street. ... The Muppet Movie is the first of a series of live-action musical feature films starring Jim Hensons Muppets. ... The Break-Up is a Universal Pictures film that was released on June 2, 2006. ... Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American film actor. ... Jennifer Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning American film and television actress, best known for her role as Rachel Green in the popular television sitcom Friends. ...