BURT BACHARACH TRIBUTE
(May 12, 1928 – February 8,
2023)
Burt Bacharach was
born in Kansas City in 1928 but
his parents relocated to New York
when he was still a child. He
took piano and 'cello lessons but
his heart was not in classical
music: he listened to jazz
musicians like Dizzy Gillespie
and Charlie Parker and became
hooked. He served in the US Army
in the 1950s and on return to
civilian life began to study
music under the French composer
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974).
From 1957 to 1962
he was Marlene Dietrich's Musical
Director. At the same time he
rented an office in New York's
legendary Brill Building and it
was there that he met lyricist
Hal David (1921-2012). So began a
creative partnership almost
unequalled in American popular
music history, yielding over 20
Top Ten hits in a single decade,
despite their rhythmic and
harmonic complexity. Their first
collaboration produced The
Story Of My Life in 1957, a
hit for Marty Robbins in the US
and Michael Holliday in the UK;
this was closely followed by Magic
Moments, which was in fact
on the B side of Perry Como's Catch
A Falling Star (not one of
their compositions).
In 1961 Bacharach
came across Dionne Warwick, then
working as a backing singer for
various artists. He and Hal David
took her under their wing and
composed a succession of hit
songs for her, starting with Don't
Make Me Over (1962). This
was followed by Anyone Who
Had A Heart (1963), Walk
On By and A House Is Not
A Home (1964), Message
To Michael (1966), I Say
A Little Prayer For You and Alfie
(1967). It's no secret that
Dionne Warwick was upset by Cilla
Black's cover version of the
latter, which performed better in
the UK charts. 1968 saw Do
You Know The Way To San Jose?
become yet another chart success
for the Bacharach/David/Warwick
team.
Many of their
songs were recorded by other
artists: The Walker Brothers (Make
It Easy On Yourself), Gene
Pitney (The Man Who Shot
Liberty Valance), Dusty
Springfield (The Look Of Love),
Jack Jones (Wives And Lovers),
Tom Jones (What’s New
Pussycat?) and B.J. Thomas (Raindrops
Keep Falling On My Head).
Bacharach and David broke new
territory in 1968 with music and
lyrics for a show called Promises,
Promises (book by Neil
Simon). The show's standout song,
written at the eleventh hour just
before it opened on Broadway, was
I’ll Never Fall In Love
Again. Five years later they
moved to Hollywood and began work
on the score for a musical remake
of the classic 1937 Frank Capra
film Lost Horizon,
featuring a cast of non-singers
such as Peter Finch and Liv
Ullman. The composers'
relationship on this project
became strained to such an extent
that Hal David walked away and
Dionne Warwick began legal
proceedings against Bacharach for
failing to produce fresh material
for her to record.
In due course
things were patched up but the
partnership was never the same.
Bacharach however continued to
appear in concert and together
with Carole Bayer Sager, who
became the third of his four
wives, wrote Best That You
Can Do for the 1981 hit
Dudley Moore film Arthur.
One of his final collaborations
was with the British songwriter
Elvis Costello.
Burt Bacharach
died in February 2023 aged 95.
His music will remain in
copyright until 31st December
2093.
© Anthony
Wills, 23.02.23
To say that Burt
Bacharach was arguably the most
significant popular song composer
of his generation is probably to
understate the case. Few –
if any – others can claim to
have produced such a large
catalogue of hits, or worked with
as many top performers as he did.
The winning combination of
Bacharach's music and David's
lyrics was unbeatable – Ed.
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