Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach, the acclaimed composer and songwriter behind dozens of mellow pop hits from the 1950s to the 1980s, including "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My ...

His collaborations with the lyricist Hal David — “The Look of Love,” “Walk On By,” “Alfie” and many more hits — evoked a sleek era of airy romance.

[Marty Robbins’s “The Story of My Life”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrHZCmVQnNA) and [Perry Como’s “Magic Moments.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ_hWTuSYSk) Mr. [“God Give Me Strength”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLwyvIf-TmA) for the 1996 film “Grace of My Heart,” loosely based on the life of Carole King. [“On My Own”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-SQRJbtMqs) and the AIDS fund-raising anthem [“That’s What Friends Are For,”](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=that%27s+what+friends+are+for+dionne+warwick) which went on to win the Grammy for song of the year. Warwick in the pop-soul balladeer Luther Vandross, whose lush 1980s remakes of [“A House Is Not a Home”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGib6okEeZ4) and [“Anyone Who Had a Heart”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlrhuppiCcg) transformed them into dreamy quasi-operatic arias decorated with florid gospel melismas. Hilliard) and [“Make It Easy on Yourself”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvuk9KddXb8) (lyrics by Mr. [“Mexican Divorce”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UwQjkmQ5KM) and [“Please Stay,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iY2UpSz9Vs) two songs he wrote with the lyricist Bob Hilliard. And the Bacharach-David team conquered Broadway in December 1968 with [“Promises, Promises.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNwOVUFec-E&list=PL7BF367F005988986) [“The Look of Love”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf1d65OHYXo) (Dusty Springfield’s sultry 1967 hit, featured in the movie “Casino Royale”), [“This Guy’s in Love With You”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppYnbbu1OmA) (a No. [title song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpKAnp5Klzw) and the folk-pop ballad [“I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzQBOBoPg04) and was nominated for seven Tony Awards. His original score for the 1969 film [“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK7nbdW23KY&list=PLf10VA90zVAreb5bqHEM3W3ztRXw3ulpW) which included “Raindrops” (a No. [“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sySlY1XKlhM) written with Mr. [“Don’t Make Me Over”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEgxuE7WD6U) in 1962, the team turned out a steady stream of hits for Ms.

Over his career, he scored 73 Top 40 hits in the US and 52 in the UK, working with artists including Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Barbara ...

I was caught in the drift of things," he later reflected. what a loss to the songwriting world and to all of us— DavidGArnold (@DavidGArnold) I was very fortunate." "His observation was: Never be ashamed of something that's melodic, one could whistle," Bacharach recalled. After graduating from school, he studied music theory and composition. It was a pleasure to have known you." "I wasn't chasing it. It was a "very costly and unfortunate" dispute, Bacharach told the Guardian in 2019, adding: "I stupidly handled it wrong." His songs will live forever," he added. [Dave Davies said](https://twitter.com/davedavieskinks/status/1623707915763720193) Bacharach was "probably one of the most influential songwriters of our time" and "a great inspiration". one of the greatest songwriters of all time who found the finest lyricists to match his elegant ,sophisticated , beguiling , intensely beautiful melodic and harmonic skill . [The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson](https://twitter.com/BrianWilsonLive/status/1623720764372402179) said he was "a hero of mine and very influential on my work", adding: "He was a giant in the music business.

"Walk on By” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” among greatest hits.

Bacharach liked to experiment with time signatures and arrangements, such as having two pianists play on “Walk on By”, their performances just slightly out of sync to give the song “a jagged kind of feeling”, he wrote in his memoir. “I didn’t want to write with Hal or anybody,” he told the AP in 2004. During each performance, she would introduce him in grand style: “I would like you to meet the man, he’s my arranger, he’s my accompanist, he’s my conductor, and I wish I could say he’s my composer. He wrote his first song at McGill and listened for months to Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song”. He reached a new generation of listeners in the 1990s with the help of Costello and others. He was drafted into the Army in the late 1940s and was still on active duty during the Korean War. When a friend who had been touring with Marlene Dietrich was unable to make a show in Las Vegas, he asked Bacharach to step in. After his discharge, he returned to New York and tried to break into the music business. He once played a piece for piano, violin and oboe for Milhaud that contained a melody he was ashamed to have written, as 12-point atonal music was in vogue at the time. He was a perfectionist who took three weeks to write “Alfie” and might spend hours tweaking a single chord. In his life, and in his music, he stood apart. He grew up on jazz and classical music and had little taste for rock when he was breaking into the business in the 1950s.

Composer Burt Bacharach, whose hits such as 'Do You Know the Way to San Jose' and 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' provided a mellow alternative ...

Asked what it was like to work with a lyricist 60 years his junior, he said age "only has a part if you've lost your edge, your sharpness or your writing. The pair performed a Tiny Desk (home) concert for National Public Radio in September 2020 with Bacharach on piano from his home in Los Angeles and Tashian singing from his garage in Nashville. They had a son, Christopher, in 1986 and divorced in 1991. I'd hear rhymes, I'd hear thoughts and I'd hear it almost immediately." I'd hear his melodies and I'd hear lyrics. His songs, many written in a 16-year collaboration with lyricist Hal David, were neither rock nor strictly pop.

Songwriter whose hits, including I Say a Little Prayer and Walk On By, became classics of easy-listening pop.

He continued to tour past his 90th birthday, with [concerts in the UK](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/08/burt-bacharach-review-masterclass-in-melody-by-pop-maverick), US and Europe in 2018 and [2019](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jul/17/burt-bacharach-review-hammersmith-apollo-london-joss-stone). His autobiography, [Anyone Who Had a Heart: My Life and Music](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/21/burt-bacharach-anyone-heart-review), was published in 2013, and in 2015 he performed at the [Glastonbury festival](https://www.theguardian.com/music/glastonbury). In 1997, an all-star cast including Costello, Warwick, [Chrissie Hynde](https://www.theguardian.com/music/chrissie-hynde), [Sheryl Crow](https://www.theguardian.com/music/sheryl-crow) and [Luther Vandross](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jul/04/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries2) banded together at the Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, for a serenade of Bacharach’s songs called One Amazing Night, and the Rhino label issued The Look of Love, a three-disc compilation of his music. In 1986, Bacharach enjoyed one of his best ever years, achieving two US No 1s with [That’s What Friends Are for](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1iXlyRa47A), recorded by Warwick with [Elton John](https://www.theguardian.com/music/elton-john), [Gladys Knight](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/02/gladys-knight-review-a-masterclass-in-enduring-talent) and [Stevie Wonder](https://www.theguardian.com/music/steviewonder) as a charitable fundraiser for Aids, and the Patti LaBelle/Michael McDonald recording of the lachrymose [On My Own](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsH63qJlIMM). [Cilla Black](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/aug/02/cilla-black) – whose version of [Anyone Who Had a Heart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUxn6JLwdDY) was her breakthrough hit – [Sandie Shaw](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/may/29/sandie-shaw-this-much-i-know), the Walker Brothers and [Frankie Vaughan](https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/sep/18/guardianobituaries). In 1995 he co-wrote [God Give Me Strength](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLwyvIf-TmA) with [Elvis Costello](https://www.theguardian.com/music/elviscostello) for Allison Anders’ film about the Brill Building era, Grace of My Heart, and this resulted in the Costello-Bacharach album Painted from Memory (1998). [Mike Myers’s](https://www.theguardian.com/film/mike-myers) 60s-spoofing Austin Powers films. [Aretha Franklin](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/16/aretha-franklin-obituary) a US Top 10 hit and [her biggest solo hit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8y0onSG3kg) in Britain, where it reached No 4. [The Carpenters](https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2017/aug/02/the-carpenters-10-of-the-best) ushered in the 70s with [(They Long to Be) Close to You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT86AoSGEL8), a US No 1 which also reached No 6 in the UK, but although Bacharach’s 1971 album (called just Burt Bacharach) became a sought-after collector’s item, the decade would prove disappointing. A cover version by Michael Holliday reached No 1 in the UK the following year, and [Perry Como](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/may/14/guardianobituaries) brought them another smash with his recording of [Magic Moments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ND3oghPL5M), which spent eight weeks at No 1 in Britain. [Tom Jones](https://www.theguardian.com/music/tom-jones) never particularly liked [What’s New, Pussycat?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQvIAs-nPSo), the Oscar-nominated theme from the 1965 film of the same name, but acknowledged its enduring popularity. Bacharach was an Oscar-winner for a third time in 1982, with [Arthur’s Theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOBHXxiZyZM) from the film Arthur.

Along with lyricist Hal David, he created hits for Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and Dionne Warwick among many others, as well as numerous movie themes. Here is ...

We've saved the best Bacharach track, according to Spotify's algorithm, for last. "I thought, I'm going to punch the [stuffing] out of it on What's New Pussycat," said Jones. I have to have a voice of authority.'" This desperately heartfelt and horn-filled break-up ballad, written by Bacharach and David, gave Dusty Springfield a number three hit in the UK in the summer of 1964. Written by Bacharach, Luther Dixon and Mack David about surrendering to the powers of love (despite your mates trying to warn you off the idea), this was recorded and released by girl group The Shirelles in 1961, giving them a number eight hit in the US. One of Warwick's best-loved songs peaked at number six in the US in 1964, giving her a second international million-seller, following Anyone Who Had A Heart. "And Burt said, 'That's what I want. Nominated for an Oscar in 1966 for best original song, this was the theme for the comedy film of the same name starring Peter Sellers and Peter O'Toole. It tells the story of a woman thinking of a partner who is on his way to the Vietnam War. A young Cher reworked the track as the theme song of the 1966 movie of the same name, starring Michael Caine, and it was also sung, with chart success, by Warwick. It was later covered in the UK by Cilla Black, whose version turned out to be one of the biggest female chart hits in 1960s, staying at number one for three weeks. Its appeal continued through to the 1980s, when it was famously chosen to advertise Quality Street sweets; the '90s, when British pop group Erasure cut a version; and the 2000s, when it featured in the hit movie Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

You need to hear only a few bars of a Bacharach song to sense his singular gift.

Henry](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/05/are-all-short-stories-o-henry-stories) story, “The Gift of the Magi.” Congratulating him on his body of work, one sensed a just detectable wince at hearing his sixties music praised all over again, in the predictable way of such things. Whereas Irving Berlin and [Paul McCartney](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/paul-mccartney-doesnt-really-want-to-stop-the-show) are fountains of music of many kinds, a smaller group make music that sounds like that of no one else on earth. “Painted from Memory” and “This House Is Empty Now” and the haunting “In the Darkest Place” will live on as recordings. [Ishtar](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/elaine-may-talks-about-ishtar),” it has never had a rescue operation attempted on its behalf—remained the singular painful trauma in Bacharach’s career. David and Bacharach, with Warwick as an incidental casualty, broke apart in 1973 with the car-crash production of a single Hollywood film. (One of his early songs, “Baby, It’s You,” made a memorable appearance in

He was dubbed 'easy listening' but this was nonsense. His dazzling music, a result of classical tuition and nights in bebop clubs, defied categories – and ...

It’s a state of affairs that’s true today, and a state of affairs that seems unlikely ever to change. He first had hits in the 1950s, Magic Moments among them, but it was as the 1960s dawned, and his partnership with David blossomed that his career ignited. They started writing one impermeable classic after another – to the songs already mentioned you can add The Look of Love, I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself, Wives and Lovers, I Say a Little Prayer, (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me, Make It Easy on Yourself and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again among umpteen others. But in reality, the easy listening label was lazy to the point of being nonsensical, not least because – as any musician will tell you – Bacharach’s songs were seldom easy. He made music that was genuinely sui generis: rock bands could record his songs, so could mum-friendly crooners, so could soul singers and jazz musicians. Listen to Herb Alpert’s version of This Guy’s in Love With You.

Bacharach died of natural causes at his home in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday with his family by his side. His songs, many written in a 16-year ...

Bacharach and David were responsible for a string of hits that included Dusty Springfield's "The Look of Love" for the movie "Casino Royale" and Herb Alpert's "This Guy's in Love With You," their first No. In 2007, his only child with Angie Dickinson, daughter Nikki, committed suicide at the age of 40 after a lifetime struggling with autism. The pair broke up in 1973 after a rare failure - the remake of the Frank Capra movie "Lost Horizon." You get a reaction from an audience that makes you feel good." Later, he worked clubs in New York and became pianist-arranger for singers such as Marlene Dietrich, Vic Damone, the Ames Brothers, Polly Bergen and Paula Stewart, who became his first wife. Bacharach's "Alfie" for the Michael Caine movie of the same name was a hit for Cilla Black and Tom Jones sang his title tune for Woody Allen's "What's New Pussycat?" Asked what it was like to work with a lyricist 60 years his junior, he said age "only has a part if you've lost your edge, your sharpness or your writing. when this lockdown happened," Bachrach said in an interview after the concert shown on YouTube. The pair performed a Tiny Desk (home) concert for National Public Radio in September 2020 with Bacharach on piano from his home in Los Angeles and Tashian singing from his garage in Nashville. They had a son, Christopher, in 1986 and divorced in 1991. His songs, many written in a 16-year collaboration with lyricist Hal David, were neither rock nor strictly pop. Bacharach wrote more than 500 songs, many featuring a tinkling piano and subtly seductive horn hooks.

Recording with Hal David, Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin, the late songwriter's discog includes some of the best pop songs ever written.

Proof that Bacharach’s melodies were strong enough to be carried even by people who couldn’t really sing came when the trumpeter Herb Alpert sighed his way through This Guy’s in Love With You – and sounded perfectly suited to it, like someone wandering through a park in the afternoon sun, unable to believe his good fortune. The next three might be the best pop songs ever written, and in the case of this one, Bacharach and David were definitely served by having Aretha Franklin sing it (if Warwick was the pair’s definitive interpreter, she couldn’t get near Franklin on I Say a Little Prayer). First recorded by the actor Richard Chamberlain in 1963, but brought to perfection in 1970 by the Carpenters, Close to You highlights one of Bacharach’s preferred tricks – an instrumental melody line that’s jaunty and melancholy.

Pop composer Burt Bacharach died on Feb. 8, 2023, at the age of 94. He left a legacy of classic songs beloved by generations.

The breakdown of their successful musical partnership saw Bacharach lose interest in writing music for a spell, and affected his relationship with Warwick. You may have noticed the sheer number – and range – of artists Bacharach worked with. It speaks to the quality and endurance of his output. The show contained a number of songs that topped the charts, most notably Warwick’s version of the show-stopping “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.” In the hands of Isaac Hayes, the sweet refrains of “Walk on By” becomes a psychedelic funk classic. Bacharach met David in 1957 in the storied [Brill Building](https://www.history-of-rock.com/brill_building.htm) in New York City – a place where a young songwriter could perhaps catch a break. The songs were so well written that they could easily be reworked into different genres, and break the confines of “easy listening” – a genre often maligned as unhip. This was eventually resolved with her recording of one of Bacharach’s most memorable songs, 1985’s “That’s What Friends are For,” written with his then-wife, Carole Bayer Sager. They also stood apart from other notable songwriting partners of the age – Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, for example – in that the songs were written for others to perform. The 1968 show “Promises, Promises” was groundbreaking in its [immense innovation in popular music](https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/culture/music/the-evolution-of-music-the-music-revolution-of-the-1960s) – Bacharach may not have been taken as seriously as many of his contemporaries. Bacharach also won the Oscar for best original score.

Bacharach forged a new sonic landscape, one that felt sophisticated but not alienating, accessible but not stupid.

(Also see: “One Less Bell to Answer,” “A House Is Not a Home,” “Walk on By”…) I had turned to it often in moments of indefinite unease. It’s a plaintive one, about a love that only seems to justify itself when no one else is looking (“They don’t know that in between the heartaches, you hold me here in your arms and say you love me…”). That morning, apropos of nothing but the vaguely sad Thursday feeling of wishing it were Friday, I’d had the urge to hear “In Between the Heartaches,” the ballad that opened Dionne Warwick’s 1965 album Here I Am.

And while he is incredibly well known for hits like “Walk on By” by Dionne Warwick and “I Say A Little Prayer,” which was first recorded by Warwick and then ...

This one is both critically acclaimed and beloved. While it may not be one of his most famous songs, it was consequential in that it was during the recording session he met a young backup singer named Dionne Warwick. This song which tells the tale of a couple post a heartbreaking split, was a smash after it was released in 1986.

Did anybody claim that when George Gershwin or Cole Porter died? Reading some of what's been written about Bacharach over the past day, you'd think he carpooled ...

I want the listener to be not be loving it for five days and then not be loving it because they get beat up. I don’t do anything to make it hard for the listener. “So Hal David wrote all the lyrics first, and then I wrote the music. They sat by the pool and talked, had a family dinner (wine and crab legs) cooked by Jane, Bacharach’s wife since 1993. Bacharach had an outward ease about him, a suave breeziness befitting someone who won Grammys, Oscars, an Emmy, the Gershwin Award for Popular Song, which he and Hal David received in 2012. We chatted about Fauci and face masks, his bedtime (late) but soon got to the heart of the conversation. “Those lyrics were going to have to say what was going on in that motion picture, without giving everything away,” he said. The box documents the collaboration that began with 1996’s “God Give Me Strength” — [my own interaction with Bacharach in 2020](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/qanda-with-burt-bacharach-how-the-92-year-old-composer-has-kept-working-during-the-pandemic/2020/10/08/dea735f2-07f3-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_13) when he agreed to do his first Instagram Live on The Washington Post show I hosted during the pandemic. Reading some of what’s been written about Bacharach over the past day, you’d think he carpooled to Muzak headquarters with Mitch Miller and Seals and Crofts. After we talked on the phone Thursday about Bacharach, songwriter and producer Daniel Tashian texted me a homemade video showing the two working on a new song in Bacharach’s living room. They talked only two weeks ago to discuss keys for a pair of new songs.

Elvis Costello, at the opening of his 10-night stand in New York the day after Burt Bacharach died, performed three of his longtime friend's songs.

Even when he first recorded “Baby, It’s You” with Lowe in the ’80s, Costello was no johnny-come-lately to the work of Bacharach. Look here also for a coming conversation with Costello about why he settled on doing a no-repeats run at the Gramercy where upwards of 200 different songs will be performed over the next two weeks. But in hindsight, the Bacharach-David team ranks high in the pantheon of pop songwriting.”) He covered three songs that Bacharach had hits with as a songwriter in the 1960s, with the promise of getting to some of the many songs they wrote together later in the run. “I read an extraordinary and, I have to say, not tremendously insightful article in the New York Times… He stretched that to include a few songs others had written prior to that date, including a couple by Van Morrison.

In a tribute to longtime collaborator Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello sang "Baby, It's You," "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and “Please Stay” during his Gramercy ...

“I can’t wait to share our entire story with the world on March 3rd.” He recorded Yeah, [but] it’s never time to say goodbye to somebody if you love ’em. And people say, when somebody leaves you who’s a great age, they say, well, it was a good ending. And I’m not ashamed to say I did love this man. [four-CD box set](https://variety.com/2023/music/news/elvis-costello-burt-bacharach-boxed-set-collaborations-songs-1235483711/) [ “The Songs of Bacharach and Costello” in March,](https://variety.com/2023/music/news/elvis-costello-burt-bacharach-boxed-set-collaborations-songs-1235483711/) highlighting the musicians’ decades-long oeuvre and friendship.

Elvis Costello paid tribute to his longtime friend and collaborator Burt Bacharach Thursday following the songwriter's death at the age of 94.

Never would I have imagined that my admiration for him would grow into a 25-year collaboration and friendship,” Costello tweeted of the collaboration in January. These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner.” “We will, of course, be delving into the songbook that Burt and I assembled over 30 years,” Costello said. Bacharach died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles. And when somebody reached a great age, people say, ‘Well, it was a good ending.’ Yeah, it’s never time to say goodbye to somebody if you love them. “A really great man left us yesterday.

Elvis Costello paid tribute to his late friend and musical partner Burt Bacharach with three poignant covers during his New York show on Thursday.

And I’m not ashamed to say I did love this man. it’s never time to say goodbye to somebody if you love ‘em. [Elvis Costello](https://www.billboard.com/artist/elvis-costello/) kicked off his 10-night series at New York’s Gramercy Theatre on Thursday night (Feb 9) by paying paid tribute to his dear friend and collaborator [Burt Bacharach](https://www.billboard.com/artist/298548/burt-bacharach/chart) a day after the beloved [pop](https://www.billboard.com/t/pop/) composer [passed away at 94](https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/burt-bacharach-dead-pop-composer-lyricist-dies-7333151/) due to natural causes.

Costello played the Bacharach songs “Baby, It's You” and “Anyone Who Had a Heart”

[The Songs of Bacharach & Costello](https://pitchfork.com/news/elvis-costello-and-burt-bacharach-announce-new-box-set/), a box set collecting their collaborative material through the years. Bacharach [died](https://pitchfork.com/news/burt-bacharach-master-tunesmith-dies-at-94/) at his home in Los Angeles on February 8, and Costello took a moment to pay tribute to the songwriter as part of the first performance of [his 10-night residency](https://pitchfork.com/news/elvis-costello-details-10-night-residency-in-new-york-city/) at New York’s Gramercy Theater. It was later recorded by the Beatles and featured on their debut album, Please Please Me, in 1963.

Bacharach's career spanned seven decades and was noted for his collaborations with Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones and many others.

Bacharach penned more than 70 Top 40 hits - among them, "I Say A Little Prayer," "Walk On By" and "What The World Needs Now Is Love." Burt Bacharach, one of the world's most accomplished songwriters, has died. His career spanned seven decades and was noted for his collaborations with Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones and the Carpenters, among many others.