![]() ![]() The Carpenters ushered in the 70s with (They Long to Be) Close to You, 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. The writers always had a soft spot for the UK, probably because so many British-based artists had No 1 hits with their material, including Cilla Black – whose version of Anyone Who Had a Heart was her breakthrough hit – Sandie Shaw, the Walker Brothers and Frankie Vaughan. They wrote film scores for What’s New, Pussycat? and Casino Royale, the theme song for Alfie, and scored the successful Broadway musical Promises, Promises, whose title song provided another hit for Warwick and spun off a chartbuster for Bacharach himself with I’ll Never Fall in Love Again. Throughout the 60s anything Bacharach and David touched became commercial gold dust. One of these songs, I Say a Little Prayer, also gave Aretha Franklin a US Top 10 hit and her biggest solo hit in Britain, where it reached No 4. They wrote and produced 20 American Top 40 hits for her over the ensuing decade, including seven that reached the Top 10. So it proved, and the hits with Warwick became their calling card. Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Then we realised here’s this wonderful singer and we’re using her to make demos – she could be a star!”īurt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick recording at Pye Studios in London, 1964. David recalled: “She said, ‘I thought that was my song!’ We said, ‘No, you just made a demo’. One of them was for Make It Easy on Yourself, which became a big hit for Jerry Butler. She was a member of the Drifters’ backing group, the Gospelaires, and the songwriters invited her to make some demo recordings at their office at the publishers Famous Music, in the Brill Building. Then came Bacharach and David’s historic hook-up with Warwick. Pitney did better still with the duo’s composition Only Love Can Break a Heart, which reached No 2 later that year. Their song (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance, inspired by the John Wayne/ James Stewart western, became a US No 4 hit for Gene Pitney in 1962. By 1961 he was back in New York, and wrote some material for the Drifters, as well as the Chuck Jackson hit Any Day Now before resuming his partnership with David. A cover version by Michael Holliday reached No 1 in the UK the following year, and Perry Como brought them another smash with his recording of Magic Moments, which spent eight weeks at No 1 in Britain.Īfter the breakdown of his marriage (he and Stewart divorced in 1958), Bacharach travelled to Europe to become pianist and bandleader for Marlene Dietrich, a role he would sustain until 1964. Bacharach and David scored their first big commercial coup when the country singer Marty Robbins took their song The Story of My Life into the US Top 20 in 1957. David had been writing hits for such luminaries as Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra since the late 40s. He was fortunate to fall into one of the all-time great songwriting partnerships with David, whom he first met at the New York songwriting beehive, the Brill Building (also to be the home of other renowned songwriting duos including Leiber & Stoller, Goffin & King and Pomus & Shuman). Photograph: Charlie Gillett collections/Redferns via Getty Images One of them was the actor and singer Paula Stewart, whom he married in 1953.īurt Bacharach, left, with Hal David theirs was one of the all-time great songwriting partnerships. ![]() ![]() Back in the US after his discharge, Bacharach worked as piano accompanist to Damone and to numerous other artists on the club circuit. He served in the US army (1950-52), and while acting as a dance band arranger in Germany he met the singer Vic Damone. His ears were opened by the innovative harmonies and melodies of jazz musicians of the day such as Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, and he played with several jazz combos before enrolling in music courses at the Mannes School of Music, New York, and at McGill University in Montreal. At the insistence of his mother, Burt studied the cello, drums and piano. The family moved to Kew Gardens in Queens, New York, when he was a child. The son of Bert Bacharach, a sports star turned nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, and Irma Freeman, an artist and songwriter, Burt was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Bacharach was an Oscar-winner for a third time in 1982, with Arthur’s Theme from the film Arthur. Herb Alpert topped the US chart with the winsome ballad This Guy’s in Love With You, Jackie DeShannon did likewise with What the World Needs Now Is Love, and BJ Thomas was the lucky recipient of Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (which brought Bacharach and David Oscars for best theme song and best original score). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |