To Absent Friends - Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach

1928-2023

Composer Burt Bacharach died this past week at the age of 94.  In addition to being extremely talented (how's that for an understatement?), Bacharach was handsome and witty, which made him a regular on the talk show circuit in the 1960's and -70's, thus, he was more familiar to the general public than contemporary composers were.  Plus, he was married to Angie Dickinson, and how's that for glamorous?  

There are a handful of songwriters and composers who one can say provided a soundtrack to an Era, the Sixties and Seventies in this case.  Lennon and McCartney, Paul Simon, Brian Wilson for sure, but Burt Bachaharch is certainly among them.  Along with his lyricist partner Hal David, the hits that Bacharach produced are too numerous to list here (many of them sung by the great Dionna Warwick), but let's just throw a few of them out there, in no particular order:

Alfie

The Look of Love

What the the World Needs Now

Do You Know The Way to San Jose

Promises, Promises

I'll Never Fall in Love Again

Walk On By

Always Something there To Remind Me

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head  (He and David won an Oscar for that one)

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.  Also, the orchestrations and arrangements of a Bacharach song are unique and totally recognizable.  A few bars in, and you know that "That is a Burt Bacharach song."

Bacharach won seven Grammys in his career and three Oscars, he was nominated for Tony Awards, and received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

In addition to the Oscar for Original Song, "Raindrops Keep Falling On  My Head" from Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Bacharach won an Oscar for Best Original Score for that same film, and I want to share some of that memorable music with you.  THIS ONE is the music that played over the opening credits.

Then there is the music to the SOUTH AMERICAN GETAWAY sequence.  This clip is a bit lenghty, over 5 minutes long, but worth hearing just to see the full range of what Bacharach did for that fabulous movie.  And like I said earlier, you hear it and just know that "that's Burt Bacharach."

We may never see - or hear - his like again.

RIP Burt Bacharach.

To Absent Friends: Hal David

Lyricist Hal David passed away this week at the age of 91.  If you've never heard of Hal David, perhaps you've heard of his most frequent and famous collaborator, composer Burt Bacharach.  If this is STILL not ringing a bell for you, then be assured that you have heard their work for the music of Bacharach and David provided a soundtrack to America in the 1960's and beyond as surely as did Lennon and McCartney, Paul Simon, Brian Wilson, or Bob Dylan.  

Bacharach and David won an Oscar for the song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", but their work was best interpreted by the great Dionne Warwick.  Trying to pick "the best" or a "favorite" Bacharach/David/Warwick song is almost an impossible task for there were so many of them.  Allow me to leave you with one of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5xHNapTONo

RIP Hal David.