OPO: Burt Bacharach

great brass arrangement, an untouchable melody skating over unpredictable chord changes, breezily sung by someone who can sing.

Just remembered Issac Hayes Walk On By - hmmm fight brewing.

next time i'm in a trough of despond it'll go back to being "I just don't know what to do with myself" though.

I'm actually going to go for 'Something Big' by Jim O'Rourke on 'Eureka' - I'd never heard the song before I got this rec, the lyrics are really funny + clever and totally fit the mood of the alb, I like the backing singers being so upfront in the mix, and because it's done without irony or kitsch...

"I gotta moan now, aaaooommmmmmmmm"

But my choice is "Bond Street". It's the quintessential 60s lounge-pop instrumental. There are many great versions, including the proto bootleg version by Japanese outfit Les 5-4-3-2-1 (which combines the tune with the accompaniment of Stereolab's "Ping Pong"). But the Enoch Light version on Spaced Out is still my favourite, such a great arrangement. Blew my mind, as they say, first time I heard it pumped out loud in extreme stereo at a gig.

i went through a period nearly 10 years ago and i was watching todd haynes' superstar (as referenced in the GOO thread) at a friend's house and the opening moments karen carpenter is in the shower singing along with dionne on the radio and agnes, karen's mom, yells at her and it's the moment when karen gets convinced that not only is she a fantastic drummer but also a great singer.

best line is when richard whines "i'm losing my drummer..."
it's so sad yet funny.

I also have a real soft spot for "Walk On By". Though the Dionne version is sublime, I think I would go with the Isaac Hayes version. It just sounds so haunted and wracked with regret.

I'd never even heard of Lou Johnson before getting the box set a couple of years ago. He recorded the definitive versions of a few Bacharach/David songs and then seemed to vanish into obscurity. I've tried getting hold of any other stuff by him with no joy.

Particularly love this one for the way he glides over the strings on the verses and the "I'll never love another" shoo-de-bop bit at the end.

Perry Como, Childness and Cheapness: some thoughts

As performed by the Shirelles or by Smith: but Smith, being a late 60s early 70s harder edged band gets the nod. Awesome gutsy performance on vocals by (damned if I can google her name) and a hot organist playing some simmering licks. Plus they were a one hit wonder with this song. Their version changed Bacharach's arrangement much like Vanilla Fudge changed Holland/Dozier/Holland's You Keep Me Hanging On.

64 versions of "what the world needs now is love"
!!!

T'was Gayle McCormick. She had a minor solo charter two years later with "It's a Cryin' Shame."

Back to thread, my pick is the Walker Brothers' "Make It Easy on Yourself." Gives me chills every single time.

Anyway, my first choice woulda been Love's "My Little Red Book", but apparently Burt himself hated that version. So I'll go with Dionne Warwick's "Anyone Who Had A Heart" - love those convoluted twists and turns.

Also gotta give love to Herb Alpert's "This Guy" and "Casino Royale." So super-killer when the maracas up the rhythmic potency on the last chorus repeat.

Finally, I love BB's own "Hasbrook Heights." It seems that Bacharach's vocals give rise to more controversy among lovers of "good voices" than even Dylan's, but I like them. He's so mellow and friendly on this one, fits the weekend-squire theme perfectly.

But he's wrong about Love.

The first two and a half discs of this --

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000DGR0.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1115937910_.jpg

-- are just mind-blowingly good.

"Send My Picture To Scranton, PA"
"Twenty-four Hours from Tulsa"
"Do You Know The Way To San Jose?"

...and that FUCKED-UP monotone sax solo

Seconded but actually... no... I think I'll pick the Dionne version. A classic tune

Didn't realize "This Guy's In Love With You" was a great song until I heard Marshall Crenshaw play it Saturday night. Before he sang it, he told a story about how he used to torment his younger brother for having the single when they were kids.

The White Stripes did a thundering version of "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself"

I'm a huge fan of the box Hip-O-Select put out of his solo releases. Those records are treasure troves of prime-era Bacharach.

god i love burt bacharach

I should also mention:

Bacharach's first post-Hal solo record, Futures in 1977, is quite the mindfuck. Operatic in places, unbearably gushy in others, it seems like every one of the tracks is about getting old, relationships ending and feeling like the music industry is passing him by. It's pretty bleak and depressing, but some of the arrangements are fascinating. Plus, it has this cover:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre600/e666/e66623nbljf.jpg

saw him play on friday! was really nice. wish he could still sing though. :(

What a random-ass tour schedule this is:

Sept. 27 Denver, CO (Boettcher Concert Hall)
Sept. 28 Phoenix, AZ (Orpheum Theatre)
Oct. 2 Rama, Ontario, Canada (Casino Rama Entertainment Centre)
Oct. 3 Montreal, Quebec, Canada (St-Jean Baptiste Church)
Oct. 5 Utica, NY (Stanley Theatre)
Oct. 26 Milan, Italy (Teatro Degli Arcimboldi)
Oct. 27 Florence, Italy (Teatro Verdi)
Oct. 28 Rome, Italy (Auditorium di via della Concilia)
Nov. 13 Newport News, VA (Ferguson Center for the Arts)

Come & Get Me by Jackie DeShannon
I love the chorus of this. She sounds heartbreaking.

only picked one commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBLMbJnN69c

Best Halloween song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCtcgI4BcIQ

Lovecraftian horror version of same. IE, a ten hour edit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lulfRjHFrDo

Over the last month, I've taken to using this song to wake my eight year-old daughter up for school.

Sometimes it feels like it takes ten hours.

90 today!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBLMbJnN69c

going to a movie
only makes me sad
parties
make me feel as bad
(cuz i'm not w you)
i just don't know what to do.

^otm

Perhaps "Make It Easy On Yourself", but the Jackie Trent rendition. That particular orchestral arrangement is somehow more affecting than the Walker Brothers'

Cool interview: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-ol-patt-morrison-burt-bacharach-school-shootings-20180925-htmlstory.html

RIP.

Burt Bacharach, the composer and Oscar winner who delighted millions with the quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies of "Walk on By," "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and dozens of other hits, has died at 94. https://t.co/YaOIjozgSr

— The Associated Press (@AP) February 9, 2023

ugh. a true legend, we'll never see his like again.

Can anyone tell me the relationship between what he did and Brian Wilson? Which came first? Were they fans of one another? Where did that style of Baroque, complex, weird pop come from?

tin pan alley

Beach Boys covered "Walk On By". I think it's fair to say Brian was a big fan.

This is sad. But a long, greatly fulfilled life.

I think Elvis Costello is about to release a new edition of PAINTED FROM MEMORY, which I have always liked more than any other later EC.

I have long thought of Bacharach as one of the absolute greats of pop, and I'm glad that, with another ilx poster, I was able to see him play in concert.

xpost For sure. But I always understood Brian to be a sort of self-made, untrained savant, whereas Burt was formally trained. Did Brian hear Burt and say, wow, I want to do that, how do I do that, and force himself into that mold/mode?

I gotta say, Warwick was up for any melodic challenge that Bacharach offered her. The first time I did last night after watching the new doc was put on one of her comps and -- well, my god. As fruitful and fulfilling as any artist/producer combination you can think of.

time = thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmEgxqSnHXQ

always loved 'the dells sing dionne warwick's greatest hits,' some inspired arrangements of burt's best tunes in there

Anyway, here's my OPO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMDMODdfr7w

speaking of brian wilson and burt bacharach, there are clear traces of "are you there" that made their way into "let's go away for a while"

I think it was you, Soto, that pointed out the shocking ease with which Warwick navigates all that weirdness. That shit is hard to sing. Heard "Promises, Promises" recently, and it's like Sondheim.

R.I.P.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56E2gHwdKvk

alfred that was the first song i played when i heard the news too.

RIP

My actual OPO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZWWuJ7Ept8

what a career and body of work, RIP

Burt: It all stays in the same time signature.
Dionne: I don't believe you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv62rtEdVAk

Good comment from Neil Kulkarni:

One of the first things that bought me, Sarah Laughton, Michael John Fitzgerald and Jon Moonbear together in our current Moonbears formation was rehearsing and playing Burt Bacharach songs for a BB night in Coventry. We quickly learned how deceptive these songs were - we’d all sung them our whole lives but learning the structures and the rhythms that went into these elemental high points of pop was tough - what we all rapidly realised is that like an actor doing Shakespeare you don’t have To - in fact you explicitly shouldn’t - DO anything to a Bacharach song. It’s all there, in those melodies, in those lines, they’re songs but they’re also spells that speak in a grown up way about love and loss and longing, songs that miraculously seem to pipe West Coast width and sun and sky into every cell whenever you hear them or play them. RIPower to one of the very very greatest to ever write pop songs, and thank you for letting us Moonbears come together as 4 acting as 1 xxxx

Dionne: I don't believe you.

Re that part about "those lines": so many of those tunes have little horn or percussion hooks and, if those goes missing, it just doesn't sound right, so almost all versions will have them as well.

May have been pointed out elsewhere: Carole King's birthday today, so apropos.

(Should be a national holiday henceforth.)

He had an amazingly long life but I'm still very emotional about this.

I had dinner with him once. He was around-enough and old-enough and Hollywood-enough to have been hanging out with Stravinsky. Told a lot of amazing stories about Bernard Herrmann. Was excited about his granddaughter's horsebackriding pursuits. He did an amazing tour ten years ago, with three touring vocal interpreters (Burt did sing two songs himself, which was always my favourite thing). He was so wonderfully gracious in everything he did and this is very sad.

labelle & mcdonald's "on my own" has always been a guilty pleasure for me, but i never had any idea that it was a bacharach/sager composition!

Nothing guilty about that pleasure!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3RlIjj8l-Q

sybil "don't make me over"

r.i.p.

Sad news. The Dionne Warwick Collection is usually my go-to album when I want to hear Bacharach. So many great songs.

A song I haven't seen mentioned is "Through the Eye of a Needle" by Cliff Richard.
It's an obscurity but it's one of my favourite Bacharach/David songs. Beautifully chilly.
It was written for Cliff, one of three Bacharach/David songs he recorded in New York in 1964.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3xpvLppihs

Dionne Warwick - Check Out Time

Part of me agrees with Alfred re OPO. But here's an alternate one that I've been foisting on people since about the time of the big BB poll. The Youtube commenters are still almost the only evidence I've seen that anyone else digs it much, however!

love love love “check out time”

Agreed, I discovered “Check Out Time” on The Look of Love box. It’s one of biggest orchestras he scored for IIRC.

That rehearsal session for “Loneliness Remebers What Happiness Forgets” is absolutely incredible.

Ninety-four is great. But I’m really going to miss him.

discovered “check out time” thanks to one tupac shakur

jk that’s a different song

Beach Boys covered "Walk On By". I think it's fair to say Brian was a big fan.

This is not a knock on Burt Bacharach, believe me, just an observation connected to something I'm always interested in. I had a period of music today with some Grade 6s, so I played parts of a few Bacharach songs. Pulled out all the stops: "Walk on By," Aretha's "Say a Little Prayer," "What the World Needs Now," "Close To You," "Raindrops," "This Guy's in Love with You." Except for the Aretha (a TV performance from '74), they just went about their work and didn't seem to react. Often students do engage with older music I play for them, but maybe those songs really are locked away in some other world. Which is fine by me.

There was an FB post from Brian (and his people but still probably really Brian) about what a fan he was.

Burt’s transition is like losing a family member. These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner. On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run ins, but

— Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) February 9, 2023

always found a way to let each other know our family, like roots, were the most important part of our relationship. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, letting them know he is now peacefully resting and I too will miss him.

— Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) February 9, 2023

pic.twitter.com/oJ3xmbcvDY

— Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) February 9, 2023

Elvis Costello started his ten-show residency tonight at the Gramercy Theatre ("100 songs across 100 nights"), and the evening's setlist was planned around the beginning of his career, but he made time to pay a beautiful tribute to Bacharach. Given Bacharach's age and accomplishments and how well he had lived, Costello mentioned that he saw quite a few people say it was a great time to go, but disagreed saying, "it's never a great time to say goodbye when you love someone, and I'm not afraid to say that I loved that man." He then performed "Baby It's You" on acoustic guitar (which he covered on record with Nick Lowe in the '80s), then later performed "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and then during the encore, sat behind the piano and played a gorgeous arrangement of "Please Stay." When the show finished, he led the audience into singing along to the first few lines of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" as they played Jackie DeShannon's recording. (Earlier, he took the New York Times to task for publishing an obituary that had numerous sloppy errors. The most egregious was calling Bacharach an "apolitical" songwriter when had written a song like "What the World Needs Now Is Love." I'll also add the obituary incorrectly claimed that Bacharach appeared in Austin Powers to perform that song - they played an excerpt of the record in the first movie when Myers is catching up on world events via archival news footage, but Bacharach didn't actually appear until the second movie when he played a completely different song, accompanying Costello.)

typo: "100 songs across 10 nights"

He's in the first one--played it today for the same class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3RlIjj8l-Q

Alec Cumming of the Rhino Box Set is doing a tribute right now on WPKN.

https://wpkn.org/listen-live/

xxp Thanks clemenza - now *I* stand corrected!

Now we have to fact check your EC report; in fact you were at home scrounging the dark web and had to make an excuse.

Ah you got me. I was eating mustard packets at home while fabricating details around what I gathered from setlist.fm.

Video (not mine obviously)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00YyqUAZG3k

I love the person nearby who hadn't realized he died!

Haven’t clicked on the video, is it from tonight?

It is indeed.

FWIW, I've been going to his shows since 2011 and it's too bad I didn't go this time because then I could say it might have the best one I've ever seen, so much that I would've bought tickets to more shows had I been more confident that it was going to be this good.

I trust you mean Elvis. Burt had to cancel all his dates.

Who else would he mean?

Sorry to bust in here like Bruce Thomas at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and make trouble.

Bless Costello for keeping him busy in his later years, God Give Me Strength is just tremendous, for anyone, nevermind pushing 70, does anyone know what he got up to post Painted from Memory?

Also had no idea he co-wrote On My Own, unbelievable, what a treasure, songwriting MVP fuck off to beautiful music heaven Burt Bacharach

He’s up there in the green room right now being stared out from behind a potted plant à la Laugh-In’s Arte Johnson by Tom Verlaine.

I'm confused - did poster 'birdistheword' go to see EC?

I'm very touched to hear of EC's tribute to BB.

Bacharach & Verlaine would have been a good collaboration.

Watched EC's video. His spirit when talking is classic EC, but his singing is possibly the worst I have ever heard from EC.

Bacharach & Verlaine would have been a good collaboration.

What do you get when you fall
When you fall
Into the arms of the Venus de Milo

Take a message to Richard

birdistheword is actually Elvis Costello

No way, his posting style is way too concise.

Where's all the "clever" wordplay from birdistheword?

Yes, exactly.

Bless Costello for keeping him busy in his later years, God Give Me Strength is just tremendous, for anyone, nevermind pushing 70, does anyone know what he got up to post Painted from Memory?

Also had no idea he co-wrote On My Own, unbelievable, what a treasure, songwriting MVP fuck off to beautiful music heaven Burt Bacharach

I don't really share the view that the first track towers over the rest of PAINTED FROM MEMORY. I think the best song may be 'the sweetest punch'. Extraordinary. But I think the whole LP is pretty even in quality.

re: what BB did later, he released AT THIS TIME, which I looked at in a record shop but never bought. My recollection is that it included attacks on the (very bad) US government of the time; one or two collaborations with Costello; a song with the promising title 'Go Ask Shakespeare'. I rather wish I'd bought it now and got to know it.

“Go Ask Shakespeare”? Sung by Rufus Wainwright? Heard it for the first time last night on the radio tribute by Alec Cumming. Pretty good!

The Look of Love box is still probably the best way to listen to Burt and one of the greatest boxed sets ever produced.

^^This. In the foreword, the producer mentions that the project started out as a 1-disc hits package that grew into a double-disc anthology and finally the three-disc set we know and love simply because they keep finding more and more songs to include. It's a fine capper to the whole Bacharach renaissance of the time, formed through Loungecore and up through films like Austin Powers, Grace of My Heart (which is where "God Give Me Strength" came from), and My Best Friend's Wedding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c74BSImG4xM

Here I am - Isley meets Bacharach from 2003 sounds good . Ron Isley, Burt, and an orchestra take on Bacharach/ David classics

Absolutely love the Isley record.

anyone have a favorite set of burt singing his own songs?

https://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/374639/snap-crackle-pop-with-alec-cumming-fill-in-for-ed-flynn-t

anyone have a favorite set of burt singing his own songs?

I haven't found a full set, just little dribbles here and there. "Something Big" is so beautiful

otm, "something big" is glorious

Yep. By his own admission, he was never a good singer of his songs – one reason he only would sing a song or two on his solo releases and usually with a lot of vocal assistance from background singers. But some are charming – Something Big, Hasbrook Heights. The few verses he sings on Lost Horizon from Living Together are pretty terrific.

For instance, the other day I came across this version of him performing A House Is Not a Home at 92 – as positively decrepit as his voice sounds, it’s not actually much different than it was in 1967 when he sang it on Reach Out! But the whole of the performance is actually incredible nonetheless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4mOEADryLg

Literally DJing a warmup Bacharach tribute set right now. Feels so good.

Pieces from Carole King:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/10/carole-king-burt-bacharach-songwriting/

And Diane Warren:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-02-10/diane-warren-on-burt-bacharach

From Beck:

One of my favorite things of recent years was getting the occasional phone call from Burt Bacharach. His name would pop up on my phone and it always felt like I was getting a call from the President (President of Songwriting). He always checked in and I feel lucky for the conversations and hangs we got to have. What a master of songwriting and a generous soul— you will be missed! Take care Burt and thank you for the music. 🤍

Lost Horizon may have been a bust but this is the business:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tms_sZio5-4

I'd forgotten about this but it's def another side of the coin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZualTksF8A

Truly top shelf content in these last two posts.

If you look at the “Written by Burt Bacharach” playlist on Spotify, you’ll notice that roughly 40% of the tracks there are hip-hop tracks from the last 15 to 20 years. Almost all of which, if not all, simply feature samples of his music. And a bunch of them are sampling Isaac Hayes’ version of “Walk on By.” The guy must have positively cleaned up the last few decades of his life on these royalties alone.

Anyway here are a few others:

An early and kind of wild one haunted by a ghostly soprano from 1957 for Johnny Mathis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-419Uxp1uoM

And this one is Burt shepherding Jackie DeShannon to pioneer Liz Frasier’s vocal stylings in 1966: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn1dMgluoiY

James Redd, did you ever recreate my big playlist for Spotify?

No, never found the time, sorry.

Good/sad timing here (per the mailout I got about this, this was in the works for a while and was about to be announced anyway):

https://realgonemusic.com/collections/upcoming/products/dionne-warwick-the-complete-scepter-singles-1962-1973-3cd-set

...More importantly, Warwick, Bacharach, and David brought a new level of sophistication to popular music…and by doing so, created some of the most indelible recordings of all time. However, despite its brilliance and lasting influence, there has never been a collection at music retail that truly captured this incredible body of work…until now. The Complete Scepter Singles 1962-1973 offers the A and B-side of every single Dionne cut for the Scepter label (with the bonus inclusion of her single for Musicor featuring the hit “Only Love Can Break a Heart”), all original, (mostly) mono single versions remastered by Mike Milchner of Sonic Vision from original tape sources and annotated by veteran music journalist and Billboard contributor Paul Grein.

Hell of a tracklist for sure, 74 total.

Just heard in the car earlier Mavis Staples doing "A House is not a Home"

xp This is actually the same exact release that was given to PBS donors several years ago (I think with a $200 donation) - Real Gone confirmed they're using the same CD masters, they just changed the title. It's great news as it was previously unavailable or really expensive on the secondhand market.

Okay, this is kind of stupid, I know, but I like the fact that the few real Bacharach mavens I have had to good fortune to interact with are nice and approachable and not some crazy defensive Keepers of the Faith.

Actually I did have a weird interaction with one discography nut but he was more a self-styled cut and paste music "historian" rather than a Bacharach guy, which is in part why I got into the argument.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcbq62P48K4

FWIW, here's a track from the "Taken from Life" disc that's on both the two-CD and super deluxe editions of The Songs of Bacharach & Costello:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPD9t1rit7g

I don't have the liner notes, but I think this is for the Broadway musical that never came to be. I'm not sure if this is a demo, but it sounds like it could be and with a little more oomph, this could really kill on stage.

(To clarify, it's a song from Painted from Memory but I'm guessing it was to be incorporated into the musical.)