Living Together, Polling Together — it's the BURT BACHARACH SONGBOOK Ballot Poll

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Ah, RIP

Here's a challop -- I don't really like Aretha's "I Say a Little Prayer." I don't like how she lays out in the choruses and lets the backup singers do the work.

Finished my ballot, with a few days to ponder it before I call it final.

xp
I getcha. But. Counterpoint: those hand-offs to the backing singers work really well in the verses.

Been meaning to throw this in for a while, so may as well do it now.

When it comes to the most renowned songwriters with large songbooks, like Bacharach & David, does anyone else attach a greater premium to whether the singer interprets the song just so, how well they express the lyric or the melody than to originality of interpretation or arrangement? To the extent that you don't think of new versions as "covers", only good or bad interpretations of a set text.

Contrast with most pop music, where what I'm looking for in a good cover version includes deviation from the prototype, unexpected takes and angles, and so on.

Not saying either of the above is correct or a good thing, it's just what I do. Just wondered if I'm alone in drawing that distinction.

I'm in roughly the same camp if I'm reading you right, though a few spots on my ballot have gone to unexpected angles. I think that's due to my first really deep listen into the songbook coming from the Great Jewish Music compilation. There are some tracks on that compilation that I thought must be pretty wide variations from the set text, only to find out in the listening for this poll that they're not so far off after all.

I'd say the Aretha version of "I Say a Little Prayer" deviates from the prototype, to name one

Hey WmC, you don't have any spreadsheet etc, just doing manual collating from emails? Just checking bcs I'm off to Memphis tomorrow so need to submit tonight.

Yeah, email it is.

Go to Pho Saigon on Poplar and have the bun thom thit nuong cha gio, so good.

Thanks for the tip.

Submitted, wasn't sure if i'd go the email address right, let me know if it's come through.

Haven't gotten it yet. The address at the top is googleproofed, the µ should be a u.

Just got a ballot, all lowercase.

Lowercase not a problem, just mentioned it as an identifier.

Just noticed a problem, you have 2 different versions of a song on your ballot, sent you an email back about it.

Props to Noel Gallagher for introducing me to him via his 'Rebellious Jukebox' piece in Melody Maker when i was about 17, i bought a 24 track early 90s 'best of' (The Bacharach and David Songbook)as a result.

and his cover of this is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIZHzLd0Cak

I just listened to the Promises, Promises original cast recording and I may have to make a change on my ballot. (Not saying which song.)

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7BF367F005988986

Oooh, I only just realised on hearing the overture that I'm voting for one track myself. Wasn't aware of its origin!

Listening to Samuel Jonathan Johnson's My Love today I was reminded of his very nice version of What the World Needs Now is Love, which is followed by the funky extended outro Sweet Love.

I am up to six ballots in and I hope every Burt-lover out there will vote. Rollout won't happen until the week of the 13th, as paying work is being dragged out due to client health issues.

79 different songs have votes so far.

^ that's awesome.

i'm getting fatigued by hearing version after version so i've just decided to just cut my ballot at 25 and call it a day. will email my finished list shortly.

okay, voted.

That makes 8 ballots -- how many can we get?

https://www.theopennotebook.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Your_Vote_Counts_Badge.jpg

Tabulation trivia - one of the songs has four votes, all from different artists.

So no extension? If not, what time is the deadline?

Can probably get a ballot in by Wednesday, maybe by tomorrow

I'll take ballots all through this week. Rollout won't happen until next week.

9 ballots in.
6th and 7th place are one point apart, 6th and 9th are 20 points apart.

I voted, really wanted to throw a vote for Dorothy Ashby's version of 'The Look of Love'. Hope someone else does.

That's not which version you had in your ballot -- you want me to change it to Ashby?

I may have misunderstood yr post

No, the version I voted for is the correct one. Just regretted not being able to vote for Ashby.

Gotcha.

Five songs have points from four different artists! Only one of those five songs is in the top 15!

Gonna have to scramble. With a few exceptions, probably going to vote for mostly obvious stuff, especially early stuff on Scepter, especially if Paul Griffin is on it.

Your daily reminder to vote! With a low turnout, everybody who votes can be sure their ballot will carry a lot of weight.

Okay, thanks. Slowly compiling a ballot.

Sent!

rad

I count a dozen or so unballoted posters upthread who said they'd vote or vaguely indicated interest -- please give a few minutes to hammer out your ballot! NV, Morbs, rushomancy, Euler, Darin, et al...

I am putting one together right now!

Promises, promises.

Obviously the results thread has to be called One Less Poll to Answer.

dunno if ongoing life crash will permit

voted

Sorry, Morbs, hope things improve for you.

Highest-ranked song with all points from one version: {redacted} place
Lowest-ranked song with points from more than one artist: 60th place

Make it easy on yourself, Doctor.

One of the weirder bootlegs in my music collection is Zumpano on the radio on “Burt Bacharach” night in 1999 playing:

24 Hours From Tulsa
Anyone Who Had A Heart
What The World Needs Now
Always Something There To Remind Me
My Little Red Book

It’s a fun listen if nothing else, and I can’t remember where I got it.

OK, I have a better sense of my work schedule (I hope). The thing is, my work client has newly-discovered cancer and is putting 95% of her time and attention into dealing with that, so a big project that should have been finished on the 1st isn't getting finished until next week. My part should be mostly done by Monday, fingers crossed. So I'm calling a hard deadline on ballots: MONDAY, MAY 13th by end of day. I will work on tabulations and artwork Tuesday and roll out results starting Wednesday.

Sorry this is dragging out past a month, I hate it when these polls do that. But you have plenty of time to vote!

I have a job application and a ballot scheduled to do tomorrow/Sunday, hangover permitting. Might well just vote for the songs rather than versions tho