Happy 82nd birthday today to a true maestro - Mr Burt Bacharach!
It is impossible to truly capture the magnitude of the work this man (mainly with long-time collaborator Hald David) has brought to the world of Light Entertainment, but suffice to say that everyone (and I mean everyone!) has at least one of their songs among their cherished collection somewhere.
Walk On By, The Look of Love, Anyone Who Had A Heart, What the World Needs Now is Love, Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, Alfie, Magic Moments, (They Long To Be) Close To You, Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa, Make It Easy On Yourself, I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself, Always Something There To Remind Me, Trains and Boats and Planes, I Say A Little Prayer, Do You Know the Way to San Jose? - and so the list goes on, and on!
Bacharach (and David) worked with some of the greatest singers of all time - including Dusty Springfield, Gene Pitney, Dionne Warwick, Sandie Shaw, Bobbie Gentry, Tom Jones and even Rufus Wainwright, and the great man is still working to this day - most notably at the BBC Electric Proms in 2008.
Mr Bacharach was once married to Angie Dickinson and also to Carole Bayer Sager, and in his day represented everything that was cool and smooth among the cocktail party set of glamorous 60s and 70s Hollywood. Many happy returns to a true great!
Burt Bacharach
Sorry but Luther Vandross owns House Is Not a Home from his first solo album. Listen to him play out the end of the song and try not to go crazy for a current love.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually one of my least favourite Bacharach & David songs (my most-loathed being Wives and Lovers, bien sûr), but wouldn't it have been great to have heard Dusty and Luther duet on it..? Two impeccable voices. Jx
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