Burt Bacharach

[G-Man]

It's Burt Bacharach's 80th birthday today. To celebrate here's a mix I've made (times to fit on a CD-R).

Of course, I could've made it easy on myself, and just bang together a Dionne sings Bacharach mix. Instead I've made it a point of not duplicating performers. Which made some decisions tough. I mean, Cilla Black's "Alfie" (during the recording of which Burt made her cry) is great; Jackie DeShannon or Tom Clay; which Dusty track; "Walk On By" by Dionne, Hayes, Stranglers or Sybil, etc?

1. Burt Bacharach - Alfie (1966)
2. The Shirelles - Baby, It's You (1962)
3. Dionne Warwick - Walk On By (1964)
4. Dusty Springfield - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself (1964)
5. Cilla Black - Anyone Who Had A Heart (1964)
6. Jackie DeShannon – What The World Needs Now Is Love (1968)
7. Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer (1968)
8. Lyn Collins - Don't Make Me Over (1974)
9. Herb Alpert - This Guy's In Love With You (1968)
10. Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach - I'll Never Fall In Love Again (2000)
11. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - San José (The Way) (1984)
12. Sandie Shaw - Always Something There To Remind Me (1964)
13. Nancy Wilson - Reach Out For Me (1965)
14. Carpenters - (They Long To Be) Close To You (1970)
15. B.J. Thomas - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (1969)
16. Walker Brothers - Make It Easy On Yourself (1966)
17. Gene Pitney - Only Love Can Break A Heart (1963)
18. Lou Johnson - Kentucky Bluebird (Message To Martha) (1964)
19. Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas - Trains And Boats And Planes (1965)
20. The 5th Dimension - One Less Bell To Answer (1970)
21. The Stylistics - You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart) (1971)
22. Isaac Hayes - The Look Of Love (live) (1973)
23. Brook Benton - A House Is Not A Home (1963)
24. Jack Jones - Wives And Lovers (1963)
25. Ani DiFranco - Wishin' And Hopin' (1997)

Download link

And a few that didn't fit on:

Tom Clay - What the World Needs Now/Abraham, Martin & John
Burt Bacharach - Promises Promises
Tom Jones - What's New Pussycat
Perry Como - Magic Moments

[G-Man]

Burt Bacharach

No Bacharach fans here? I'm surprised.

[ursus arctos]

Burt Bacharach

Not the case at all, PT (as I think was conclusively demonstrated on the old board).

Ms. ursus is particularly appreciative of your considerable efforts in putting this together.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Burt Bacharach

I'm a fan.

I don't know what to say, that's all.

[G-Man]

Burt Bacharach

Ah, I might have expected some criticism like "how the fuck did you slip Elvis fucking Costello in there", or something. Or pointing out how crap his post-David period has been.

In 2005 Bacharach released a mostly instrumental solo album. I really wanted to like it, but I found very difficult to listen to.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Burt Bacharach

Pan Tau wrote:

Ah, I might have expected some criticism like "how the fuck did you slip Elvis fucking Costello in there", or something. Or pointing out how crap his post-David period has been.

In 2005 Bacharach released a mostly instrumental solo album. I really wanted to like it, but I found very difficult to listen to.

I've got an LP from, I dunno, 1970 or something, of Bacharach performing his own hits. Mostly instrumental, with a few female backing vocals drifting in and out. Nice.

[Disco Child Ballads]

Burt Bacharach

If you want some criticism Pan Tau then why did you put that ghastly Frankie Goes to Hollywood cover in there?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Burt Bacharach

I love burt bacharach. Only one caveat though. Over the full extent of the catelogue there seems to be a more than currently fashionable amount of surrendered woman music on there. "one less bell to answer, one less egg to fry, one less man to clean up after, I should be happy but all i do is cry." etc.

[G-Man]

Burt Bacharach

That is still a normal sort of emotion. The shockers are "Wives And Lovers" and "Wishin' And Hopin'" (which is why I put hem right at the end of the comp). The one song is basically saying that the woman must be a pretty, submissive housewive, or she will have one less egg to fry, and the other is saying that she make plans to become a pretty, submissive housewive or she'll never have one more egg to fry. Pretty shocking stuff by our contemporary standards, but probably received wisdom until the feminist movement started to bare its hairy legs in the late '60s.

[Guest]

Burt Bacharach

Top mix, PT. (Although your copy of Baby It's You skips.)

[Heliotrope]

Burt Bacharach

The Biography Channel's profile of Angie Dickinson makes '60s Burt and Angie seem like the coolest couple ever.

Pan, you should add to your collection one of the songs from Burt's collaboration with Ron Isley a couple of years ago.

Is "San José (The Way)" the same as "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?"

[Mumpo]

Burt Bacharach

Yep. It always bemused me that Frankie Goes To Hollywood were so apparrently bereft of ideas they resorted to putting a Baccarach cover on 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome', as if the Starr, Springsteen and Pacemakers covers weren't already enough.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Burt Bacharach

I was very surprised to discover just there that the man who played piano for marlene dietrich, and wrote so many torch songs wasn't as gay as christmas. You live and learn.

[Mr Shadrak]

Burt Bacharach

Bacharach didn't write any torch songs. Hal David was the lyricist on the 60s hits, then various others, including Bachrach's then-wife Carole Bayer Sager, on the mostly inferior later stuff. In fact, Bacharach didn't write any lyrics at all until his most recent records which include an anti-neo con song called "Who Are These People?".

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Burt Bacharach

True I suppose.

what was the name of his very unsuccessful musical.

[Guest]

Burt Bacharach

It wasn't "Promises, Promises", was it?

[G-Man]

Burt Bacharach

I think Promises Promises was the only musical he and David wrote. It also yielded "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", so that's two song infinitely better than anything that cunt Lloyd-Webber has ever written (I lie, I do like "Don't Cry For Me Argentina").

The FGTH version, oddly renamed, is there mainly because of a point I make on the blog. Apparently Holly Johnson insisted it they record it, presumably in return for having to sing a song by the woodwork teacher. The three prototype Scousers thought San José was soft, and a bit gay. Johnson got his way, and the lads played it, ahem, straight. I don't think it's ghastly; like their cover of Born To Run, it's tolerable enough.

In 1984, Bacharach was very unfashionable. For a song of his to be included on the most fashionable album of the year arguably contributed to his eventual rehabilitation.

[Guest]

Burt Bacharach

"Don't Cry For Me Argentina" moves me as well. It's despite myself of course, especially because Lloyd Webber has more-or-less admitted that 'Evita' was putting forward the GB75 agenda by proxy.

[G-Man]

Burt Bacharach

GB75?

[Nishlord]

Burt Bacharach

Yeah, but Wives And Lovers is a TUNE. It makes you want to sweep down a flight of stairs in a bolero jacket.