BURT BACHARACH (1928 - 2023)

With his musical partner, lyricist Hal David, Burt Bacharach composed some of the greatest and most enduring pop songs of the twentieth century. This gifted pianist and producer passed away on February 8th at the age of ninety-four of natural causes. While these compositions from Bacharach and David may best represent the era in which they were created during the swinging '60's, they have since gone on to become timeless classics, songs that still captivate with their offbeat rhythms and complicated arrangements yet remain extraordinarily catchy.

The New York City raised Bacharach was started on piano lessons as a child, encouraged by his creative mother. But as he got older, he became more interested in jazz than classical music. After serving in the army for two years, Bacharach went to work as a pianist and conductor for singer, Vic Damone who he has first met while they were both serving in Germany. This lead to other jobs as a pianist for other noted performers of the day, accompanying Steve Lawrence, The Ames Brothers and Joel Grey.

Bacharach's first major break came in 1956 when he was recommended to actress Marlene Dietrich who was about to begin touring with her nightclub act. As her musical arranger and conductor, they would work together on and off until the early 1960's.

After joining the songwriting factory at the Brill Building, Bacharach first met Hal David with the team writing together their first two hits; "The Story of My Life" which became a number one song on the US Country chart in 1957 for Marty Robbins and the top-five pop hit, "Magic Moments" recorded by Perry Como. Despite these early successes with David, Bacharach worked with other writers, most notably Bob Hilliard with this team's songs, "Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)" and "Mexican Divorce" becoming charting pop hits. It was during the recording of the later song in 1962 with The Drifters that Bacharach would first meet the singer that would change the course of his career.

One of the background singers during that recording session was Dionne Warwick who stood out with her formidable vocal abilities, impressing Bacharach enough to hire her to record his demos. By 1962, Bacharach and David had officially become a songwriting team and started their own production company, signed to Scepter Records. And their first artist was Warwick who released her debut album, "Presenting Dionne Warwick" in 1963. Beginning with "Don't Make Me Over", this trio had a long string of worldwide pop hits which included "Anyone Who Had a Heart", "Walk On By", "I Say a Little Prayer", "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?", "Message to Michael", "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" and "Alfie". Many of these songs were covered by other singers, most notably Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Dusty Springfield, who would also find success on the pop charts with their versions.

Bacharach-David also went on to write music for films ("The Look of Love" for "Casino Royale", "What's New Pussycat?" and the Oscar-winning "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid") and the stage (the 1968 musical, "Promises, Promises"). Bacharach would work on his own projects during this time as well, making a name for himself and creating some visibility as a personality with several television specials, talk show appearances and released solo albums. But the recording of the score for the 1973 film musical version of "Lost Horizon", a critical and commercial disappointment, lead to the dissolution of the creative partnership between Bacharach and David with each suing the other and Warwick filing a lawsuit against them both.

Bacharach went on to find a new songwriting partner, singer/lyricist Carole Bayer Sager who would later become his third wife in 1982. Some of the songs they wrote together included "Heartlight", "Making Love", "On My Own" and "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" (co-written with Christopher Cross and Peter Allen) which won the 1981 Oscar for Best Original Song. And "That's What Friends Are For" (originally recorded by Rod Stewart in 1982 for the soundtrack of the film, "Night Shift")  would reunite Bacharach and Warwick in 1985 with this number one song, that featured Gladys Knight, Elton John, and Stevie Wonder, was a charity single with all proceeds going for AIDS research.

After his marriage to Bayer Sager ended in 1991, Bacharach continued to work over the years with one of his most notable musical collaborations was with Elvis Costello, releasing an album together "Painted From Memory" in 1998 and later working on several tracks for Costello's 2018 album, "Look Now". One of Bacharach's last projects was in 2020 when he collaborated with multi-instrumentalist, Daniel Tashian on the EP, "Blue Umbrella".

BJ THOMAS (1942 - 2021)

BJ Thomas, a pop and country singer most famous for the Oscar-winning song, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", has passed away today at the age of seventy-eight. Thomas had been diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer earlier this year in March.

Born Billy Joe Thomas in Hugo, OK, he grew up in and around Houston, TX. He began singing in his church choir as a teen before joining a country group, The Triumphs. In 1966, the band signed with Pacemaker Records and had a big hit with a cover of Hank Williams' song "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".

Thomas later signed with Scepter Records as a solo artist and released his debut, "On My Way" in 1968. The album was a moderate success, featuring the singles, "The Eyes of a New York Woman" and "Hooked On a Feeling" which reached number five on the pop charts (although the Swedish band, Blue Swede's 1974 version would become better known).

The following year, Thomas was approached by Burt Bacharach and Hal David to record a song they had written for the film, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" would stay at number one on the US pop charts for four weeks, seven weeks atop the adult contemporary chart and Billboard ranked it the number four song of 1970. Thomas would have another number one hit in 1975 with "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song". 

After this hit, the singer turned to recording contemporary Christian music with the 1976 album, "Home Where I Belong" which went on to sell over a million copies. During the 1980's, Thomas began to perform country music, releasing several albums and had two number one singles on the country charts with "Whatever Happened to Old-Fashioned Love" and "New Looks from an Old Lover". And you might recognize his voice on the theme song for the television sitcom, "Growing Pains" with the song, "As Long as We Got Each Other" which was done solo and as duets with Jennifer Warnes and Dusty Springfield (!).

HAL DAVID (1921 - 2012)

Along with his long-time musical partner, Burt Bacharach, Hal David wrote some of the world's most beloved pop songs, most during the 1960's, that are still being performed to this day. Mr. David passed away yesterday at the age of 91

David and Bacharach met while they were part of a large team of writers working at the Brill Building who wrote pop songs to sell to publishers. Their first big hit recording together was in 1957 with "Magic Moments" performed by Perry Como.

In 1959, they were introduced to a young singer named Dionne Warwick and the team was quite impressed with the range of her voice and how easy she could handle their complicated melodies. The trio had their first success with "Don't Make Me Over" in 1962 which was followed by a long string of hit songs for them. David and Bacharach created hits for other notable performers including Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones, B.J. Thomas and The Carpenters.

This successful duo broke-up after the difficult work on the disastrous musical remake of "Lost Horizon" in 1973. Shortly thereafter, David and Bacharach sued each other and Warwick sued them both for breach of contract. The cases were eventually settled out of court in 1979 but this dynamic trio eventually made up and came back together in 1992 to record one final song, "Sunny Weather Lover".

Here are just a few of the notable songs by Hal David and Burt Bacharach:

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" - B.J. Thomas (1969)

"What the World Needs Now Is Love" - Jackie DeShannon (1965)

"One Less Bell to Answer" - The Fifth Dimension (1969)

"Wishin' & Hopin"" - Dusty Springfield (1964)