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".

RANDOM SIGHTS + SOUNDS

First up, here are some interesting music videos I like:











After taking some time off to get married and have her first child (it's a girl!) last year, Jessie Ware didn't seem to have wasted anytime getting back to music. The British songstress has just released two new songs. "Midnight" is a haunting uptempo ballad delivering what we love about Ms Ware as it features her sensual vocals and sophisticated songwriting. While "Selfish Love" is another ballad but guitar-driven with a slight bossa-nova beat that presents a completely different vibe from the singer. Look for her upcoming third album, "Glasshouse" in October. In the meantime, check out the music videos for these songs:

I recently just heard one of his songs from back in the day and it made me wonder; what happened to Christopher Cross? This singer, born Christopher Geppert and originally from San Antonio, Texas, released his debut album back in 1979 and it was an immediate success. His collection of soft rock tunes included the hits, "Ride Like The Wind", "Never Be The Same" and the number one single, "Sailing" which helped sell five million copies of the album. Cross would go on to win five Grammy Awards including Best New Artist and Album of The Year. His follow-up album in 1983, "Another Page", continued the hits with "Think of Laura", "All Right" and included "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" from the Dudley Moore comedy, "Arthur" which would go on to win an Oscar for Best Original Song. But after all this immediate pop success, the easy-listening rock of Christopher Cross soon wasn't having much of an impact on the charts. He's still around making music and about to embark on a cross-country North American tour. Here are a couple of songs that I love from Christopher Cross:

"Ride Like The Wind" - Christopher Cross (1979) mp3

"Sailing" - Christopher Cross (1979) mp3