To paraphrase the Barry Manilow song, Burt Bacharach did write the songs the whole world sings. Along with his lyricist partner Hal David, he was responsible for some of the most memorable songs of the 20th Century, including:
- Magic Moments – Perry Como
- I Say A Little Prayer – Aretha Franklin
- What Do You Get When You Fall In Love – Dionne Warwick
- The Look of Love – Dionne Warwick
- Close To You – The Carpenters
- Alfie – Dionne Warwick
- Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head – BJ Thomas
- 24 Hours From Tulsa – Gene Pitney
- Make It Easy on Yourself – The Walker Brothers
- I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself – Dusty Springfield
- Alfie – Cilla Black
- What’s New, Pussycat? – Tom Jones
- Arthur’s Theme – Christopher Cross
- Anyone Who Had A Heart – Dionne Warwick/Cilla Black
In documentaries, Burt always came across as a modest easy going fella. I wonder is it better to be the songwriter and stay in the background and leave the self-destruction to the singers??
As an aside, I remember watching a documentary about Dionne Warwick and it is fair to say she was not a fan of Cilla Black. Dionne would have the hit in the US, and by the time they got around to releasing the song in the UK, she found that ‘our Cilla’ had beaten her to it.
A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach’s songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists. As of 2014, he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits. With so many songs to pick from, my personal favourite is say a little prayer.
Thank you for the music Mr Bacharach.
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
