Guest performers will include Sheryl Crow, Michael Feinstein, Diana Krall, Lyle Lovett, Mike Myers, Rumer, Arturo Sandoval, Sheléa and Stevie Wonder. The event will be streamed live on www.whitehouse.gov/live starting at 7 p.m. ET on May 9, and the entire concert will be broadcast on PBS stations nationwide on May 21 as “Burt Bacharach & Hal David: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House.”

This is absolutely amazing news, even if it does beg the question, “Where is Dionne?” Perhaps she’ll be a special surprise guest.

Visit whitehouse.gov to read the entire press release.

I just received word of two new tour dates for Burt and his band.

On Friday, June 22, 2012, Burt will be performing in Louisville, Ky., at the Good Sam Rally. For those unfamiliar with the event, the Good Sam Rally is a huge RV rally staged in various locations around the country and hosted by the Good Sam Club, an international organization of RV owners.

On Sunday, August 5, 2012, Burt will be performing his annual show at the Embarcadero Marina Park South in San Diego.

As always, for the latest news on Burt’s performance schedule, visit the On Tour page.

Burt Bacharach will join interviewer Roy Firestone this week for a discussion of his life and career on KCET’s L.A. Tonight with Roy Firestone. The show, part of week of episodes devoted to music legends, will air on L.A.’s KCET TV on Tuesday, March 13, at 10 p.m. PDT.

Here’s a brief preview where Burt talks about Barbra Streisand and some of the other great vocalists he’s worked with.

UPDATE: The entire half hour episode is now online at kcet.org.

HARPER ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF MEMOIR BY LEGENDARY SONG WRITER BURT BACHARACH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (January 19, 2012) HarperCollins has acquired world rights to Burt Bacharach’s life story, ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART. Written with Robert Greenfield and told in Bacharach’s own words, the book will recount the life and times of a true American icon who has composed many of the most important popular songs of the last century. The deal was negotiated by Jonathan Burnham, Senior VP, Publisher, Harper and Claire Wachtel, Executive Editor, Harper with Amy Schiffman and Brian Lipson from Intellectual Property Group. The book is tentatively scheduled for publication in November 2012.

Jonathan Burnham says, “Burt Bacharach is one of the icons of the American songbook, up there with the greats, and his life story encompasses many different eras of popular music. His story will give fascinating insight into a complex life and a rich legacy of extraordinary songs.”

Over the course of his long and astonishing career, Bacharach has had seventy Top Forty hits, won three Academy Awards, eight Grammys (including the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award), an Emmy, and been nominated for a Tony Award. Along with his longtime songwriting partner Hal David, Bacharach was recently named the winner of the prestigious Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, an award previously given to Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney.

Bacharach’s songs have been recorded by countless artists, Elvis Presley and The Beatles among them. For three years, Bacharach toured the world as the musical arranger and conductor for the legendary Marlene Dietrich. Bacharach has composed some of the most memorable film scores of all time; written music for the Broadway stage; produced a variety of artists of every generation in the studio, and continues to appear as a solo performer in concerts all over the world.

While the list of his accomplishments is overwhelming, Bacharach has also led a particularly American life that contains all the storybook elements of a great Hollywood movie. Having written countless songs about the never ending search for love and the heartbreak that comes when it is lost, Bacharach’s first three marriages to singer Paula Stewart, actress Angie Dickinson, and songwriter Carole Bayer Sager ended in divorce. His long running partnership with Hal David fell apart after they wrote the sound track for a movie that was such an artistic and commercial disaster that the two men wound up suing one another and did not speak for seventeen years. Bacharach’s daughter Nikki committed suicide at the age of forty.

Throughout it all, Bacharach has steadfastly continued to pursue his muse. As powerful and moving as Burt Bacharach’s most unforgettable songs, ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART will provide readers with a backstage pass to a world of show business that no longer exists. It will also give them an up close and personal look at the life of an artist whose incredible body of work has earned him a unique position in the American cultural landscape while also providing the sound track for the lives of millions of devoted fans all over the world.

About Robert Greenfield
An award-winning journalist, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, Robert Greenfield is the author of ten books, among them the classic STP: A Journey Through America With the Rolling Stones. His novel Temple, which won the National Jewish Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Timothy Leary: A Biography, which he spent ten years researching and writing, were both favorably reviewed on the front page of the New York Sunday Times Book Review. The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun, the authorized biography of the legendary founder of Atlantic Records, was published by Simon & Schuster in November, 2011.

About HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children’s Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children’s books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world’s foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com.

Some Lovers, Burt Bacharach’s long-awaited new musical—his first since Promises, Promises—opened at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego on Dec. 7.

With book and lyrics by Steven Sater (the Tony and Grammy Award winning writer of Spring Awakening), Some Lovers is an original musical inspired by  the O. Henry story “The Gift of the Magi,” telling the story of estranged lovers brought together through memories of the past.

Check out the Burt Bacharach Forum for links to reviews and discussion of Bacharach’s first original musical in more than 40 years.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce will honor Hal David on Friday, Oct. 14, with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. David’s star — the 2,451st on the Walk of Fame — will be located, appropriately enough, in front of The Musicians Institute at 6752 Hollywood Blvd. In conjunction with the star ceremony, David will also be honored with a musical tribute entitled “Love Sweet Love” in celebration of his 90th birthday (which he celebrated on May 25). The tribute will take place on Oct. 17 at the Mark Taper Forum benefitting The Blue Ribbon of the Music Center and The ASCAP Foundation.

Burt Bacharach, David’s longtime collaborator and friend, took out the attached ad in Daily Variety to congratulate Hal on the honor.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an internationally-recognized Hollywood icon.

With approximately 24 star ceremonies annually broadcast around the world, the constant reinforcement provided to the public has made the Walk of Fame a top visitor attraction. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce continues to administer the Walk of Fame as the representative of the City of Los Angeles. The Walk of Fame is a tribute to all of those who worked diligently to develop the concept and to maintain this world-class tourist attraction. For more information, visit www.WalkOfFame.com.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David have been selected as the fourth recipients of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.  The awards celebrate the work of artists whose careers reflect lifetime achievements in promoting song as a vehicle of musical expression and cultural understanding. The selection, which was announced on Sept. 28, is made by the Librarian of Congress in consultation with a board that is both credible and broad enough in scope to represent the full spectrum of popular song. Board mem bers may include but need not

be limited to scholars, producers, performers, music critics, songwriters, and subject specialists within and outside the Library of Congress.

In being named to receive the prize, Bacharach and David become the first songwriters to be so honored and join the ranks of performers Paul Simon, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, the three previous recipients of the award. The awards will be presented next spring at an all-star tribute in Washington D.C.

Click here to read the full text of the press release announcing the award.

1 and the musical will run through Dec. 31.

Fans may remember that British vocalist Rumer released a recording of the title song from the show late last year as part of a Christmas EP. The song, which sounds to me like Dusty Springfield singing an unreleased Painted From Memory-era track, is classic Bacharach, igniting hope that Some Lovers will be a very special musical.

Click here to see the video of Rumer’s recording of “Some Lovers.”

Burt Bacharach live courtesy of Grupo Tom Brasil.

Just received an updated list of upcoming Burt Bacharach concerts, and fans in Australia will no doubt be pleased to see eight Down Under shows in 2012, including three performances at Sydney Opera House, where Burt recorded his most recent album, 2008’s Live at the Sydney Opera House.

(UPDATED TOUR DATES AS OF NOVEMBER 17, 2011)
April 16, 2012  Adelaide, SA Australia (Adelaide Entertainment Centre)
April 19, 2012  Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia (Regent Theatre)
April 20, 2012  Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia (Regent Theatre)
April 23, 2012  Perth, Australia Perth (Convention Centre)
April 26, 2012 Sydney, Australia (Sydney Opera House)
April 27, 2012 Sydney, Australia (Sydney Opera House)
April 28, 2012  Sydney, Australia (Sydney Opera House)
May 1, 2012 Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia (Jupiter Casino Theater)

For the complete list of Burt’s upcoming concerts, visit the Bacharach On Tour page.