Tony Hatch 'Britain's Burt Bacharach' is 70 today

[pljms]

Here's Chris Montez singing one of Tony Hatch's greatest hits:

[blueonblue]

One of Tony and Jackie's finest....


"blue"
PS
Many happy returns Tony.....and thank you for the music !

[Hank]

Aside from his composing talents, Tony Hatch was also Simon Cowell's forerunner as the brutally honest judge on ITV's New Faces in the 70's

[Sara D]

Part 2 of a documentary series on BBC Radio 2 about Tony Hatch is on air at 7pm this Friday. In this show, postponed from last Friday due to You-Know-Who's death, he talks about being called 'Britain's Burt Bacharach'.

Here's a tv excerpt from last year featuring Tony accompanying Petula Clark on the piano in a medley of some of the hits he wrote for her:

[pljms]

One fact that's often overlooked is that Tony Hatch paid special tribute to BB in a purely instrumental album from 1972 that as far as I know has never been issued on CD, 'What the World Needs Now' - The Songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David', a very rare example of one great pop composer recording a whole album of another great composer's material.

[Sara D]

Yes, I have the album and I have to say it's a bit of a mixed bag, with some of Hatch's arrangements not really coming off.

Returning to songs written by Tony Hatch, my 5 personal favourites virtually pick themselves:

1/ Don't Sleep in the Subway
2/ Call Me
3/ Downtown
4/ Where are you now
5/ I couldn't Live Without your Love

[pljms]

'What Would I Be', a UK No.2 for Val Doonican in '66, was a great song too:

[Dennis Webb]

Let me add one of my favorite Tony Hatch/Jackie Trent songs, "Lazy Day", which I only discovered just last year, though I've been a fan of theirs since the 60s. It's an unusual piece, but truly merits the adjective "haunting". It's a musical evocation of that sense of timelessness, that feeling of time just standing still, that we have all experienced on a warm summer day that we spend outdoors just doing nothing at all. I listened to this song two or three times and then couldn't get it out of my head for a month or more. So I made a little video, trying to match the imagery of the lyrics, and posted it. Hope you enjoy it.



-Dennis Webb

[hereiam]

Let me add one of my favorite Tony Hatch/Jackie Trent songs, "Lazy Day", which I only discovered just last year, though I've been a fan of theirs since the 60s. It's an unusual piece, but truly merits the adjective "haunting". It's a musical evocation of that sense of timelessness, that feeling of time just standing still, that we have all experienced on a warm summer day that we spend outdoors just doing nothing at all. I listened to this song two or three times and then couldn't get it out of my head for a month or more. So I made a little video, trying to match the imagery of the lyrics, and posted it. Hope you enjoy it.



-Dennis Webb

Speaking of "haunting", every Hatch (or Scott Walker) fans should know the song Joanna (BTW, this song was
discussed quite heavily in this forum years ago)
Now back in the 60s, there were quite a few songwriters who could write really good melodies (Tony Hatch was
one of them) and kept pumping songs/ballads into the UK charts. They are Tony Mcaulay , Roger Cook/Greenaway.
Tony is the one who wrote Edison Lighthouse "Love Grows" , Foundation "Build Me up Buttercup" ....etc etc
and later "Last Night I couldn't get to sleep" for the 5th Dimension in the 70s
He had such gifts for writing good melody hooks.
But for a change , he wrote a "Joanna" type ballad for Scott Walker called Lights of Cincinatti, which also deserves
the adjective "haunting" and was a top 10 hit for Walker.
It is a great song and I've found a even better version by Long John Baldry (whose biggest hit is another Mcaulay
goodie called Let The Heartaches Begin). Here's the MV on Youtube

[Sara D]

Thanks, Dennis, for pointing us in the direction of Lazy Day which with all those major 7th chords is obviously very like Bacharach - well, he never denied the influence!

[pljms]

Here's a terrific video of Pet Clark and 'Downtown', circa '65. The piano introduction and the way the female backing vocalists are utilised betray the powerful influence Bacharach had on Hatch at the time. Still, I'm sure Burt would have been proud to have composed this wonderful slice of pop euphoria:



Incidentally, the 3rd and final part of the Tony Hatch story is on BBC Radio 2 this evening, and so far we've only got up to 1968! Sadly, like Jimmy Webb and Laura Nyro, Hatch's time as a writer of hits lasted just a few years.

[Sara D]

I listened to all 3 shows of the radio series and thought it was a bit of curate's egg - only good in parts - and I didn't find out much that I didn't know already. Sadly, Jackie Trent's imput was small and taken from the archives, hardly surprising, I suppose, given their apparently acrimonious split. And despite the blurb on the BBC's website and in the Radio Times promising that the series would include Hatch's thoughts on being labelled 'The British Burt Bacharach', it either didn't happen or it was edited out at the last minute.

[nymusicalsguy]

Mr. Hatch is undoubtedly deserving of the kind of collectors' treatment that Burt has received so often on recent CDs! I do direct anyone interested in his work to Castle's amazing 2 disc retrospective, CALL ME, drawn strictly from the Pye Records vaults. While there's room for further anthologizing of Hatch's work, this is a great place to start!

If anybody recorded Part One of the Radio 2 documentary, could you PM me? Thanks!

Joe

[blueonblue]

Very nice cover version of the Hatch / Trent classic !
Complete with "Bacharach style" piano chords !


"blue"

[pljms]

Yes, I also recently discovered Chris Montez's version of 'Where Are You Now'. Just listen to the chord progression and the change of key in the middle of the verses and I think it's fair to say that out of all Hatch's compositions this is the one that owes the most to Bacharach's influence.