In January, publisher Harper Collins announced that it had acquired the rights to publish Burt Bacharach’s memoir, Anyone Who Had Heart. Journalist and novelist Robert Greenfield will co-author the book, which is tentatively scheduled for publication in November 2012. The full text of the Harper Collins press release is pasted below:
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 Western union point 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.