Elton John will sing a posthumous duet with Luther Vandross on “Anyone Who Had A Heart” and Aretha Franklin will perform “A House Is Not A Home” on a new CD honoring Vandross to be released by J Records on Sept. 20. So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross will also feature performances by Alicia Keys, Celine Dion, Jamie Foxx, Donna Summer, Usher, Mary J.
Blige, Wyclef Jean and more.
Compiler Wayne Dickson writes that Legends, a new budget-priced three-disc collection of Dionne Warwick’s Arista material (1979–1993), will be released in the U.K. on Aug. 29. The first comprehensive collection of Dionne’s Arista period, Legends includes a wealth of Bacharach-Warwick material from the 1980s, including “Finder of Lost Loves,” “That’s What Friends Are For,” “Stronger Than Before,” “Stay Devoted,” “Love Power,” “Sunny Weather Lover” and more.
Writer and performer PC Munoz sent in a link to this excellent essay on “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” part of an regular column on his web site devoted to great songs old and new. Check it out!
Stephen Munns, webmaster of CillaBlack.com, writes that two new decade-spanning compilations of Black will be released on Sept.
5, 2005. The first, Cilla in the 60s, features two Bacharach compositions: “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and Black’s original recording of “Alfie.”
The music world lost one its finest performers on Friday with the death of vocalist Luther Vandross. An eight-time Grammy Award winner, Vandross was a favorite of Burt Bacharach, who had taken to dedicating concert performances of “A House Is Not a Home” to Vandross in recent years.
In addition to “A House Is Not a Home,” Vandross performed a medley of “Windows of the World” and “What the World Needs Now Is Love” with Burt on the One Amazing Night television special and CD.
On the eve of his 77th (!) birthday, Burt is still going strong. Vincent Cole contributed these pictures from Burt’s performance last Sunday at the Mohegan Sun Cabaret in Uncasville, Conn.
Thanks, Vincent.
A couple of new releases to keep an eye out for…On April 12, Varese reissued on CD the Promises, Promises original cast recording, one of Burt’s finest collections, and on May 10, DPTV issued the DVD In Concert Classics Featuring Dionne Warwick, a 60 minute concert collection recorded for Public Television.
Toby Weiss recently sent in a link to an affection tribute to Burt and Angie written for her blog.
Thanks!
Live Scores is a great new Website dedicated to the music of great film composers.
The site includes information on finding CDs, videos and DVDs of figures including Francis Lai, Henry Mancini, John Barry, Michael Kamen, and, yes, Burt Bacharach. It’s a fantastic site. Check it out.
