All-Star Tribute Planned For Bacharach on April 8
Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Ben Folds Five, and Dionne Warwick are among the artists that will perform Burt Bacharach tunes at a concert April 8 in New York.

“Bacharach: One Amazing Night” will include the music industry’s best interpreting the pop songwriter’s tunes, including Oasis’ Noel Gallagher singing “This Guy’s In Love With You,” Chrissie Hynde covering “Baby It’s You,” and comedian Mike Myers trying his hand at “What’s New Pussycat?” The event, executive-produced by Bacharach himself, will be taped for broadcast a week later on Turner Network Television (TNT). The concert will kick off the channel’s Master Series, which will showcase individuals who have profoundly influenced contemporary culture.

A lot of people are asking about the three-disc Burt set due out on Rhino this year. Unfortunately, the licensing process has proved to be a monumental task.

Although Rhino hoped to have the set out this month, the set will most likely not be out until August.

Alec Cumming wrote to say there’s a new Bacharach article, “The Beauty of Bacharach,” in the Feb. 16, 1998, Boston Phoenix.

One of the most common comments I’ve been receiving lately has to do with the format of the audio files, aiff, which is awkward for PC users (i.e. 90+% of you) and takes forever to download. I’ve experimented with switching to RealAudio, but I’ve as of yet been unable to do it right.

Only computer experts need read this. Here’s my situation. I use a Mac. In order to convert a track on a CD to real audio, I first have to import the track into SoundMachine. The settings I use are 16 bit stereo and a rate of 44.1 khz. Once I’ve imported the track, I have to save it in one of seven file types: au, system 7 sound, aiff, wav, QuickTime movie, movie, movie self-contained. I’ve been using aiff. Once I’ve got the track in aiff format, I use the RealAudio Encoder to convert it. I use the setting RealAudio 3.0 28.8 stereo for no particular reason.

The resulting RealAudio files, however, when played back tend to skip and stick.

Every 10 seconds or so, the song hangs on a single sound, as if it were stuck, and then moves on. If I were playing it from the Net, I might assume that the delays were due to network traffic. But the problem occurs when I’m playing the file from my desktop.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated by me and any other Burt fan without a T1 connection. Thanks.

Scott Bassin wrote to say that Bravo is re-airing a documentary on the great Dusty Springfield tonight.

The one-hour program includes a performance of “A House Is Not A Home” with Dusty on vocals and Burt on piano that’s not to be missed.

Greetings, salutations, happy new year! And apologies (yet again) for letting the Burt news wire go silent for so long. There are many events and much news you’ve all supplied me with, so let’s go.

First of all, I ran across an article in the January 1998 Mojo (the best music magazine I’ve ever seen, I’ll add) about the Burt-Elvis Costello recording project. Elvis said they’ve written dozens of songs recently, songs even more intense than their first collaboration. Says Burt, “Emotionally speaking, ‘God Give Me Strength’ sounds like the Partridge Family next to a couple of the others we’ve written since.” The songs are still far from ready to be recorded, so the earliest a CD could appear would be summer (or more likely fall) 1998. Costello also denies the rumor that he has recorded half an hour’s worth of Bacharach standards for the release. The new record will be all originals.

Pat Burke wrote to tell me that a (very good) interview with Burt on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic” radio program, hosted by Chris Durites, is available online. The address is http://www.liveconcerts.com/listening/kcrw/. The Live Concerts/KCRW site features a truly mind-boggling collection of radio interviews and in-studio performances, ranging from Tom Waits and Jonathan Richman to Philip Glass and Peter Greenaway. It’s definitely worth checking out.

I’ve also been informed that Better Living through Show Tunes has Rykodisc’s long-awaited reissue of “Promises, Promises” on CD slated for April 1998.

No mention yet on the Rykodisc site, so keep your fingers crossed for this excellent cast recording.

Not four days after I rued that no label had yet issued “What’s New Pussycat” on CD, I have word that Razor & Tie Entertainment has plans to issue “What’s New Pussycat” on CD for the first time. The original release date was to be January 1998, but the record is still being licensed so the actual release date is now up in the air. Razor & Tie, you may remember, is also the label that recently issued the soundtrack to “Lost Horizon” on CD (as well as compilations by several of my all time favorites, including Scott Walker, Television Personalities and Al Hirt).

I also asked Davide Bonori to send me his most up to date Bacharach discography.

Davide has compiled one of the most comprehensive discographies around, and his most recent version can be found right here.

Hot off the press, Robbie Leff sent me some vidcaps of Burt from tonight’s Billboard Music Awards.

Sorry for the two month delay in updating Burt news. There are quite a few things to mention. In the order that I received each item…
On Oct. 6, Davide Bonori came across three excellent but expensive Japanese Bacharach collections.

Each includes many rare performances not easy to find elsewhere. The full track listing of each is here if you’re interested.

I can’t remember if I’ve posted their URL before, but the Bacharachs are a Danish band that does nothing but Bacharach songs. Unfortunately, their site is in Danish. If you can figure out the bit about Bacharach Cocktail, write me…

Gary Fitch wrote in with chords for the beginning of “God Give Me Stength.” Has anyone finished a version yet?

On Jan. 20, 1998, Big Deal Records will release “What the World Needs Now …Big Deal Recording Artists Perform the Songs of Burt Bacharach. The track listing and performers is as follows:

Wondermints – Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
Splitsville – I’ll Never Fall In Love Again
Vandalias – Wishin’ And Hopin’
Mitch Rasor – I Say A Little Prayer
Barely Pink – It’s Love That Really Counts
Gladhands – Promise Her Anything
Michael Shelley – Baby It’s You
Hannah Cranna – (They Long Close To You
Idle – Make It Easy On Yourself
Shonen Knife – Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
Absolute Zeros – There’s Always Something There To Remind Me
Dan Kibler – Trains And Boats And Planes
Cockeyed Ghost – Walk On By
BMX Bandits – It Doesn’t Matter Anymore

The CD also features cover art by Jack Davis, of Mad Magazine fame.

Roberto Pinardi reports that Rykodisc will reissue” After the Fox” on CD. The number of Burt recordings unavailable on CD is shrinking by the day. Now if only someone would reissue “What’s New, Pussycat.” In my opinion it’s one of Burt’s best soundtracks, with “My Little Red Book,” “Here I Am,” and lots more swingin’ instrumentals.

Brian Burke writes to report that Rhino Records will definitely issue the Bacharach Box in 1998–June of ’98 is the current release date. This from the mouth of none other than Dr. Rhino.

Rod Lott writes to report that the new issue of Details (w/ Courtney Cox on the cover) says the (highly anticipated) Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach album collaboration will hit stores sometime in 1998. Could there be any better news? Also, Burt and Hal are credited as co-writers of the current single “2 Wicky” by Hooverphonic (featured on the soundtracks of “Stealing Beauty” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, as well as Hooverphonic’s own great album, “New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular”), because the song samples a bit of

I just received the new CD reissue of Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits (MCA) and it’s tremendous! The CD includes four songs that were not on the U.S. LP of that name: “The Last One to be Loved,” “A House Is Not A Home,” “Saturday Sunshine,” and “And So Goodbye, My Love.” The 15-track CD’s running time is about 41 minutes, and it includes an 11-page booklet with excellent biographical material on Burt as well as a few nice photos from the ’60s. It also helped clarify for me the (confusing) relationship between three very similar Kapp records: Hit Maker (May 1965), The Man! Burt Bacharach-His Songs (Oct. 1965) and Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits (Jan. 1969). Which may point to an anachronism in “Austin Powers,” but we won’t worry about that.

Scott Bassin wrote to let me know that on November 18, Reprise Records is scheduled to release “Live on Letterman: Music from the Late Show.” The compilation of live performances from David Letterman’s “Late Show” includes the incredible rendition of “God Give Me Strength” performed by Burt and Elvis Costello for the show. Keep your eyes peeled.