The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Yes, she was a classy singer with a very distinctive voice (and vowel sounds). I loved her high energy duets on record with Louis Prima although their contrasting personas stage act when seen now on old TV footage seems more than a little strained. I believe she was the first mainstream singer to re...

When is a song not a song? When it's an instrumental. I've long thought that this is one of Burt's most ingenious tunes, played here on the piano. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NsFOgRmdVDs Paul, people calling purely instrumental pieces of music which have never had lyrics attached to them "so...

The instrumental section which makes up the last 1min 20secs of 'Where in the World' from Swing Out Sister's 'Kaleidoscope World' album is pure aural bliss:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGE56t_xuv8

'Forever Blue', I think you have the title of your autobiography right there, Blue. Although Swing Out Sister as producers engaged Jimmy Webb to do the string arrangement on that track and 'Precious Words', it was 'You On My Mind' which I think most showed his influence as a writer, particularly his...

I think, Steveo, you must be referring to the harmonic sequence which features the lyrics, 'and I start to cry each time we meet' and 'and so if I seem broken in two'. The fact that I hadn't noticed the similarity before after fifty-three years suggests to me that it wouldn't have been too obvious t...

This show was first performed at the Cadogan Hall on Valentine's Day 2012 and has returned to the same venue three or four times since, the show from 2013 with Paul Gambaccini narrating being broadcast on BBC Radio 2. It's obvious that the various singers involved with this show over the years have ...

It's a shame that Bill Evans didn't record more Bacharach. I was at a record fair in west London a couple of weekends ago when I stumbled upon a Bobby Timmons LP from the late 60s entitled 'Do You Know The Way'. As the title suggests, it includes 'San Jose' and also 'This Guy's In Love'. As this alb...

I should imagine that at this stage of his career the need to perform in front of an audience with all the adulation that goes with it is as great as his urge to create. If he plans to celebrate his 90th birthday next year with a series of concerts then his best bet is to come to London where he kno...

As long as BB can still sell-out venues like the Royal Festival Hall and the London Palladium which he did on his last UK tour he won't need to play smaller venues. Besides, I doubt if they could afford him.

nowmedical, you can book tickets in advance online but not tables. You can also pay at the door. As for food, you can only eat in the pub's dining room next door. The music room is small and so to increase the seating capacity there!s usually no tables, especially when they know it's going to be bus...

I can't think of a better way of spending a Sunday afternoon and thanks for the info. The Bull's Head has long been famous as a venue for live jazz and I must have attended more than two hundred gigs there over the last twenty years or so. It's a five minute stroll from The Rising Sun, a pub a certa...

Rare and obscure Bacharach/ David track.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOkDNscpN3Q 'blue' I can't imagine that the producers of this TV show pilot engaged the talents of Bacharach, Hal David and Jack Jones for just a 47 second track so my guess is that this is an excerpt from a much longer rec...

What I feel to be Bacharach's best and what are my personal favourites are two different things entirely. Here's my three at the top of the former list:

A House is Not a Home
Alfie
The Look of Love

I know what you're driving at, pljms, and hearing that excerpt from the sonatina again after many years got me thinking of another of Malcolm Arnold's beguiling small-scale works from the 50s, the serenade for guitar and piano: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XotKL6rdUgw When I was very young in the 6...

Kudos are long overdue on this thread to the cast of Ben Richards and Aaron Kavanagh who played the older and younger Ben and Gemma Wardle and Genna Innes who both played Molly for singing so admirably and performing the songs with such musical intelligence and emotional conviction. If the rumours a...