The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Burt liked to tell the story of questioning arranger Quincy Jones as to why Frank Sinatra's recording of 'Wives And Lovers' was in 4/4 and receiving the explanation that the Count Basie Orchestra couldn't play in waltz time. Nice one Quincy. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hpf9vGT9ckM&pp=ygUeZnJhb...

I think that the only rival Jack Jones had when it came to the smoothness of his vocal delivery was Vic Damone. By the time he had the hit with 'Wives And Lovers' he'd already recorded three Bacharach numbers, of which I think it's fair to say that 'Pick Up The Pieces' suited him best. Co-written wi...

I've just heard the sad news that the singer-songwriter Libby Titus has passed away aged 78 (There seems to be some confusion as to the year she was born with Wikipedia hedging their bets by giving both 1946 and 1947 and imdb going with 1946). She's well known to Bacharach fans for featuring both as...

We're getting away from the hits now but several years before Bacharach & David's title song for the 1965 movie 'Promise Her Anything', Dean Martin recorded a different song with the same title. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b_jF-BGk2o0 I've just discovered a very listenable instrumental version...

It was only a couple of days ago that I listened to the 'Living Together' album for the first time in years, including the track that features Cissy Houston with Tony Middleton who I've just discovered has also passed away this year. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nBePej1RET8&pp=ygUcYnVydCBiYWNoY...

We have singer, organist and band leader Zoot Money to thank for the more relaxed arrangement of 'Please Stay' which dispensed with the baion beat of the Drifters' original recording and slowed down the tempo to set the template for all subsequent versions. Yes, it was his recording in 1964 that rea...

It's a curious irony that the follow-up to the Naked Eyes hit cover of 'There's Always Something There To Remind Me' was 'Promises, Promises' and it wasn't the Bacharach and David song. Suffice it to say that their self-penned number charted higher in the US in 1983 than Dionne's recording of the Ba...

'On My Own' from 'Les Misérables' may not be as familiar to us as the Bacharach/Bayer Sager song with the same title but I see that it has been recorded more than three times as much. The first recording by Frances Ruffelle was released just a matter of weeks before Patti Labelle and Michael McDonal...

Of all the titles featured or referenced so far I prefer the Bacharach song in every instance and although Nick Lowe's 'Blue On Blue' comes close his melody isn't quite as ingratiating as Burt's. Here's an example of the opposite being the case and I'm much better disposed towards 'That's What Frien...

We're all familiar with 'Walk On By' as written by Kendall Hayes which was a hit in 1961 for Leroy Van Dyke, and 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again' written by Lonnie Donegan and Jimmy Currie with which Tom Jones charted in 1967, both titles that Bacharach and David went on to use for very different son...

He was also on good form the other day on BBC Radio 4's obituary show 'Last Word', talking about his old friend Sergio Mendes and remembering when in the 60s he and his Tijuana Brass first toured with Sergio and Brasil '66 and how he warned his band not to fraternise with the two girl singers, leavi...

Another track from the 'Together?' album with a Bacharach/Anka writing credit, although the lyrics don't amount to more than just several repetitions of the song's title.

Most of us will know that Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66/77 covered The Look Of Love, What The World Needs Now and Walk The Way You Talk, but perhaps his instrumental version of another Bacharach tune is less familiar. This is taken from one of his early studio albums which were devoid of female singer...

As far as I'm aware a complete performance of the original Broadway production of Promises, Promises was never filmed. I know in more recent times that some stage productions of musicals have been filmed to be shown on television or for a DVD release, but that sort of thing didn't happen in the late...

In case there's any confusion, the Paul McCartney song 'Band On The Run' (including the 'If I Ever Get Out Of Here' section) predates Bacharach's 'If We Ever Get Out Of Here' by some five or six years.