Bacharach autobiography Coming in November

[BachtoBacharach]

Burt Bacharach, the American musician, producer and composer behind dozens of Top 40 hits, plans to write his autobiography.

Bacharach is known for writing the music, while Hal David handled the lyrics, on dozens of songs for Dionne Warwick, including I Say a Little Prayer and What the World Needs Now.

However, for his memoir (to be published by HarperCollins in November), he will pen the words himself — with a little help from Robert Greenfield, who wrote a biography of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun.

HarperCollins said the book will be called Anyone Who Had a Heart, the title of one of the hits Bacharach wrote for Warwick.

Bacharach, 83, has won three Academy Awards and eight Grammys. He wrote and arranged for everyone from Marlene Dietrich and Elvis Presley to Elvis Costello and Dr. Dre. His music has been used in dozens of films, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Alfie and The Heartbreak Kid.

Despite his professional success, his personal life has been troubled. Bacharach has been divorced three times after marriages to singer Paula Stewart, actress Angie Dickinson and fellow songwriter Carole Bayer Sager. His daughter by Dickinson, Nikki, committed suicide at age 40.

HarperCollins says Bacharach will open up about both his personal and professional life in the autobiography, including addressing his bitter breakup with lyricist David.

[steveo_1965]

Thank you for the information Bach, I lll look for this in the stores after November!

Steveo

[Blair N. Cummings]

As I opined under an earlier thread, I don`t expect much from this. I doubt that it will be the dismissable quickie that Dionne`s volume was, but introspection and personal revelation aren`t known to be Burt`s strong suits. As someone obviously closer to the source than I, would you care to speculate on just what we MIGHT realistically expect?

[BachtoBacharach]

I suspect it will be illuminating to a degree that Dionne's wasn't, but only to a degree. Burt, in interviews after his breakup with Warwick and David was suprisingly bitter toward Dionne, especially once she returned to the fore in popular music via Clive Davis/Barry Manilow. I think time has tempered that although at times he has been gently critical of Dionne's involvement in the PFN and other things and frank about Dionne's apparent combativeness at times in the early days among other things. He refers to Dionne as Charlie and Sista and with great affection. But in all, I suspect for the most part, he will be reverent and respectful of his close and enduring friendship with Dionne and Hal. As far as his marriages, I suspect that the treatment there will be somewhat superficial. I am interested in what he will write about his beloved Nikki though. He and Angie Dickinson were such a superstar couple and there was obviously a lot of love between those two and a lot of huge Hollywood hype as well...they were "THE" celebrity couple for a while. I look for him to be a little less respectful although not snarky toward Carol Bayer Sager. Little has been written about Burt's relationship with Dionne's family but they were very close and that might be interesting to hear Burt's thoughts on the Warricks and the Houstons. Also, little has been written about Burt's friendship with Dionne away from the music...their friendship was strong and just that, a friendship, despite all the idle speculation through the years about the true nature of their relationship. Perhaps he can finally put those rumors to rest. I think it might be a revealing read to an extent...Dionne's autobiography was a rehash of many press articles, book forwards and the like that was filled out slightly with some hokey "pearls of wisdom" and some personal observations...something she basically phoned in. There was little in the way of insight into Dionne herself, much less Burt. She struggled to get 300 pages published. I think Burt, in spirit, will open up as much as he is capable of doing...there will be some introspection I'm sure but I don't expect a book filled with awesome insights into Burt.

[Steve Schenck]

I also don't expect a very detailed look inside his personal life, nor would I really expect him to give us that. I don't really care about the ups and downs of his marriages. I definitely would like to know about his professional relationships with Hal and Dionne, and with Carol too, since she was also a professional partner in the music business. I do want to know about the famous break-up. There has been so much speculation about the emotional bitterness over the Lost Horizon fiasco, but I'd like to hear from him exactly what precipitated the split, because that was a major event in his professional life, apart from the turmoil it represented in his personal life. More than anything, I want to hear more from him about how he composes, how he makes his choices musically in the development of a line. I hope we'll get that. I suspect that, overall, Burt will be gentlemanly, even when being honest. However you look at it, he's got to be nearing the end of his days, and I think he'd like to be remembered for an honest, revealing, but not harsh or mean-spirited memoir.