Pianist on Bacharach's recordings

[mortimus]

Could any Burt expert tell me- who is the pianist on Aretha Franklin's unsurpassed 1968 recording of I Say a Little Prayer? Lovely mellow tone in the opening.

For that matter did Bacharach use a regular keyboard player in his recordings?

Perhaps it is BB himself- an excellent pianist in his own right.

[BachtoBacharach]

Mortimus, Bacharach had nothing to do with Aretha's recording of I Say a Little Prayer. I believe it is Aretha herself or maybe her sister Carolyn Frankin who is heard on the piano in Aretha's recording. The tune was written for Dionne Warwick and arranged, produced and recorded in 1966 by Bacharach and Warwick at A & R Studios in NYC. Burt played the piano and conducted on the Warwick session. Aretha and her group were noodling around in a recording session in 1968 and between takes, they started a spontaneous version of Dionne's I Say a Little Prayer. Jerry Wexler liked the improvised version so much he committed it to tape. Dionne's original hit the # 4 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1967. In the US, Aretha's version hit the Hot 100 where it stalled at #10 in September 1968. Dionne's recording was a much bigger hit in the US than Aretha's version and received more airplay and until the past 15 years or so was the version most remembered. However, Aretha's version has been favored by recent media and younger critics and is often cited as the better version. To my ears, Aretha's version is great, but she employs her usual semi-gut-bucket style and wrestles the tune to the ground whereas Dionne's ethereal vocals treatment takes the tune into a totally different realm. I was around when Dionne's original hit and it's always been the definitive version for me. For my money, if one wants to talk about Aretha's best recording, it would have to be A Natural Woman...that is a sublime recording and one of the best Aretha ever did. No gut-bucket wailing there!

BTW, Bacharach played on some sessions with Warwick. On Warwick's Walk On By the dueling grands were played by Paul Griffin and Artie Butler. Bacharach himself played on Dionne's I'll Never Fall In Love Again, Alfie and Here I Am among others. Artie Butler and Bacharach played dueling grands again on Dionne's Check Out Time.

[grooverider]

Dear BachtoBacharach, Thank you for all the info. as to who played piano on these recordings. One of favorite arrangers is Artie Butler, so it was a great surprise to hear that he accompanied Mr. Bacharach on "Check Out Time", a great, sublime, thematic and cinematic song. Any other Bacharach/David/Warwick recordings that Mr. Butler played on, it's too bad musician credits were not listed on those Scepter recordings. I believe listing those musicians was not a common occurance until the late 60's, early 70's on the back of an lp jacket. Thank you again, for your valuable information.

[Jerry]

Hey-

Whilst on the subject of Aretha's 'best'-i.e., subtlest recordings-i have truly come to love her song-speak style on 'Daydreamin''. her storytelling phrasing is worthy of either dionne or Sinatra, I think!

Best,

Jerry

[BachtoBacharach]

Jerry, Daydreamin' is one of my favorite recordings by Aretha. It was a little of a departure for her. It was really more reminiscent of something Dionne might have recorded in the early 70s. I grew up listening to Aretha's recordings for Columbia from about 1960 through about 1966 and the Aretha that Mitch Miller tried to create was more polished and refined than the Aretha that Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin created for Atlantic in 1967. I say created because both Miller and Wexler/Mardin were svengalis of a sort and confined Aretha. I do agree that the Atlantic Aretha was closer to who she really was but still, her sound and her persona were carefully crafted by Atlantic. Before she ever hit the recording studio for Atlantic, she was molded into this sort of black anthem singer...keep in mind however, that she didn't define that genre although she is often credited for doing so. Folks forget that Otis Redding, Irma Thomas, Big Maybelle, Doris Troy, James Brown, Solomon Burke and so many others defined that genre. Dionne on the other hand was not crafted by Bacharach and David; they didn't set out to "make her over". She as much defined their music as they did her sound and the niche those three created together defied definition. They found their muse in Warwick and her sheer vocal talent and musical ability inspired the pair to go places they wouldn't have otherwise gone musically. Dionne's success was all the more remarkable because she didn't have the gigantic Atlantic hype machine behind her that Aretha did and that the Motown artists enjoyed and still she was second only to Aretha when one considers the entirety of their charted hits during the rock era. She was the only female singer in the 1960s who was neck in neck as popular as Aretha and she and Aretha were the only two female singers consistently selling records by the millions in the 1960s. If Dionne was number one solo female in a particular year during the mid and latter part of the decade and into the early 70s, Aretha was number two and vice versa and the others like Dusty Springfield etc. were distant also-rans. Aretha was the precursor of the created female vocalist found today...although Aretha was genuinely and brilliantly talented unlike so many of the Vocoder and Auto-Tuned processed vocalists we see today. Dionne and Aretha COULD carry a tune in a bucket...no lip syncing for them in concert! There will never be singers such as those two again.

[Jerry]

Wow, BtoB, that was terrifically informative! Though, i must protest your characterization of Ms. Dusty Springfield as an 'also-ran'. She have been so, in sales terms, but for me, she is second only to Dionne in terms of artistry, style, beauty and, well, just about everything else!

All The Best...

[BachtoBacharach]

Love Dusty and am speaking of "also ran" in terms of commerciality only, not artistically. Janis Joplin bragged in 1969 that it was an honor for her to come in third behind Dionne and Aretha! Unfortunately, Dusty was mismanaged throughout most of her career and didn't find the great commercial success that Aretha and Dionne enjoyed in the USA. Her classic album 'Dusty in Memphis" was criminally neglected commercially when released in 1969 although Arif Mardin and Jerry Wexler put the entire Atlantic hype machine behind that album it failed to hit big at the time even though it contianed one of her biggest hits and my favorite "Son of a Preacher Man". It has only been in recent years that the public has caught on to what a brilliant album it was. Dionne's Memphis effort, Soulful was commercially a big hit at the time and yielded the Top 20 remake of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling'" along with a #2 placement on the R & B Album chart and a #13 placement on the Hot 100 Album Chart. Soulful was a departure for Dionne and the public and critics at the time it was released were very favorable. Dusty's Memphis album has stood the test of time and become a true classic since the death of Dusty and Dionne's Memphis has only recently begun to regain some status as a classic.

[Jerry]

"Dusty in Memphis' was the album that got me thinking about all of this music--I would include Burt/Hal, Brian Wilson, Jimmy Webb--and inspired me creatively on so many levels. The album is almost a confessional...she seems almost to be singing 'in character' on each song: 'I don't want to hear it anymore', Goffin & King's 'Just One Smile' and Burt & Hal's authentically haunting 'In the Land of Make Believe', being my favorites. This album, with PetSoundsnd the Sinatra-Jobim collaboration, seems to have just...happened, in a really organic way. I don't think Dusty Sprngfield really inhabited songs the way she did on 'Memphis' at any other time. As with so many singers during this period, she was subject to overly-florid arrangments and sub-par productions. Dioone Warwick, of course was supremely fortunate that she was working with one of the greatest producer/arrangers ever (we know who!), but really, I don't think Dionne ever had such a unified creative statement such as 'Dusty in Memphis' in her history.

i really believe it is one of the great works of art from a time period chock full of them.

[BachtoBacharach]

Jerry, interesting point regarding the organic whole of Dusty in Memphis and so true. Most of Dionne's 1960s albums, as great as they were, were stitched together from her single releases and "B" sides and sometimes lacked continuity but that can be forgiven because of the classic tunes by Bacharach/David they contained. The only concept albums Dionne ever intentionally did in the 60s were The Magic of Believing (gospel), On Stage and In the Movies (showtunes and movie themes) and Soulful (R&B remakes). Dionne was the epitome of a true singles artist as was Aretha. The album which always makes just about every critic's listings of the best rock albums of all time is interestingly a UK compilation called "Presenting Dionne Warwick", not to be confused with her initial Scepter release by the same name. This was a Pye release from 1964 which contained the best of her first three albums "Presenting", Anyone Who Had A Heart and "Make Way for Dionne Warwick." In the US, her "Presenting" album usually makes the critic's listing of the best albums of all times simply because it was so unique at the time and introduced a sound unlike anything else heard at the time. Dionne sold millions of albums but most folks who bought those albums for the most part were interested in the singles (and future singles) they contained. In some cases, such as Do You Know the Way to San Jose, a few singles were taken from albums but for the most part, the singles came first.