Living Without Love

[steveo_1965]

Came accross an origninal Lead sheet of this tune(photocopy)...mentioned in
Serene Dominic's book as a tune that may have been recorded by someone, but so far unknown...Anyone know of any recordings of this tune by Burt and Hal, written in late 1963?

Steveo

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I just checked the Hitmake Archive (which I'm sure you also checked) and found it odd that, although the song is listed, no artist is listed as having sung the song. And that archive is quite thorough. I also checked the very thorough ASCAP list of all Burt's songs and it was listed there, too. (But that list only lists songs/compositions and not who or where it was recorded.) Is it possible that the song was actually never recorded? Could it have been a composition from a movie score that never made it into the movie? It does seem odd, though.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I don't believe this! The answer was right HERE under our noses. Click on the "Discography" link on the Homepage of this very site. And you'll see the following:

1965 -- Jon Best, Living Without Love (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) (produced by Franklyn Boyd, music director: Arthur Greenslade, Decca single F12077)

I guess The Hitmaker Archive can add this to their list.

Now who is Jon Best, that's what I want to know?!!

[steveo_1965]

Enormous,
Thanks for the quick detective work! I haven't a clue who Jon Best is,
but now we know theres a recording of this out there to look for. Looking at the score, it's not a bad song, in fact
it's a lot better than a lot of early songs from the 50's Burt and Hal have written...
Best,
Steveo
P.S. the arranger on the record is Arthur Greenslade, who in the later 60's, worked for Rod McKuen. He is British, and I think this may have been an English release.

[steveo_1965]

Yeah,
Jon Best is British and was on the scene recording for British Decca in about 1965.
Here's another listing found for the same record (the B Side I guess)

42860 Jon Best Young Boy Blues - Ex+ 65 7" Decca 12077 UK 10.0

record selling site:http://www.memcollect.co.uk/cgi-bin/mem ... ORY=50-60s

[nymusicalsguy]

There is also a cover of "Living Without Love" performed by VInce Hill, production and/or arrangement I believe by Norrie Paramor. Yet another Burt & Hal song that the Maestro himself never tackled in the studio...imagine, to be so prolific!!

[steveo_1965]

NY,
Thank you for the info on Vince Hill. After a look on the net for Vince, I found this...
http://www.45-rpm.org.uk/dirv/vinceh.htm
Yes, Burt is and was very prolific, especially during the 60's.
He sometimes tho, would throw things out there to various other production teams.. with mixed results...to see what would happen...the results were sometimes good, sometimes not so good. And, as you said, he couldn't supervise every session as he only had so much time.
In Dusty Springfield's case, she had a regular team of people who were top notch..Arranger Ivor Raymonde, and A&R man Jonnhy Franz. In their hands, Burt's material turned out wonderfully!
Steveo