The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

'Be Aware' has previously been recorded by Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, The Anita Kerr Singers and Laura Nyro, and here's Trijntje Oosterhuis's version from her new all-Bacharach album:

The orchestration on 'Be Aware' is my favourite arrangement of all the songs on the album.

I recently listened again to Laura Nyro's recording of the song which was released posthumously and was reminded that she didn't include the lines, "And while your stomach's full somewhere in this world someone is hungry. When there is so much, should anyone be hungry?" As she also left out that part of the lyric on an earlier demo recording of the song I don't think we can regard it merely as an oversight on her part.

One of my favourite tracks on the album is You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart), which has a very lush arrangement based on the version of the song by The Stylistics.

Re: You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)

This arrangement was really beautiful in Traincha's voice!
Brilliant!

I agree. Both the lead and backing vocals blend wonderfully well with the arrangement. I've long thought that You'll Never Get To Heaven is one of Bacharach's most underrated tunes, not least by the composer himself who to my knowledge has never featured the song in one of his concerts.

It has taken several months but I finally got hold of a CD copy of this album, and without having to pay the earth. Because they had to delve deeper into Bacharach's song catalogue for this third volume I think that it's a more interesting and varied selection. While Trijntje Oosterhuis's voice definitely sounds huskier on this album than on the two previous volumes, the orchestral arrangements are if anything more lush and with the possible exception of 'Every Other Hour' they do the songs justice.

It's refreshing to hear someone other than Elvis Costello perform the small but perfectly formed 'I Still Have That Other Girl', and although the original title has been retained, Trijntje Oosterhuis does actually sing "guy" rather than "girl" in her rendition.

Thanks Paul for sharing "I Still Have That Other Girl" with the Forum! I agree with your assessment of Traincha's 3rd collection of Bacharach's songs. The reason for the lushier sound on it is because of the producer. If I'm not mistaken, the first two were produced by Vince Montana. This one was produced by Larry Klein whose style is simply brilliant. I became a fan of his after hearing his work with another great vocalist—Julia Fordham. It was on her "Concrete Love" album that really caught my ear. That album is truly a tour-de-force. The title track, which features India Arie, is one of my favorite songs of all time. Larry's minimalistic approaches on his projects are nothing less than sterling. It would be interesting to hear Julia tackle a Bacharach composition. I can't think of the other artists that he's worked with but do remember that they too benefited from his productions. He also plays a mean bass!

I had forgotten Klein existed. I only knew that forty years ago he was married to Joni Mitchell and produced her (lesser) albums for Geffen.

Larry Klein also produced Denise Donatelli's recently released all-Bacharach album 'Whistling In The Dark' which has been featured here on the forum.

Burt and Traincha....work in progress.


'blue'

I liked what I heard of the arrangement on the brief snippet of 'Let Me Go To Him' featured in one of the two videos just posted, so I immediately went in hot persuit of the complete track:

Amazing!
It's impossible not to get emotional and even cry.
Burt and Traincha, a fantastic duo!

I have really enjoyed this...but I would love to hear Who Is Gonna Love Me (only available on the vinyl ?)....

Hank, I've been keeping an eye out on YouTube for both that and 'Wives And Lovers', the other vinyl only track from the album.

I remember sometime in the autumn of 1981 being in a car with a French work colleague and driving through the Loire-Atlantique region of France when we heard a new record by Christopher Cross on the car radio. During the record's fade-out I thought I heard the French DJ mention Burt Bacharach and my colleague confirmed that the DJ had said that he was the song's composer and it was from a new movie called 'Arthur'. I recall being very surprised because first of all it had been several years since I'd heard anything new from Bacharach played on the radio, plus I hadn't recognised any of his traits as a composer in the song, not helped by what I considered to be the record's very bland, anodyne, typically early 80s production and arrangement. A few days later I bought 'Arthur: The Album' in the Paris branch of Tower Records and it was only when I listened to Bacharach's instrumental version of 'Arthur's Theme' on the album and started to pick out the chords on the piano when I got back home to the UK that I started to recognise his stamp as a composer, particularly in the chorus with those trademark major 7ths. However, when the song eventually became a hit in the UK a few months later I remember there was quite a lot of speculation of a mostly jocular nature on pop radio stations and in the music press regarding the division of labour between the four writers credited with the song and whether Bacharach was fully responsible for the music. On the latter point, I do recall finding it a bit curious on 'Arthur: The Album' that while the lyricists names disappeared from the credits for the purely instrumental versions of 'Poor Rich Boy' ('Money') and 'It's Only Love', leaving Bacharach's name as the sole composer, for the instrumental version of 'Arthur's Theme' all four writers names remained. The clouds of confusion didn't really start to lift until well over thirty years later with the publication of Carole Bayer Sager's autobiography and it seems that when she came up with the line "The best that you can do is fall in love" at the end of the chorus - apparently the last piece of the song's jigsaw to be fitted - she also supplied a melody and as Bacharach couldn't offer a superior alternative it remains the only part of the song he wasn't responsible for musically. If that's the case, why wasn't the instrumental version on 'Arthur: The Album' just credited to Bacharach and Bayer Sager? As for the other two people named in parentheses, Christopher Cross apparently co-wrote the lyrics to the second verse with Carole Bayer Sager while Peter Allen got a credit for giving permission for the use of his words concerning the moon and New York City which had originated in an unpublished song he wrote with Bayer Sager years before. Who said songwriting was a simple and uncomplicated business?

All that preamble leads to Trijntje Oosterhuis's version of the song on her album.

pljms wrote: ↑Sat Jun 11, 2022 1:32 am ......when the song eventually became a hit in the UK a few months later I remember there was quite a lot of speculation of a mostly jocular nature on pop radio stations and in the music press regarding the division of labour between the four writers credited with the song.....

I also recall one or two radio presenters commenting that the music to the verses of 'Arthur's Theme' reminded them of the Roberta Flack hit 'Killing Me Softly With His Song' and it was something that also struck me when I first heard the Christopher Cross record. It certainly is very rare for a Bacharach song to sound even vaguely derivative of another work and the only other instance I can think of off the top of my head is the chorus of 'The Young Grow Younger Every Day' with its echoes of 'Auld Lang Syne'.