The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Sara D wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 4:09 am It's nice that Julie London and Peggy Lee have been discussed or at least referred to on the forum recently because both are singers I grew up hearing a lot at home as my parents owned several of their albums on vinyl.

It's also interesting that Alma Cogan has been featured here and I remember my dad reminiscing about the time he saw her perform in the mid-60s at London's Talk Of The Town and how she had the audience in stitches with her impressions of Shirley Bassey and Vera Lynn singing the Beatles' 'She Loves You'. Among the literally thousands of books he left behind was the biography of Alma written by her sister Sandra Caron and among its scores of illustrations was one of a typed Christmas card list of names which reads like a Who's Who of the British and American entertainment industry circa 1965, including that of Burt Bacharach. Despite according to her sister having men falling in love with her on an almost monthly basis and apparently receiving many proposals she famously never married and I know that many people have read an awful lot into her very touching recording of 'If Love Were All' as if it was somehow autobiographical. However, as Sandra Caron's book makes clear Alma Cogan was only truly in love with one thing and that was her career and it was a love she stayed faithful to until her death from ovarian cancer at the age of thirty-four.

Here's that recording of 'If Love Were All' and despite the poignant nature of the song she still manages to squeeze in one of her trademark chuckles.

Because it's so untypical of her, If Love Were All is probably my favourite recording by Alma Cogan, helped in no small way by Tony Osborne's gorgeous arrangement. Apparently Noël Coward thought that her recording was the definitive version of his song and it led to a friendship between the two and him becoming a regular at her famous parties.

For such a relatively simple song I'm discovering to my surprise that Trains And Boats And Planes has inspired plenty of versions that are just that little bit, how shall we say, different.