The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Listening to Trijnte Oosterhuis's latest release got me wondering just how many artists have recorded entire albums of Bacharach songs over the last sixty years? Concentrating exclusively on singers and excluding all the various orchestra leaders and jazz musicians who've recorded instrumental albums of Bacharach's music, here's a list in roughly chronological order of all the various singers and vocal groups that I'm aware of who've recorded entire albums of Bacharach or Bacharach & David material. If there's anyone I've overlooked please let me know:

Gals and Pals
Connie Francis
Anita Kerr Singers
Sheila Southern
Ed Ames
Marion Maerz
The Tony Mansell Singers
The Dells
Rita Reys
Stephanie Mills
Hazel Dean
Anita Meyer
Ornella Vanoni
Ron Isley
Casino Royale (the band)
Michael Ball
Trijntje Oosterhuis (3)
Thomas Stafford
Patty Ascher
Carol Duboc
Steve Tyrell
Yeongene
Ronan Keating
Rumer
Karima
Shoko Suzuki
Yasuko Agawa
Laura Avanzolina
Allesandro Petini
Denise Donatelli

With the addition of Anita Meyer's name the list is now comprised of thirty singers or vocal groups. It would be interesting to see how that number compares to the amount of vocalists who've recorded albums of songs by the likes of Cole Porter and George Gershwin? The most surprising name not included is that of Dionne Warwick and although one or two 'Dionne Warwick Sings Bacharach & David' compilations have been released, she never quite managed to record an original album consisting exclusively of their material. Dusty Springfield also never recorded a Bacharach album but she covered enough of his material during the 1960s for a 'Dusty Sings Bacharach' compilation to emerge in the early 70s. The same applies to Gene Pitney but his 'Sings Bacharach' compilation had to be padded out with three tracks composed by other writers because he only ever recorded seven Bacharach songs in total. The scat singing group The Renaissance were originally included on the list for their all-Bacharach album but as their vocals are wordless and are in effect imitating instruments it has to be regarded as an instrumental album, strange though that may seem. Basically the words have to be sung for it to be considered a 'songbook' album, even if in the case of the albums by Marion Maerz (German) and Ornella Vanoni (Italian) the lyrics have been translated into another language.

Paul,
Thank you for your painstaking effort on this one.
BTW do Elvis Costello and Ed Ames qualify....I'm sure there may be more ?

I also remember Ronnie Carroll and "The Lovely" Aimi MacDonald producing a 'Promises, Promises' album.

'blue'

blue, as the album 'Painted From Memory' is credited to both Elvis Costello AND Burt Bacharach I don't think it qualifies. As for artists recording albums based on a particular Bacharach and David musical as in the case of Ed Ames (Lost Horizon) and Ronnie Carroll & Aimi MacDonald (Promises, Promises), my feeling is that because those albums concentrate on a specific project rather than Bacharach's music as a whole they can't really be considered as 'tribute' albums. However, you've personally just reminded me that Ed Ames did record a bona fide Bacharach and David tribute album in the early 70s which apart from the usual hits included versions of 'Nikki' and 'How Does A Man Become A Puppet' and so consequently he's been added to that already very long list. Can you remember Rumer once stating when promoting her own Bacharach and David tribute album that "surprisingly few" artists had recorded Bacharach albums? How misinformed she was.

Pljms, here you will find some artists to add to your list:
McCoy Tyner, What the world needs now, 1997
Ornella Vanoni, Sogni proibiti – Ornella e le canzoni di Bacharach, 2002
Stan Getz, What the world needs now, Stan Getz plays the Bacharach and David, 1968

Davide, as I stated before the list concentrates solely on singers and vocal groups who have recorded Bacharach albums, not jazz musicians or orchestra leaders who've recorded purely instrumental albums of his music. My guess is that there's been dozens of orchestral albums released over the years by the likes of Frank Chacksfield, Ronnie Aldrich and Tony Hatch and for them and all the various jazz musicians who've recorded Bacharach albums there's a separate list to be made.

Paul, my mistake. So please take only Ornella Vanoni album!

Thanks Davide, Ornella Vanoni's name has been added to the list. I now vaguely recollect her Bacharach album being discussed on the forum way back in the mists of time and when we were all a lot younger.

Paul, I love Ornella Vanoni because she sung beautiful Italian cover of Brazilian songs when I was a child ("L'appuntamento" 1970 and "Dettagli" 1973) as well as good melodic Italian songs.
The only intesting thing in her Bacharach cover album was the song "Love's Still The Answer". It was the first recording of the song.
Funny that 5 Burt songs made their debut in Italy:
- Love's still the answer by Ornella Vanoni
- Come in ogni ora (Every other hour) by Karima
- Un domani per noi due (How the heart knows) by Karima
- Something that was beautiful by Mario Biondi
- Just walk away by karma

Yes Davide, a lot of Italian singers seem to have an affinity with Bacharach's music, plus it's well known that he has a bigger fan base in Italy than any other country in mainland Europe. I believe 'Come In Ogni Ora' was a big hit in Italy for Karima and that also there was a dispute over the song's authorship (see the link below). The version of the song with Karima singing in Italian and Mario Biondi in English has featured once or twice on the forum.

https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_in ... ntroversia

pljms wrote: ↑Sun Jul 10, 2022 7:13 am .....My guess is that there's been dozens of orchestral albums released over the years by the likes of Frank Chacksfield, Ronnie Aldrich and Tony Hatch and for them and all the various jazz musicians who've recorded Bacharach albums there's a separate list to be made.

I think the main reason why for a lot of people Bacharach's name is synonymous with the dreaded terms 'Easy Listening' and 'Muzak' is the sheer number of light orchestral albums that have been released of his music over the years. The early 70s alone saw a proliferation of such albums (I know, I bought most of them!) and these added to all the releases by jazz musicians, baroque groups, military bands and even the odd string quartet or two will make for a list every bit as long if not longer than the one for vocalists. Good luck with that!

I'd somehow overlooked Dutch singer Anita Meyer's 1989 release 'Close To You - The Beautiful Songs Of Burt Bacharach', so consequently her name has been added to the long list of vocalists who've recorded Bacharach albums. Out of all the albums recorded from the 1980s onwards this is the one that contains the most songs from his partnership with Carole Bayer Sager, six of the fourteen tracks in fact.

pljms wrote: ↑Fri Jul 08, 2022 12:12 am Listening to Trijnte Oosterhuis's latest release got me wondering just how many artists have recorded entire albums of Bacharach songs over the last sixty years? Concentrating exclusively on singers and excluding all the various orchestra leaders and jazz musicians who've recorded instrumental albums of Bacharach's music, here's a list in roughly chronological order of all the various singers and vocal groups that I'm aware of who've recorded entire albums of Bacharach or Bacharach & David material. If there's anyone I've overlooked please let me know:

Gals and Pals
Connie Francis
Anita Kerr Singers
Sheila Southern
Ed Ames
Marion Maerz
The Tony Mansell Singers
The Dells
Rita Reys
Stephanie Mills
Hazel Dean
Anita Meyer
Ornella Vanoni
Ron Isley
Casino Royale (the band)
Michael Ball
Trijntje Oosterhuis (3)
Thomas Stafford
Patty Ascher
Carol Duboc
Steve Tyrell
Yeongene
Ronan Keating
Rumer
Karima
Shoko Suzuki
Yasuko Agawa
Laura Avanzolina
Allesandro Petini
Denise Donatelli

Another name to add to the long list of singers who've recorded a Bacharach album is that of Nicki Parrott, an Australian who apparently sings while playing the double bass. Of the fifteen Bacharach standards featured on the album this is one of the less predictable of the choices and it features the brilliant Harry Allen on tenor sax.