The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Although I love Laura Nyro as a songwriter and love some of her interpretations, this is not among my favorites. I prefer Dionne's version and even Barbra Streisand's version to Laura's. Dionne's version has a quiet urgency in her voice that just draws you into the tune that Barbra and Laura miss...I have never fround this too earnest version of the tune to be very compelling.

BachtoBacharach,
Although I love Laura and Barbra's renditions , I agree with you....Dionne's is the "definitive"
version.

"blue"

Hal David's lyric's seem more relevant today than ever before........


"blue"

Dionne sings Thom Bell and Linda Creed (1975)........


"blue"

All these recently posted songs are so wonderful, many thanks for bringing them back to life. 'His House and Me', for example, could comfortably sit alongside other favourites in Dionne's concerts and yet she seems to steer clear of them.. even the one's that arn't too vocally stretching.

Dionne allegedly broke down in the studio when recording His House and Me...was in the throes of a nasty divorce at the time so that's understandable...such emotion comes through in her performance. A great tune! BTW, Dionne's back catalog is so vast that she could do a concert of tunes like these without ever even tapping her hits or her better known tunes...but I suspect that folks who pay to see her want to hear her hits most of all...and she certainly obliges them. Do you realize that she could do a medley of 56 tunes before exausting her Billboard Hot 100 Chart hits?

I really have enjoyed the recent videos that have been posted. My favorite non-Bacharach song by Dionne is "Don't Ever Take Your Love Away" written by the late, great Isaac Hayes along with Adrienne Anderson. I mixed that version with two others, one by John Klemmer on solo sax (with great background vocalists) and another by East Coast Offering which also featured awsome background vocals. I have been trying to find a recording of the latter since my vinyl copy somehow disappeared. Does a video of Dionne's version exist and if so, can someone please post it? I also like Isaac's original version. That song holds some incredible and deep emotions!

Bruce,
Here it is.......shades of "Deja Vu"


"blue"

This song done by not my favorite singer!



But this song will always be a song that i closed in my heart, as all those other BURT songs!


Kind Regards,

Marcel

Very interesting glimpse of another time and place. Another benefit for fans of this forum. Thanks for posting this.

I've always been fond of Dusty Springfield's recording of 'Twenty-Fours From Tulsa' and here's some British TV footage of her performing the song from her BBC series in the 60s:

A Bacharach/Sager track from '83...... IMHO one of their best !


"blue"

Dear blueonblue .. It is such a brilliant song and sound and thank you for posting it. I have learn't so much by being on this forum and hopefully will learn much more in the future. My aim is to get a lot of these fabulous songs on airplay for future generations. Sadly most radio stations seem to either play what is current,usually bad music, or repetitive significant hits from the past .. the same songs played over and over again and as I've said before, each artist, whether it's Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Aretha, Earth wind And Fire, whoever only get there no 1 hits performed and not the bulk of their material which is often so much better. Sad but true. For Burt the percentage of airplay for real greats is so low considering his huge out put over the last 50 years.

Radio 2 in the UK have played a Dolly Parton song from her new album 3,000 times to the exclusion of a number of terrific new releases from fabulous artists whether Stateside or UK based. Nothing against Dolly but why, for example, didn't KD Lang and her new recording a few months back for example get a mention? Who controls all of this? It goes without saying that Dionne's latest Sammy Cahn recordings, 'Never Trust Your Heart' don't seem to have arrived at all in the UK. What's up?

Thanks "blue" for posting "Don't Ever Take Your Love Away" and also "Blame It On Me". There's also another Bacharach/Sager composition from that same album that just blows me away. The name of it is "Maybe". And to "gillanddon", I couldn't agree with you more about the lack of airplay of the more obscure Bacharach compositions and also the fact that this Forum brings truth and knowledge to all its readers. I have turned a number of my friends/associates/acquaintences on to this Forum as during conversations about music, I always mention that Burt is my favorite composer and I often get responses like "mine too!" or "can't get enough of him and Dionne!". Regarding that latter response, as I've mentioned before, I can only be hopeful that BB/HD/DW would surprise all of their fans with a new project!

Thank you Bruce for that. It gets frustrating when so much fabulous music doesn't get heard. Perhaps it's always been like that. So little airtime space, so many great artists. The Burt Bacharach songbook needs 100 percent more exposure as far as I'm concerned. In the UK, the 'loyalists' on the BBC always play the Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Dusty Springfield versions of Burt's songs. The British girls who swiped Dionne's songs. I have nothing against them but please give us Dionne!! Altho' not British we had Jackie de Shannon, and I think she's great too, singing 'What The World Needs Now' the other morning and I felt like phoning Steve Wright (BBC Radio 2 Sunday Love Songs) to say how much better I think Dionne's version is or please give Dionne a chance. My gripe is why not extend the catalogue? Why don't we hear more of Dionne's fabulous songs from Burt and Hal and beyond?