The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

I vote for a couple of Burt songs with the best instrumental "intoductions"
1. Who Is Gonna Love Me-Dionne -trumpet solo
2. Wishin' and Hopin'-Dusty-trumpet solo

Anyone have any favorite intros of Burt and his artsists tunes?

Steveo


P.S. another great one is Let ME Go TO Him-Dionne-Brass ensemble

My favorite instrumental intro is still Dionne's "Walk On By"--I just simply get a rush everytime I hear it on those oldie stations that play it from time to time.

yeah, thats a good one - no specific horn lick, etc, just a rhythm section intro....he used 2 pianos on that intro, and one of the
players you hear prominently is Paul Griffin(now deceased). Then there's the "chink"(dry) guitar part probably played by Vincent Bell.

Steveo

Hi Steveo,
Here's one of my favorite intro's.....simple, yet very effective !!!


"blue"

Bacharach's music has been described as being "baroque pop" because of the ornamental additions that are often added. Some of the best are the introductions. My favourites are -

Loneliness Remembers
If You Never Say Goodbye
Knowing When to Leave
Let me Go To Him
Where Would I Go
The Green Grass Starts To Grow
Walk The way You Talk
(Theres) Always Something Thre to Remind Me - all DW

Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa
The man Who Shot Liberty Valance - GP

Pacific Coast Highway
Do You Know The way To San Jose - from "Make it Easy on Yourself", BB

I Say a Little Prayer - from "Reach Out", BB

The Look of Love - Ron Isley version - where the intro is extended into a whole song on "At This Time"

Dave Noble

Probably my two favorite openings of any Bacharach song are among the simplest: I love the quiet euphonium opening riff of Jackie Deshannon's 'What The World Needs Now Is Love' and the stark, one-beat piano/guitar stinger of Dionne Warwick's 'Anyone Who Had A Heart.' They were each in their own unique ways such radical choices for introducing songs, particularly for that time period so dominated by lush, 2-measure 4/4 intros. It's actually almost surprising that the latter became a hit, given that valuable DJ pitch time was lost with no intro.

Wasn't Artie Butler one of the two pianists on 'Walk On By?' I remember reading that somewhere in reference to his ability to achieve a comparable Bacharach sound in some of his arrangements.

Thanks for all the good feedback, guys...
Blue mentioned "Never Get TO Heaven", which opens not with a trumpet solo, but Dionne's voice going la la la la la la la.....kind of saxlike...
then Bruce talked about Walk On By, which is a rhythm section opening...
Dave mentioned a lot of songs with brass intros..I must admit, I'm partial to the brass solo openings...be it trumpet, 3 unision trumpets, or twin
flugelhorns,whatever....

Steveo

Scottsgreg,
You are right about the Anyone Who Had a Heart being accepted by dj's..usually they want some sort of instant hook intro...I think once
they played it al the way through, it kind of, well, was a hypnotic thing they wanted to hear again and again. It grows on one quickly.
As far as the other piano player on Walk On By, it could very well have been Artie Butler..I know it is said that Burt did not perform piano on that record, that his role was the "mastermind".. he conducted, and produced in the "booth"...
Incidentally, my favorite intro of all time is one big chord with a fermata over it....The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night.....to quote a genius friend Bobby Keeter's oft saying...."What are you going to do for an encore, stand on your head and stack BB"S?"....hahaha

Steveo

There are so many good intros, but my vote goes to the lovely, melancholy piano intro to Dionne's "Here I Am" with the gentle guitar chords and that little bit of strings just audible down low. Is there anything sadder?

-Dennis Webb

1. Let Me Go To Him -- this is unequivocally my favorite opening.

Now, for the second best opening... I could pick so many it's ridiculous. But right now, I'll pick the following as number...

2. Lookin' With My Eyes.

Dennis Webb-Here I Am intro is one of a kind...magnificent!
I'd like to know whom Burt was thinking about when he Wrote Here I Am
I'm sure he'll never tell.
Enormous-Let Me Go To Him is one of my faves also
Steveo

At the risk of sounding like a cracked record (of a BB toon, of course) my favourite intro would have to be that itty-bitty single word stripped naked by Dusty, "The" from "The Look of Love". Okay, I'm clearly obsessed with the song, but what a way to go ...

Well, Dom
That is what we call a "Dead Start", where the vocal comes right in...there was a group from Liverpool who kind of made it that had a habit of that...
lets see if i can think of some other songs like that...
note: I mean to say From Me to You -not Please PLease Me -Beatles
If i Fell- Beatles
Can't Buy ME Love-Beatles
count off 1-2-3 fahh!I Saw Her Standing There-Beatles
Elanor Rigby-Beatles theycome in a 16th note ahead of the track-not much
You're Gonna Lose That Girl-The Beatles
Please Mr. Postman(well almost- the cymbal and bass dr preceed the vocal by an eighth ...)-Beatles
Long Tall Sally-Beatles & Little Richard
A Young Man is Gone-Beach Boys
Graduation Day-Four Freshmen
Please Make Him Love Me-Dionne Warwick
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'-Righteous Bros.
Jenny Lee-JAn and Arnie
Mr. Blue-Fleetwoods
The Three bells-The Browns(featuring Jim Ed brown)

and many others....

Steveo

Yeah! I really love those because you get some of the artiste "nude" as it were. There isn't enough of it. More please, artistes.