Botched Lyrics

[Bacharach Land]

Hi All,

Recently, I was listening to The Anita Kerr Singers: Reflect on the Hits of Burt Bacharach and Hal David and I came across an odd interpretation of "A House is Not a Home." For the opening line of the song, they sing, "A chair is not a chair, even when there's no one sitting there." Yep, you read that correctly. A chair is NOT a chair!! I couldn't believe it. At first the change was extremely jarring to my ears and my mind. But then it just seemed humorous that such an important word in such a popular song could be misread (or written incorrectly or misinterpreted) by such a high-profile group.

Honestly, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. I was also wondering if anyone, in their years of listening to Burt Bacharach songs, has come across any similar botched lyrics. I'd be interested in hearing any and all contributions.

Here's The Anita Kerr Singers' misinterpretation of "A House is Not a Home"
http://www.yousendit.com/download/TTdHR ... RTJ4dnc9PQ

Aside from the incorrect lyric, it is a beautiful recording of a Bacharach/David classic. Definitely worth downloading.

Best,
Noah

[steveo_1965]

I don't think Anita Kerr spent much time listening to Bacharach and David songs....She was a busy woman doing a lot of sessions, and
probably heard the songs only a few times.......
Still, I'm wondering what she used as the source for her "lead sheet"....
Amusing.....

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I posted this here a long time ago now. I'll post it again since it's a propos to this discussion. I couldn't believe it either. Engelbert Humperdinck sings "Close To You" and instead of singing, "... so they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold, and starlight in your eyes of blue".... instead of that, he sang, "... so they sprinkled moon dust in your hair and gold and starlight in your eyes of blue" !!! I guess he doesn't even listen to what he's saying. Either that, or someone is sprinkling gold into her eyes. That must sting like crazy, too!!

Now to be fair (and I've discussed this here also): The Carpenters sang it like this:

So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair
of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue.

Notice where the break is. It doesn't come in the right place. If Burt insisted on a pause there, then Hal didn't exactly fit the lyric properly to where the pause comes. So maybe that's why Engelbert got confused. I don't know.

There's another instance where Hal's lyric doesn't work exactly right with the music. It's in "Odds and Ends", where the lyric goes:

Your pillow wasn't slept upon your
closet was empty too....

The pause after "your" isn't exactly the way you'd want it to be... in my humble opinion. And, by the way, these are two great songs, too, no matter where the pauses are!

[nowmedical]

Nope, can't agree. The Carpenters sing:

"so they sprinkled moondust in your hair,
and golden starlight in your eyes of blue".... diddly ooh, diddly ooh...

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Nope, can't agree. The Carpenters sing:

"so they sprinkled moondust in your hair,
and golden starlight in your eyes of blue".... diddly ooh, diddly ooh...

I don't believe that you're correct. Is starlight golden? And I can't believe that I confused the word "and" with "of".

Any takers here?

[Bacharach Land]

Hi All,

Thanks for the interesting observations. To chime in on the conversation surrounding The Carpenters' rendition of "Close to You," I agree with An Enormous BB Fan in hearing, "So they sprinkled moondust in your hair of gold, and starlight in your eyes of blue." They definitely sing "of" and not "and."

I hope that clears things up. I will have to check out the Engelbert Humperdink version. That sounds amusing.

I hope everyone has gotten some enjoyment (or at least a chuckle) out of the Anita Kerr version of "A House Is Not A Home."

Also, if you listen to the Brook Benton version of "A House Is Not A Home" you can hear an obvious vocal edit 1:38. No botched lyrics, but I've always wondered how that made it past the final stages of editing.

Not a chair,
Noah

[blueonblue]

Hi,
Here's Dionne's early seventies rendition...........note the change of lyrics at 1:19.


"blue"

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Hi,
Here's Dionne's early seventies rendition...........note the change of lyrics at 1:19.


"blue"

How interesting... someone (maybe Hal himself) changed the lyric (in that part) just for Dionne.

Anyhow, in this video you can read the lyrics as well as listen to them. I'm sure they got the lyric from the sheet music of the song, just as I did.

[BachtoBacharach]

Even Dionne was not immune from botching a great Hal David lyric from what I hear on this recording! Am I wrong or in the 1970 tune "Walk the Way You Talk" she sings "so walk the way you walk and talk the way you walk" instead of "so walk the way you talk and talk the way you walk" in the first verse. I would assume this was one of those tunes Burt wrote that Dionne aced in one take and the error wasn't caught. This seems reasonable knowing Burt's penchant for perfection and if Burt had caught it, would it have landed on vinyl? Perhaps David Nathan, who compiled the reissue of Scepter's Very Dionne on Rhino in 2004 knows how many takes of the tune exist. Here is the YouTube link for the tune. What do you think?