Country Songs?

[Blair N. Cummings]

I just finished reading that lengthy Telegraph piece. Maybe few others got to the end of it since I don`t recall any mention here of this:" He is also working on some country songs, ‘although I’m not sure that I can suppress my tendencies to harmonise in a certain way that’s very uncountry.’"
Are we coming full circle to "Story of My Life" et. al.?

[An Enormous BB Fan]

God, I hope not! Burt has HIS OWN style and it ain't Country. He shouldn't try to write a Country song. A Country song doesn't include Bacharach chords and Bacharach unusual melodies.

Of course, since we're talking about Burt here, it wouldn't surprise me if he wrote a bunch of #1 Country songs!

My point is that I'd rather hear new and great Bacharach songs -- just like he did with "Promises, Promises." He didn't try to write "Broadway"-type tunes.

[Blair N. Cummings]

It occurs to me now that "California", while a trifle, was nonetheless country-styled while still preserving Burt`s signature sound. He may be up to something along that line. I`m eager to hear (`though , at best, "cautiously optimistic" about) an example of this effort.

[BachtoBacharach]

Bacharach did a few "western" sounding tunes for Gene Pitney (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance); there were also some quasi country-western tunes (Three Wheels on My Wagon, The Story of My Life, and even Perry Como's Magic Moments would have sounded country if done by Robbins) done for Marty Robbins and others early in his career. Also, Dionne Warwick's December 1970 single "The Green Grass Starts to Grow" got some airplay on a handful of progressive country stations in 1970-1971. That tune has always had a slight C & W vibe to me for some reason a la California and even Who Gets the Guy has a swinging feel to me that would have adapted well to a "country" vocalist. And I don't know whether or not it was the singer, but BJ Thomas scored a country sounding Pop hit with Raindrops and he recorded a few others with a C & W feel such as Send My Picture to Scranton, PA. Bacharach's music is so hard to categorize that it's easy to see where the influence of the singer's style (BJ and Gene Pitney-Country Pop and Dionne-R & B and Gospel) can change the perception of a tune's feel. Bacharach composed for the voice as another instrument and those instruments bring their own unique spin to the perception of a tune.

[Djalma Junior]

Dear friends,

I think the songs of Burt Bacharach not match Country style, except for a few songs on the album "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

In 2006 the German quintet "Texas Lightning" released the album "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch" with the song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" in an arrangement of country: