'Friday Night is Music Night'

[pljms]

For me and all members of this site I'm sure every night is 'music night', but British visitors to this forum will know of the long-running live concert show on BBC Radio 2 of that name. Here's the link to the BBC website page concerning this week's show dedicated to the songs of B&D:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039cxh8

[Martin Johnson]

I see that the personnel for this show is virtually the same as the concert put on in tribute to Bacharach alone (not B&D) at the Cadogan Hall in London on Valentine's Day 2012, but this time with the BBC Concert Orchestra instead of the RPO and Abbie Osman taking over from Cat Simmons. I'm pretty sure I'll be tuning in.

[pljms]

Yes Martin, as it turned out the show was the same Bacharach tribute minus a few of the songs to leave time for Paul Gambaccini's between song narrative. There's no doubting that he's a big Bacharach fan but it's obvious he's yet to read the Great man's autobiography as he trotted out the old story which BB denied in the book regarding Dionne Warwick's rancour being the inspiration behind 'Don't Make Me Over'. Here's a video backstage pass for before, during and after the concert:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01j6qv2

[Sara D]

I've just listened to the show as I was out on Friday. As it was billed as a tribute to Bacharach and David it was a pity that they left out a few of their classics ('Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa', 'The Look of Love' and 'This Guy's in Love With You') and included two of the hits Bacharach wrote with Carole Bayer-Sager. As was the case with the show at Cadogan Hall last year, Mary Carewe impressed the most and her 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' and 'I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself' again got a terrific response from the audience. Nice to see the little Mermaid Theatre again in the backstage video and it's hard for me to believe that it's thirty-five years since I was last there. Again it was a tribute to a songwriting great, Cole Porter, and it was written and compered by the late, great Benny Green.

[Martin Johnson]

Yes Sara, Mary Carewe is a real 'trouper' and the kind of singer who can sing anything from the blues to opera. I've seen her in a number of revue type shows over the years, including a tribute to Cole Porter. Here's a video of her singing Kurt Weill's 'I'm a Stranger Here myself':

[pljms]

Great title and song, Martin. I'm also a big admirer of Mary Carewe and I like her taste in songwriters!

Paul Gambaccini's narrative touched on the disparity between the number of Bacharach hits in the US and the UK. The list of US Top 40 hits that didn't chart here makes for grim reading for us Brits:

1/ The Blob – The Five Blobs
2/ With Open Arms – Jane Morgan
3/The Man who Shot Liberty Valcnce – Gene Pitney
4/ Any Day Now – Chuck Jackson
5/ Only Love Can Break a Heart – Gene Pitney
6/ Blue on Blue – Bobby Vinton
7/ Be True to Yourself – Bobby Vee
8/ True Love Never Runs Smooth – Gene Pitney
9/ Don't You Believe It – Andy Williams
10/ Wives and Lovers – Jack Jones
11/ What the World Needs Now is Love – Jackie DeShannon
12/ Are You There With Another Girl? – Dionne Warwick
13/ The Windows of the World – Dionne Warwick
14/ Who is Gonna Love Me – Dionne Warwick
15/ Promises, Promises – Dionne Warwick
16/ The April Fools – Dionne Warwick
17/ Everybody's Out of Town – BJ Thomas
18/ Let Me Go to him – Dionne Warwick
19/ One Less Bell to Answer – 5th Dimension
20/ Living Together, Growing Together – 5th Dimension
21/ Stronger than Before – Carole Bayer Sager
22/ Making Love – Roberta Flack
23/ Heartlight – Neil Diamond
24/ Love Power – Dionne Warwick and Jeffrey Osborne

Even The Look of Love Struggled to chart in the UK, having to wait until the early 70s before Gladys Knight took it to No.21.

There’s been only four songs which have reached the UK Top 40 which failed to do the same in the US; Another Tear Falls by the Walker Brothers, Long After Tonight is all Over by Jimmy Radcliffe, It's Love That Really Counts by the Merseybeats and Keep Away From Other Girls by Helen Shapiro. Remarkably, A House is Not a Home has never been a Top 40 hit on either side of the pond.

[Sara D]

As the Daily Express might have put it, "The list that shames Britain"! Maybe one or two of the earlier ones we did well to avoid, especially the Andy Williams track. 'Wives and Lovers', 'A House is not a Home', 'What the World Needs Now' and 'The Look of Love' all became standards within months of first being recorded and didn't need to be chart hits, and if that isn't proof of a song's greatness then nothing is. The remarkable thing is, though, despite these 'misses' there's still been 50+ UK hits composed by Bacharach according to Wikipedia and of course these songs are still very much 'out there'. Just a few days after 'Friday Night is Music Night' I was indulging in a bit of retail therapy when in the space of about 20 minutes heard three B&D classics from inside the stores and from parked car stereos. I was chuckling to myself for hours after that.