The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

The Jimmy Webb penned " Didn't We" is amongst one of my favorite songs of all time and rivals even Bacharach's at his best. I find I like almost every cover i hear. But who did it best?


Engelbert Humperdinck

Barbara Streisand( Her die hard fans on yt claim her live 1972 version is better than this studio version)

Johnny Mathis

Friends of Distinction ( Sounds like something Fifth Dimensions could have done well with)

Glenn Campbell

Cher

Thelma Houston

Jimmy Webb( not the best singing but you have to appreciate the exaggerated arpeggiation)

Honestly, this is one of those songs - like "Raindrops..." - that I would pay a great deal of money to assure that I`d never hear again.
But, to play along, I`ll nominate the Webb-arranged Thelma Houston version, exclusively because of the coda (expanded and developed for their "This Is Your Life" from the same album).

I agree with your choice for the best version for the exact same reason. The coda is unique to her version and really is one of the most beautiful parts in any song since the beginning of time. I cant believe you have written it off as garbage. Even if you feel that way Thelma Houston's version must be exempt. Right? No drug can provide what 2:18- 3:09 of the Thelma Houston song does for me. Alot of Jimmy Webb's songs are unique in that they border on being epic and cheesy all at the same time I.E. think most of the songs on the Magic Garden album and songs like Mcarthurs Park. Some could easily be at a childrens puppet show while at the same time sounding like what I imagine the angels at the gate of heaven would sing. Jimmy and Burt's brains need to be donated to science. How they thought up all these beautiful melodies time and time again is a wonder.

Blair N. Cummings wrote:Honestly, this is one of those songs - like "Raindrops..." - that I would pay a great deal of money to assure that I`d never hear again.
But, to play along, I`ll nominate the Webb-arranged Thelma Houston version, exclusively because of the coda (expanded and developed for their "This Is Your Life" from the same album).

Honestly I think Thelma's this is your life album shows Jimmy unrestrained as a songwriter and an arranger as well as the Magic Garden album. On another note can anyone lead me to any Dionne/ Webb songs?

Where have I "written it off as garbage"?!
My opening comment - I thought - simply acknowledged the fact that "Didn`t We", like "Raindrops...," is one of the most over-exposed songs of our age and needs a very long rest. The coda is one of my favorite pieces of JW`s music.
As to your second point, there was never a Webb/Warwick collaboration. He produced a track for one of her forgettable albums, but the song was not of his composition.

Blair N. Cummings wrote:Where have I "written it off as garbage"?!
My opening comment - I thought - simply acknowledged the fact that "Didn`t We", like "Raindrops...," is one of the most over-exposed songs of our age and needs a very long rest. The coda is one of my favorite pieces of JW`s music.
As to your second point, there was never a Webb/Warwick collaboration. He produced a track for one of her forgettable albums, but the song was not of his composition.

Blair I misunderstood your meaning. I can see Raindrops being somewhat overexposed but Didnt we is an unknown gem. I just assumed you meant it was displeasing to you somehow.

As for the Webb/ Warwick song. Are you saying he arranged someone elses composition? It would still be worth a listen in that case.

I think that I should have paid more attention to your User Name. If `85 was the year of your birth, then you missed the golden, glutted age of "Didn`t We" covers by fifteen years. Take my word for it: this was not an obscurity but a song as omni-present and as grating as a McDonald`s jingle...or "Raindrops...".

Guilty as charged. I was born in 85. The songs that were popular then are still in somewhat still in rotation now. I have yet to hear one version,of didnt we on radio. I never heard my parents play any version. So it was,obscure to my ears,but ill,have to take the word of the og's of that era.

Here`s buzzkill on steroids. In `80 a coked-out JW re-united with Thelma Houston and produced a Donna Sommer-inspired album called Breakwater Cat.
Only the first side contained Webb songs, all disco-beaten except for "Gone". You can hear what might have been on a couple other tracks, but listen (and weep) for yourself:

I like Andy Williams' acapella intro to this wonderful Al Capps arrangement of "Didn't We":

Well I was born in the UK in 1960, and I don't remember "Didn't We" at all.

As an aside, on the same Thelma Houston / Jimmy Webb "Sunshower" album is the fabulous "This Is Your Life", done at its best by Norman Connors:



This was sung by Eleanor Mills, sister of Stephanie Mills who Burt wrote whole albums for. Another version was recorded by Fifth Dimension, who sang "One Less Bell To Answer". So everyone knew everyone in those days.

Well, you wouldn`t remember "Didn`t We" at all because by the time you came of age (around `75) radio and television had adopted corporate versions of "rock" and made it mainstream (I. e. the themes of tv shows, commercial jingles etc.)
The very number of examples of covers presented above by goef85 should be ample proof that this was a "viral" song in its day.
BTW, check your PM in a few minutes.

Interestingly, I have always thought that this song was one of Dionne's prettiest performances, particularly the last phrase, beginning at 2:14 here: I used to play that part over and over again because she sounded so ethereal. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

Hey, goeff 85, check your PM folder.
(I know; I keep forgetting there is that function here, myself, and I seldom use or check it, but...)

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Richard Harris version. It's the first version I ever heard, and the only one I still listen to.