The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

1. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
2. James Brown - Live At The Apollo
3. Elvis Presley - Sun Sessions
4. Burt Bacharach - Box Set
5. Ray Charles - Rhino Box Set
6. Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde
7. Swan Silvertones - Saviour Pass Me Not
8. Free - Highway
9. Phillipe Koutev - Music From Bulgaria
10. The Beatles - '65

This was on WXPN's Web site relative to its recent survey to determine the all-time-best 885 albums (XPN is 88.5 on the dial). This was the only celebrity Top 10 I saw that included any of Burt's work.

Bill wrote:8. Free - Highway

Bacharach and Free on the same list. That's something I wouldn't have expected.

Link provides some additional info on Al's music career. I certainly didn't know that he too had written music for Gene Pitney. Also new to me was his participation in the writing of "This Diamond Ring," which had been written for The Drifters and demoed by "The Forgotten Man" Jimmy Radcliffe. I'd love to hear that! http://www.mongrelm.com/alkooper.html

Stephen Bishop: "This Diamond Ring" must have been written about 1964 or 1965?

Al Kooper: I would think 1962 or 1963.

SB: That early?

AK: Yeah. It didn't come out until later, but we wrote it in 1962 or 1963. We wrote it for The Drifters.

SB: Did you do a demo of it back then?

AK: We did. It was a black demo. My friend Jimmy Radcliffe sang the demo.

SB: When you look back at that now, how do you feel about it? Do you feel proud of it?

AK: I always hated the Gary Lewis record, because it was an R&B song and they took all the soul out of it. Later, I cut it on an album of mine Act Like Nothing Is Wrong (United Artists -- December '76), and cut it the way it was written.

P.S. The interview exerpt is from Stephen Bishop's book Songs in the Rough.