The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

With much sadness in my heart, I must report the passing away of the legendary Anita Kerr. Most of this forum will be aware of her wonderful album of Burt's compositions at the end of the sixties. Here is the official announcement from her family:
Anita Kerr - America’s First Lady of Music, creator of the Nashville Sound, first woman to conduct the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, first woman to score a movie (‘Limbo’), winner of 3 Grammy awards and 5 nominations, and the award of outstanding NARAS contribution to music in 1992, died peacefully on the 10th day of October 2022 in Geneva Switzerland, on a beautiful sunny day, just shortly before her 95th birthday, surrounded by her loving family. She leaves behind her husband, two daughters, five grandchildren and two great granddaughters.
She will be sorely missed by all of us but will continue to live in our hearts and through her Music.

As most of you also know, Anita had a special place in my musical life. In my humble opinion, there is no finer female singer - no finer female arranger than Anita. Her voice touched me emotionally, possessing perfect pitch. Her arrangements were impeccable, She could have been a major vocalist, but never wanted the razzmatazz of show business. I look back with great fondness of my many meetings with her in Switzerland, and will never forget the evening when we all went out to dinner. As we got out of her husband's car, I said to her (when her health was deteriorating) "Would you like to take my arm Anita" to which she replied with a gentle smile, "Would you like me to Barry." I'll never forget it

Barry, that's truly sad to hear. She was a great lady of music and thanks for sharing some of your personal memories of her.

Hi Barry. My condolences to you for your sorrow and the loss of your friend, Anita. Anita Kerr was a brilliant vocal arranger, singer, writer, producer and A and R leader. I‘ve always admired her work and been aware of it, noticing her name and singers credited as backing vocalists on record labels and liner notes. The Anita Kerr Singers sang on everything it seems in Nashville doing country and pop backings. I remember The Anita Kerr Quartet winning the grammy for best vocal group of 1965 for the “We Dig Mancini“ tribute album. What a wonderful record that is. Just one of many many! Countless recordings behind so many singers and tons of records of her own groupings as well. Happy to hear that Anita was content with the place she carved out for herself in the music world. I hope more will be said about her important presence in music as time goes on.

That's very thoughtful of you Henry (and Paul) to take the time to respond to the sad news. Today would have been her 95th birthday. I have been invited to her funeral which will be held tomorrow. It's is a great honour. If any member of the forum greatly admires the work of Anita, and has found her material difficult to come by - please contact me, and I will make a CD of the tracks required for free.
The New York Times posted a great article yesterday on her life in music. Let us not forget, that apart from her many wonderful compositions, she wrote the entire music score for the prolific San Sebastian Strings series between 1966 and 1974, culminating with the very first one "The Sea" going platinum, and made available in French, German, Japanese, Dutch, and Italian.