Simon Napier-Bell on Burt / What's New Pussycat
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 8:30 am
Interesting snippet in the Sunday Telegraph today in an article about "Music Manager" Simon Napier-Bell (who he?) who said:
One of my best paid jobs was working on the score for "What's New Pussycat" with Burt Bacharach. We were amazed we'd got him, but he didn't know anything about writing film music. Instead of writing a score, he wrote 47 different tunes for the 47 music sections, recorded them and flew home.
The next day the producers said "It's a disaster. Our contract says we have to use his music. Can you turn this into a score?"
Being a precocious little 25-year-old, I said "Of course". I took the two main songs, threw everything else away and worked on them for four weeks without stopping. I ended up being paid double-double-double time, the most I've made in my life...
One of my best paid jobs was working on the score for "What's New Pussycat" with Burt Bacharach. We were amazed we'd got him, but he didn't know anything about writing film music. Instead of writing a score, he wrote 47 different tunes for the 47 music sections, recorded them and flew home.
The next day the producers said "It's a disaster. Our contract says we have to use his music. Can you turn this into a score?"
Being a precocious little 25-year-old, I said "Of course". I took the two main songs, threw everything else away and worked on them for four weeks without stopping. I ended up being paid double-double-double time, the most I've made in my life...