Music |
What the World Needs Now: Burt Bacharach Classics
By
Published: Nov 01, 2020
Category:
Rock
Burt Bacharach starred in a GEICO commercial.
Burt Bacharach was in the Austin Powers movies.
Burt Bacharach recorded with Elvis Costello and Dr. Dre.
And when he was 77, Burt Bacharach was fired. He found ;this humorous: "The last time I was fired I was 19 years old and was playing piano in a restaurant in Cape Cod." The problem: on tour, he’d been performing a song with angry, anti-war, anti-Bush lyrics. A business executive who had hired Bacharach for a private party didn’t hear the song, but he read an interview with the composer and said he didn’t want "someone like Bacharach." Bacharach offered to play only his hits. But no go. "I was proud to be fired for those reasons," Bacharach says.
At 92, Burt Bacharach can be proud of everything he’s ever done — he’s the man with the golden keyboard. As a kid, he got a fake ID so he could see Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. He studied under the masters of modern classical music. And then, when he set out to make a living as a professional musician, he incorporated many of those funky chord changes and time signatures.
His collaboration with Hal David began in l957. They promptly wrote hits for Marty Robbins and Perry Como. Corny stuff. As was the novelty hit, "(Theme From) The Blob." For five years, Bacharach toured Europe and America as Marlene Dietrich’s musical director. “He was seventh heaven,” she recalled. “As a man, he embodied everything a woman could wish for. How many such men are there? For me he was the only one.” At the same time, he wrote the music for three American hits: "Please Stay" by the Drifters, "Tower of Strength" by Gene McDaniel and — gasp — "Baby It’s You" by the Shirelles.
Bacharach discovered singer Dionne Warwick in 1961, when she was a session accompanist. She thought "Make It Easy On Yourself" was for her. When she learned it wasn’t, she snapped, "Don’t make me over, man!" (which was slang for: "Don’t lie to me"). That became the title of her first "Top 40" hit.
Over the next decade, Bacharach and David would create 20 "Top 40" hits for Warwick, seven of them reaching the "Top Ten. She would eventually have more hits during her career than any other female vocalist except Aretha Franklin. [To buy the CD of “What the World Needs Now: Burt Bacharach Classics” with 23 songs and get a free MP3 download from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.]
BONUS VIDEO: BURT & BARBRA
