The Burt Bacharach Mix

axcHappy birthday, Burt Bacharach. The great man turns 80 on May 12. To celebrate, here is a mix CD-R of songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David (right).

It is probably redundant to deliberate at length about Burt’s life and massive influence, other than to point out how incongruous it is that there were times when it was seen as somehow uncool to dig Bacharach’s music. That, to me, is the equivalent of coffee being declared socially unacceptable. Still, a few words seem necessary.

Bacharach and lyricist Hal David probably were the most prolific Brill Building partnership; if others exceeded their output, then certainly not with as much success. And consider some of these Brill alumni: Goffin & King, Mann & Weil, Leiber & Stoller, Sedaka & Greenfield, Neil Diamond, Laura Nyro… The pair scored their first major hit soon after taking over a cubicle in the Brill Building in 1957: Perry Como’s “Magic Moments”. Over the next few years they scored a series of minor hits.

The breakthrough arguably was meeting Dionne Warwick in 1961, who would become something of a muse for the songwriters. Warwick was to act as a demo artist on new songs which would then be given to others. Warwick’s interpretations, however, were usually quite perfect. And so many songs were written with Dionne in mind. Some of these Warwick be the first to record, others would be given to other artists first, to be covered later by Warwick (who had 22 US Top 40 hits with Bacharach/David songs). The triumvirate fell apart in the early ‘70s amid a flurry of lawsuits.

Soon the Bacharach style became unfashionable, incongruously labelled as an easy listening merchant. That he wasn’t: many Bacharach songs are best heard as soul songs. Still, when Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s singer Holly Johnson wanted to record a version of (Do You Know The Way To) San José, his laddish colleagues vociferously opposed the idea. In the event, they did record it, and their version is quite lovely. Arguably this was a significant step towards the rehabilitation of Bacharach which was complete by the late 90s, with even the likes of Oasis’ chief plagiarist Gallagher (Liam? Noel? I can never tell them apart. The one with the mono-brow) paying tribute to Bacharach.

Bacharach had made something of a comeback with a few hits in the 1980s, co-written with wife Carole Bayer Sager, such as Arthur’s Theme, On My Own and Dionne Warwick’s comeback saccharine hit That’s What Friends Are For (as so often with Bacharach and Warwick, it had been previously recorded, by Rod Stewart for the soundtrack of 1982’s Nightshift). Bacharach went back to his roots, in a way, when he composed, with occasional collaborator Elvis Costello, the song God Give Me Strength for the 1996 film Grace Of My Heart, which was loosely based on Brill alumni Carle King. Bacharach’s 1998 album with Elvis Costello, Painted From Memory, was a patchy effort, as was his 2005 solo album, At This Time.

Incidentally, Burt’s unusual surname is German; there is a town called Bacharach in the Rhineland.

On this mix-tape (timed to fit on a CD-R) I have tried to mix well-known versions with some that are less famous. Soul singer Lou Johnson recorded several Bacharach songs before they became hits, though Kentucky Bluebird (later a Warwick hit as Message To Michael) was recorded by fellow soulster Jerry Butler a year earlier. Lyn Collins in her 1974 recording proves further that many Bacharach songs are really soul songs, as do Aretha Franklin and Isaac Hayes prove here (of course, Warwick’s version of Don’t Make Me Over left no doubt about its place in soul history). Although absent from this set, Luther Vandross also was an outstanding interpreter of Bacharch.

While most of Hal David’s lyrics capture universal emotions with great perception and imagination, some were shockingly sexist. I have deliberately appended the two worst offenders (one always sung by women) at the end.

1. Burt Bacharach - Alfie (1966)
2. The Shirelles - Baby, It's You (1962)
3. Dionne Warwick - Walk On By (1964)
4. Dusty Springfield - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself (1964)
5. Cilla Black - Anyone Who Had A Heart (1964)
6. Jackie DeShannon – What The World Needs Now Is Love (1968)
7. Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer (1968)
8. Lyn Collins - Don't Make Me Over (1974)
9. Herb Alpert - This Guy's In Love With You (1968)
10. Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach - I'll Never Fall In Love Again (2000)
11. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - San José (The Way) (1984)
12. Sandie Shaw - Always Something There To Remind Me (1964)
13. Nancy Wilson - Reach Out For Me (1965)
14. Carpenters - (They Long To Be) Close To You (1970)
15. B.J. Thomas - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (1969)
16. Walker Brothers - Make It Easy On Yourself (1966)
17. Gene Pitney - Only Love Can Break A Heart (1963)
18. Lou Johnson - Kentucky Bluebird (Message To Martha) (1964)
19. Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas - Trains And Boats And Planes (1965)
20. The 5th Dimension - One Less Bell To Answer (1970)
21. The Stylistics - You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart) (1971)
22. Isaac Hayes - The Look Of Love (live) (1973)
23. Brook Benton - A House Is Not A Home (1963)
24. Jack Jones - Wives And Lovers (1963)
25. Ani DiFranco - Wishin' And Hopin' (1997)

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Because this mix is tailored to fit on to a CD-R, there were quite a few left-over songs. Here are the most important omissions:

Tom Clay - What the World Needs Now/Abraham, Martin & John.mp3
Tom Clay’s medley of What The World Needs Now and Dion’s Abraham, John And Martin is deeply affecting. The audio footage related to the murders of JFK, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King provides for a dramatic juxtaposition with the Blackberries’ rather cheesy vocals, while the interview with a kid (whose definition of the word “prejudice” beats whatever you’ll find in the OED) bookends the song. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

Perry Como – Magic Moments.mp3
The first big hit for Bacharach/David, Magic Moments is a quite wonderful Easy Listening track which might have been perfect for Nat King Cole. I’m not aware of Cole recording Bacharach songs; he might have been a great interpreter of Bacharach songs. Indeed, listen to Brook Benton’s version of A House Is Not A Home on the mix to have an idea how Nat and Bacharach might have gelled.

Tom Jones - What's New Pussycat.mp3
In case I get criticised for leaving out an essential Bacharach/David song, here’s What’s New Pussycat. I don’t like Tom Jones much, but his vocals here are quite amusing (“You and your pussy cat eyes”), making it sound like the ode to cunnilingus it may well have been intended to be.

Burt Bacharach - Promises, Promises.mp3
Promises, Promises is another essential Bacharach track, from the musical of the same name. This is Bacharach's instrumental version.

Previous mixes:
Any Major Funk Vol.1 (Cheryl Lynn, Skyy, Positive Force, Odyssey, Raydio & more)
Any Major Funk Vol. 2 (Chic, Jimmy 'Bo' Horne, Diana Ross, Central Line, Oliver Cheatham & more)
The Teen Dreams (The Monkees, The Archies, Sweet, Osmonds, Bay City Rollers, & more)
Any Major Love Mix (Josh Rouse, Ron Sexmith, Hello Saferide, Ben Harper, Liz Phair & more)
German hits 1930-1942 (Zarah Leander, Lale Andersen, Hans Albers, Comedian Harmonists & more)
Any Major Christmas Mix (Smashing Pumpkins, Ben Folds, Darts, Lou Rawls, Weepies & more)