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What can I say about him? It is so difficult to find any sort of fault with him: he was a legend, and institution, and a master of music as we know it, both as a song writer and a musician. Burt Bacharach, who had wrote for quite a few legends himself during his career over several decades, has died at the age of 94. I actually started a thread about Bacharach a couple of years ago after getting a CD album of his greatest hits for Christmas in 2020, and saying that it is perfect "getting back to normal" music after Christmas and New Year, playing it on a weekday January afternoon just as it starts to get darker outside - or if you like, Sunday evening classics, relaxing with some port and a good paperback novel. I was thinking about writing this obituary on that other thread but I think that he was too much a musical legend for such a thing, and that he deserves a proper one on here. Was there anyone else who had achieved more in his field of music than Bert Bacharach?
Most music can be recognised by sound rather than by person if you know what I mean which what we think when listening to classical composers of the 18th and 19th centuries - it combines audio adjectives and feelings and brings us close together to them. I had actually commented on the other thread that it was great that he was still with us in his 90s, and also the fact that one of his compositions was played at my father's funeral - Always Something There to Remind Me - so one could say that he was part of that as well. Bacharach's music was trade-marked in more ways than one - the unique sounded blend of the 1960s, seeping into the 1970s and also a soupcon of the 1980s, providing hits for Dionne Warwick; Dusty Springfield; Cilla Black; Herb Alpert, to name but a few. As early as 1958 he wrote Magic Moments for Perry Como which was probably better recognised by the British public 35 years later as being the music from the Quality Street TV commercial.
Born in Missouri in 1928 and grew up in New York City, Bacharach studied cello, drums and piano as a child which was more or less the embryonic stage towards his famous career in music, not to mention the inspiration by heroes Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker - he was playing in bands of his own by the 1940s. A lot of "shivers down the spine" compositions were written courtesy of Bacharach such as The Look of Love for Dionne Warwick (perfect for listening to at around midnight or a similar early hour); both Alfie and Anyone Who Had a Heart, also for both Warwick and Cilla Black; What's New Pussycat? for Tom Jones; and he provided Gene Pitney with 24 Hours from Tulsa - a song which was parodied in 1993 by an Eric Morecambe-alike comedy actor as "24 toasters from Scunthorpe" to advertise petrol station gifts for Mobil on British television. Arthur's Theme for Christopher Cross was certainly more than the best that Bacharach could do - the film that it featured in even starred Dudley Moore.
Not surprisingly, Bacharach was recognised for his achievements, and so he should have - in total, he had won six Grammy awards and was nominated a total of 21 times. Working with lyricist Hal David - they got on better than Morecambe and Wise or even Fish and Chips. The pair both won Oscars in 1969; one such achievement was for Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head - the hit which was specially written for BJ Thomas (and later covered by Sacha Distel in more prominence); and had appeared in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - the music in the film had won best original score. The partnership between Bacharach and David was so prominent in later years, especially with Dionne Warwick that Warwick had tried to sue Bacharach in a "very costly and unfortunate" dispute, but by 1985 however, the hatchet was buried and Warwick and Bacharach teamed up together for the hit That's What Friends Are For.
Bacharach certainly adapted to changes in music as the years went on, and in most recent years he worked with the incumbent generation of musicians and pop stars, collaborating with Adele, Sheryl Crow and Dr Dre, proving that the "old dog, new tricks" theory can happen if one has been in the music business for so many decades. He made a cameo in the second Austin Powers film. It is great that it is not just earlier generations that his music is associated with, and the fact that he has spanned a number of generations, allowing fans to enjoy such music that no other writer or composer could have ever done. He was responsible for at least 39 hits which was written and composed from the United States to fans all around the rest of the world.
Bert Bacharach was a well-married man - he was married a total of four times over the decades: firstly, to musician Paula Stewart in 1953; secondly, to Angie Dickinson in 1968; thirdly, to musical collaborator Carole Bayer Sager in 1982 (five years after Bayer Sager's semi-successful hit You're Moving Out Today); and fourth and finally, to Jane Hansen in 1993. He also had a daughter Nikki who committed suicide at the age of 40 after being diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome for many years - something that I wasn't too aware of, and made no link to when connecting her father's successful music. On the autism theme, as recently as 2016 he wrote the music for John Asher's film which the impact of autism which nicely brings the link with his late daughter's Asperger Syndrome.
If I was to round up Bacharach in a brief synopsis, one would say that he was a true international legend of music has now gone, but his music will hopefully be still with us for a long time to come. Everyone has their own favourite Bacharach song.
Most music can be recognised by sound rather than by person if you know what I mean which what we think when listening to classical composers of the 18th and 19th centuries - it combines audio adjectives and feelings and brings us close together to them. I had actually commented on the other thread that it was great that he was still with us in his 90s, and also the fact that one of his compositions was played at my father's funeral - Always Something There to Remind Me - so one could say that he was part of that as well. Bacharach's music was trade-marked in more ways than one - the unique sounded blend of the 1960s, seeping into the 1970s and also a soupcon of the 1980s, providing hits for Dionne Warwick; Dusty Springfield; Cilla Black; Herb Alpert, to name but a few. As early as 1958 he wrote Magic Moments for Perry Como which was probably better recognised by the British public 35 years later as being the music from the Quality Street TV commercial.
Born in Missouri in 1928 and grew up in New York City, Bacharach studied cello, drums and piano as a child which was more or less the embryonic stage towards his famous career in music, not to mention the inspiration by heroes Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker - he was playing in bands of his own by the 1940s. A lot of "shivers down the spine" compositions were written courtesy of Bacharach such as The Look of Love for Dionne Warwick (perfect for listening to at around midnight or a similar early hour); both Alfie and Anyone Who Had a Heart, also for both Warwick and Cilla Black; What's New Pussycat? for Tom Jones; and he provided Gene Pitney with 24 Hours from Tulsa - a song which was parodied in 1993 by an Eric Morecambe-alike comedy actor as "24 toasters from Scunthorpe" to advertise petrol station gifts for Mobil on British television. Arthur's Theme for Christopher Cross was certainly more than the best that Bacharach could do - the film that it featured in even starred Dudley Moore.
Not surprisingly, Bacharach was recognised for his achievements, and so he should have - in total, he had won six Grammy awards and was nominated a total of 21 times. Working with lyricist Hal David - they got on better than Morecambe and Wise or even Fish and Chips. The pair both won Oscars in 1969; one such achievement was for Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head - the hit which was specially written for BJ Thomas (and later covered by Sacha Distel in more prominence); and had appeared in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - the music in the film had won best original score. The partnership between Bacharach and David was so prominent in later years, especially with Dionne Warwick that Warwick had tried to sue Bacharach in a "very costly and unfortunate" dispute, but by 1985 however, the hatchet was buried and Warwick and Bacharach teamed up together for the hit That's What Friends Are For.
Bacharach certainly adapted to changes in music as the years went on, and in most recent years he worked with the incumbent generation of musicians and pop stars, collaborating with Adele, Sheryl Crow and Dr Dre, proving that the "old dog, new tricks" theory can happen if one has been in the music business for so many decades. He made a cameo in the second Austin Powers film. It is great that it is not just earlier generations that his music is associated with, and the fact that he has spanned a number of generations, allowing fans to enjoy such music that no other writer or composer could have ever done. He was responsible for at least 39 hits which was written and composed from the United States to fans all around the rest of the world.
Bert Bacharach was a well-married man - he was married a total of four times over the decades: firstly, to musician Paula Stewart in 1953; secondly, to Angie Dickinson in 1968; thirdly, to musical collaborator Carole Bayer Sager in 1982 (five years after Bayer Sager's semi-successful hit You're Moving Out Today); and fourth and finally, to Jane Hansen in 1993. He also had a daughter Nikki who committed suicide at the age of 40 after being diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome for many years - something that I wasn't too aware of, and made no link to when connecting her father's successful music. On the autism theme, as recently as 2016 he wrote the music for John Asher's film which the impact of autism which nicely brings the link with his late daughter's Asperger Syndrome.
If I was to round up Bacharach in a brief synopsis, one would say that he was a true international legend of music has now gone, but his music will hopefully be still with us for a long time to come. Everyone has their own favourite Bacharach song.
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