Time Warp.  We are going back to the 1960s and 1970s.  When Burt Bacharach was king.  He developed the tunes to a slew of great hits that didn’t quite fit into  the musical genres of the day.  Not jazz, not rock, not easy listening.  Just great.

His first big break?  Serving as the musical director (and arranger and composer) for Marlene Dietrich.  (Or, maybe it was his prior liaison with Vic Damone, whom he met in the Army- before he eventually migrated to the Catskills.  Like all the Jewish entertainers [and others] in the 40s, 50s, and 60s])

But, that’s not what made him famous- it was his liaison (signed in 1962) with the incomparable  Dionne Warwick (the aunt of Whitney Houston for you younger folks)- and with lyricist Hal David.  And, as long as they remained friendly, Burt was esconced at the top of the world.  (More on that later.) [Dionne and Burt’s first big success- Walk on By…from 1964.}  From there- Reach Out for Me, Message to Michael, Trains and Boats and Planes, Say a Little Prayer for Me, and The Way to San Jose.)

Now, for a little more history.  The Brill Building (1619 Broadway by 49^th Street, in Manhattan).  After the Tin Pan Alley (another musical mecca in New York) was reaching the end of its life, the Brill Building housed almost all the musical talent of the city- and the USA.  It’s renown began in the Big Band Era of the late 1940s (Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller).  And, then, it was Bacharach, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, Johnny Mercer, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, Laura Nyro, and Paul Simon, among many others.   By the early 1960s’, there were more than 160 music business entities associated with that building.   That meant a musician could walk in and get a publisher, a printer, a demo, a radio promoter- pure one stop shopping.

But, it wasn’t just Dionne with whom Burt provided his talents. His tunes included “The Look of Love”, “Raindrops keep falling on my head”, “Casino Royale”, “Alfie”, “Arthur” [for this last one he partnered with Carole Bayer Singer and not Hal David, who eventually became one of his four future wives]– even tunes for the “Austin Powers” movie series.  He had more than 70 top 40 hits.   He was routinely compared to the greats of an early era- Cole Porter, the Gershwin brothers, and Irving Berlin.

But, in 1972, his Hal David partnership ruptured over profit splitting.  (Amazingly, the venture in question- Lost Horizon- was a commercial flop!)  Which was promptly followed by his rupture with Dionne Warwick.

It took time for him to recover the limelight; in particular,  the course of the next decades. And, that’s about the time that McCoy Turner released an album of Bacharach’s hits, on Impulse Records.  (There’s a sample of that below.)

(You can compare and contrast the inimicable Dusty Springfield live and McCoy Turner’s orchestration of the same song- “Look of Love”.)

it

Burt passed away 8 days ago.   But, his music will live on.

Share this: