RIP Burt Bacharach

[lilchi721]

Burt Bacharach, legendary composer of pop songs, dies at 94

Popular composer Burt Bacharach has died at 94. Working with lyricist Hal David, Bacharach penned a long run of hit songs, many of them for Dionne Warwick.

apnews.com

 

[Tai Chi≈Surfing]

R.I.P.

Great song writer & composer.
Burt Bacharach & Hal David were a legendary team.
Many of their songs are still very popular today.

Burt Bacharach - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Burt Freeman Bacharach (/ˈbækəræk/ BAK-ə-rak; May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach's songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists.[4] As of 2014, he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits.[5] He was one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music.[6]

Bacharach's music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by his background in jazz harmony, and uncommon selections of instruments for small orchestras. Most of Bacharach and David's hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick, but earlier associations (from 1957 to 1963) saw the composing duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels, and Jerry Butler. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach went on to write hits for Gene Pitney, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, Bobbie Gentry, Tom Jones, Herb Alpert, B. J. Thomas, and the Carpenters, among numerous other artists. He arranged, conducted, and produced much of his recorded output.

 

[Tai Chi≈Surfing]

94 is a very good run.

 

[Tai Chi≈Surfing]

A significant figure in easy listening music,[2] Bacharach is described by writer William Farina as "a composer whose venerable name can be linked with just about every other prominent musical artist of his era". In later years, his songs were newly appropriated for the soundtracks of major feature films, by which time "tributes, compilations, and revivals were to be found everywhere".[7] He influenced later musical movements such as chamber pop[8] and Shibuya-kei.[9][3] In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Bacharach and David at number 32 for their list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.[10] In 2012, the duo received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first time the honor has been given to a songwriting team.[11]


Although Bacharach's compositions are typically more complex than the average pop song, he expressed surprise that many jazz musicians have sought inspiration from his works, saying "I've sometimes felt that my songs are restrictive for a jazz artist. I was excited when [Stan] Getz did a whole album of my music" (What The World Needs Now: Stan Getz Plays The Burt Bacharach Songbook, Verve, 1968).[17]

His songs were adapted by a few jazz artists of the time, such as Stan Getz, Cal Tjader, Grant Green, and Wes Montgomery. The Bacharach/David composition "My Little Red Book", originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the film What's New Pussycat?, has become a rock standard.[44]


Bacharach's music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by jazz harmony, with striking syncopated rhythmic patterns, irregular phrasing, frequent modulation, and odd, changing meters. He arranged, conducted, and produced much of his recorded output.[84] Though his style is sometimes called easy listening, he has expressed apprehension regarding that label. According to NJ.com contributor Mark Voger, "It may be easy on the ears, but it's anything but easy. The precise arrangements, the on-a-dime shifts in meter, and the mouthfuls of lyrics required to service all those notes have, over the years, proven challenging to singers and musicians."[85] Bacharach's selection of instruments included flugelhorns, bossa nova sidesticks, breezy flutes, tack piano, molto fortissimo strings and cooing female voices.[83] According to editors of The Mojo Collection, it led to what became known as the "Bacharach Sound".[83] Bacharach explains:

I didn't want to make the songs the same way as they'd been done, so I'd split vocals and instrumentals and try to make it interesting ... For me, it's about the peaks and valleys of where a record can take you. You can tell a story and be able to be explosive one minute, then get quiet as kind of a satisfying resolution.[83]