It takes real brilliance to write a song that can be covered in three very different but superb ways:
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Thanks Burt you will live on long in our memories.
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Such sad news. A wonderful tune-smith with a musical back-catalogue to put most of today’s “superstars” to shame.
Burt may have left us now but his music is timeless and will live on forever.
Rest peacefully Burt.
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Bacharach and David wrote one Broadway musical, Promises, Promises, based on Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. The book was by Neil Simon; Jerry Orbach had the Jack Lemmon role. It featured the title song, “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “She Likes Basketball,” and the first act closer, “Turkey Lurkey Time.” The last may not be their greatest achievement, but it was the basis for a contender as greatest dance number in Broadway history. Here’s the performance from the 1969 Tony Awards. Choreography was by Michael Bennett and Bob Avian.
Mortified to hear that Burt has left us. But what a legacy. Growing up I was listening to The Beatles et al and remember grabbing the Daily Sketch every Tuesday to check the latest chart positions. As a 12 year old this was very important. Then I’d see songs like Trains and Boats and Planes had entered the top 20 under two different artists - Billy J Kramer AND Burt Bacharach! When I consider now that he wrote songs covered by Cilla Black, Tom Jones, Sandy Shaw, Dusty Springfield, Gene Pitney, Dionne Warwick you can understand why he was rarely out of the charts. Prolific is the word. And what quality. Timeless masterpieces. My favourites - Alfie (Cilla), Casino Royale, No One Remembers My Name and (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me. I love Bacharach now as much as I did then as a 12 year old. Can’t say that about many artists.
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For those who want to seek out another superb take on Burt Bacharach songs i 'd strongly recommend the album by Jim O 'Rourke: All kinds of people love Burt Bacharach
The CD and Vinyl are quite hard to come by, but well worth seeking out.
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