Favorite Burt Bacharach and Hal David songs?

The Look of Love - Dusty

A House Is Not A Home

Nikki. This was used as the theme song for the ABC movie of the week. It still sends chills down my spine. There are many other Bacharach/David songs that move me still.

You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)

Anyone Who Had A Heart

What the World........... has become too identified with Seth and company to be enjoyable.

"The Look of Love" by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66.

The vocals were by Janis Hansen, who left the group by the time this single was released. The other girls are Karen Philipp and the fabulous Lani Hall.

One Less Bell to Answer. Marilyn McCoo is such a wimpy singer but she's magnificent on this.

Well this is DL so Turkey Lurkey Time wins leaving the competition in the dust.

Alfie

I've always like the title song from "Promises, Promises."

DL loves Michael Bennett's dance but what a stupid song. And why are they singing about Turkey at Christmas?

"This Guys in Love With You" gave me my first eargasm.

And I had a YUGE crush on Herb Alpert.

Forgot to add- What r 8 said, too. OLBTA is, well, hokey, but I LOVE the sound of McCoo on her version.

Dionne Warwick - Walk on by.

anything Dusty sang. I am in love with her voice and expression. someone already mentioned a house is not a home....that one kills me. She had a unique and wonderful voice. RIP Dusty.

Fuck!!! So damned good. All of these. But I have to go w R8. One less bell to answer. I went through a Burt phase "bigly" circa 1993.

Ok... you're all going to vomit but I love "Blue on Blue"

I guess some people have turkey at Christmas too? I'm not quite sure.

I met Bennett very late one night in an almost deserted Shubert Alley. He was standing by himself as Donna was standing apart talking with a couple of friends. Very short.

But the definition of jolie laid.

Turkey used to be almost as prominent at Christmas as it is at Thanksgiving. And it still is in other countries.

Burt Bacharach and Barbra Streisand singing "Close to you".

You know she screwed him after this.

Burt aged horribly, but man oh man, was he handsome back in the day.

They mention Goose in Turkey Lurkey but I guess they didn't want to call the song Goosey Poosey Time.

“There’s Always Something There To Remind Me” by Sandie Shaw.

Always Something There to Remind Me. This is years before I was born but Carpenters really could sing and play live. Beautifully. They perfected everything too much and they were not exactly the most emotional performers but they had a breezy take on difficult Bacharach songs and sang some version of this medley forever.

There was a Dusty Springfield thread on here about 2 months ago with most almost every wonderful thing she ever did posted. I love that woman's voice - a wonderful reedy sexy instrument that could interpret all kinds of music with the perfect level of emotion and supercool style. She excelled at the Bacharach songs, they are very sophisticated melodies for pop music.

It's hard to go past "Do You Know the Way to San Jose", "Wives and Lovers" and The Look of Love" for Hal David brilliance. "Alfie", "This Guy's In Love With You" and "What's New, Pussycat" for Bacharach's music.

R25: Horrible arrangements.

No r27, actually they are not horrible arrangements. It's a different take on Bacharach music but if you don't know of his appreciation for the way The Carpenters did his songs, then you are a bit of an ancient streisand drama queen. The Carpenter's arrangements are very sophisticated in a complex collegiate harmonic way. I suspect you know little about musical or vocal production. The two names that come to mind when you mention Bacharach/David songs are Dionne Warwick and Carpenters.

Then Dusty and Luther.

Alfie & Anyone Who Had A Heart a re my classics. Absolute brilliance. They have stood the test of time.

Don't judge, she could perfect this in a few more performances. Candice Glover had a beautiful tone and take on Don't Make Me Over. Dionne sounds harsh on this one even when she was young.

"Trains and Boats and Planes" - Alex Chilton/the Box Tops

There are so many that are just too good to rank. In addition to those mentioned above,

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head - BJ Thomas Windows on the World - Dionne Warwick Arthur's Theme - Christopher Cross and I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself - Tommy Hunt

Message to Michael

I love all of his music and it brings chills to my spine. The Carpenters, Dusty, Dionne and a host of others are timeless. I'm glad younger people keep re discovering this music and keep it alive. The world would be a sadder place without it.

Ronstadt did quite nicely by "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself."

That version of "Anyone Who Had A Heart" by Wynona at R5 is pretty fantastic.

I forgot to include a link with my choice at R2.

Why does Bacharach always get so much attention yet Hal David never does? He's the genius who wrote all the songs, Bacharach just did the medleys

Because all rappers, Mariah Carey, Madonna and Barbra Streisand wrote words to hit songs too Bernie Taupin. Now if you're Johnny Mercer we can talk. You do have a point Oscar Hammerstein, but it's not fairly matched with a genius composer. A great lyricist would be a better poet, no? Men on the DL love Cole Porter, words AND music show-off. His music is better than the words which are too clever by half.

There are places I remember, all my life though some have changed....strawberry fields forever. If we go outside conventional structures we can find composers like Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. Genius songwriters whose words we remember first.

Still, Bacharach's intricate, sophisticated and difficult time structure melodies demand nimble lyrics that could switch to sweeping emotional passages. Hal David delivered that and more.

I’m obsessed with this shred of Walk On By by The Beach Boys.

She usually gets no love on here but Sheryl Crow nailed this version of One Less Bell to Answer.

[quote]He's the genius who wrote all the songs, Bacharach just did the medleys

Oh, dear.

[quote]He's the genius who wrote all the songs. [bold]Bacharach just did the medleys.[/bold]

I thought that was the Carpenters.

I'd never heard the Beach Boys' take on Walk on By, and it was really impressive. Dionne Warwick and my favorite, Dusty Springfield, were always peerless Bacharach/David interpreters. Most of the great songs have already been mentioned, but I am also partial to Dusty's rendition of 24 Hours to Tulsa.

I guess it's mean when people tell others that their choice is not great but Sheryl Crow no bueno at R40. I like her voice but she can't sing that sweeping song, she is so choppy with no sense of legato at all...how the musical and lyrical phrase join through dynamics and vowels and consonants....the flow of the words through breath and timing while maintaining the musical integrity (melody) of the song. She just isn't good enough to sing that song. It's not a hard edge song, it's plaintive and romantic and is meant to have an emotional climax and diminuendo. Even I am a bit surprised that she sang it that way. That song needs to convey l o n g i n g and that's right there in the words and the sweep of the melody.

That Wynonna is good at Bacharach is not a surprise. She was a few years of voice lessons away from being a truly great singer. As is, still a gorgeous voice that allows her to express the feeling of most any song.

^So this chipmunk Chenowith is better than Crow? Wtf ... I think you're high^

I did my best to explain why, but yes Chenoweth is light years beyond Crow. Anyone who knows about singing can tell you that. You don't have to like her voice but try to understand what it takes to sing that song. Crow couldn't do it, I guess she was popular when they did that show. Not many people sing One Less Bell because it's too theatrical, quite difficult and pre feminist corny. Sheryl hit most of the notes. Like she was building a shelf. We're getting high, yeah. I would need speedballs to get excited about the sound of Sheryl Crow singing.

“Beware of the Blob”

High or not, you obviously know jack squat about singing, despite your pompous claims to the contrary R46. Crow was pitch perfect on that song, and she sang it with the skill and emotion that it requires. Chipmunk, on the other hand, was all over the map and off key most of the time. She sounds like she's auditioning for a Carnival cruises shitshow and failing miserably - I've heard better singing on the Miss America pageant.

Another fan of Dionne Warwick‘s “Message to Michael.”

You're a crazy drunk old man R48. Sheryl Crow - a singer of such crass distinction. Don't you wish you had a Linda Ronstadt version? I bet you ten G's that you love her too. You don't deserve Bacharach songs. Never mind David.

[quote]The two names that come to mind when you mention Bacharach/David songs are Dionne Warwick and Carpenters. Then Dusty and Luther.

That is just so wrong: it's Warwick and Dusty by a mile.

(And Brit would add Cilla Black o the list).

Like the Carpenters, B. J. Thomas and Jackie DeShannon also had a mega hit with a Bacharach song. You'd have to consider them also as "names that come to mind" when you mention him.

Vandross did do a Bacharach album, but never had a hit with one of his songs.

*(And a Brit would add Cilla Black to the list).

Sheryl Crow is so out of her element singing "One Less Bell to Answer". No sense of phrasing.

She sounded like a very capable Miss America contestant during the talent competition.

Crow and Chenowith BOTH ruined it.

That Kristin Chenoweth is considered a B'way star...well it just goes to show the sorry state of the Broadway musical.

Aren't there any theatre gurus who can give her some direction?

That grating voice, the jerky, bobbing up and down movements. Absolutely no clue as to how to deliver a song.

Watch Crow and Chenoweth ....then watch Marilyn McCoo do the same song. We go from Amateur Hour to pro.

McCoo completely understands the song and how to deliver Hal Davids lyrics. Note how she builds it, telling to story to it's conclusion: "And all I do is cry!" .

These are all great (did B&D write any bad songs?), but R1 closed the thread. The Look of Love is an indestructible song and although I've heard it a million times, always mesmerizes.

🎼 Just like me, they long to be - Close To You 🎶

Not to drag down a great thread, but if you want to see your musical idol's feet of clay, read Bacharach's autobiography. He comes across as a total jerk.

A House is Not a Home.

Naked Eyes

Issac Hayes' version of Walk on By

R3 "Nikki" is either unknown or is largely ignored, but you're right; the heroic and emotional arrangement by Harry Betts for ABC Movie of the Week is like no other. Too bad the only surviving examples of it are in such poor quality.

[quote]read Bacharach's autobiography. He comes across as a total jerk

I don't doubt that.

You want a lyric? Hoagy Carmichael. Stardust. Just read the lyrics. It's a poem set to music.

For a long time it was all Burt Bacharach, but finally Hal David started getting his props too. Because he wrote the hell out of some lyrics. Pure poetry. And yes, Burt was an asshole. A lot of artists are assholes.

No one sang A House is not a Home like Luther Vandross sang it. He could make one note, one sylabble last ten minutes if you saw him live, which I did.

Just want to add that I chose this particular version by Luther because Dionne Warwick is sitting in the audience and she's completely enthralled.

Vandross had a great voce but often ruined songs with his vocal gymnastics and showing off, with no regard to the song.

He pulled attention away from the song at hand and made it about how well he could hit and hold notes. He was like the horrid Whitney Houston in that sense.

R64 That is pretty awful.

[quote]He could make one note, one syllable last ten minutes

Not necessarily what I look for in a singer.

This

If Luther sang it without the extras, it would have been good

Like Whitney Houston's, his infantile audience would go crazy over the "extras". ... turning nearly every song into a shit show.

[quotes]Hot Bears showing bellies

Nellies showing bellies.

Bacharach is simply one of the greatest American songwriters. His distinctive musical vocabulary, shifting meters and singular "voice" are almost immediately recognizable as a Bacharach creation. Although I love the chart-toppers, there are lesser known numbers that are equally as good. Such as...

...and...

...and...

Burt was a gifted song writer but he could not sing. However, he thought he could.

I don't think anything beats Dionne's version of "This Girl's in Love with You".

But Luther looked so good in that video!

r77, I just went to youtube and, for the first time, I listened to Warwick's version of TGILWY.

Thank You, I loved it ALMOST as much as Alpert's.

The elegance and beauty of a Bacharach song is enough to make one weep, especially when you compare it to the dreck that passes itself off as pop "music" today. How the mighty have fallen!

I might have liked their songs more if I hadn't been introduced to them by way of the soporific stylings of Dionne Wispwick. Nothing made me switch from WABC to WMCA between Beatles and Motown offerings as instantly, as automatically, as the opening notes of one of her dronings.

r80, it's not the mighty that have fallen. It's that there isn't that level of pop music talent now.

R82 There's a guy I know (of) whose to-date songwriting shows evidence of Bacharach-and-David-level talent. He was enrolled in one of the major drama academies until he was plucked away to be in a Broadway musical. I haven't seen him, though I'm sure he's excellent. But I sure as fuck wish he'd get back to the songwriting.

Windows Of The World, especially Scott Walker's version.

He's a rarity - Warwick's "Hasbrook Heights"

Astrud Gilberto's Trains and Boats and Planes

I remember George Michael wanted to sing Dionne Warwick’s song “I wake up in the morning and start to put on my makeup”. He wanted to but didn’t.

I like this version of God Give Me Strength better than Elvis Costello's.

[quote]—BTW the spelling of the NJ town is Hasbrouck Heights

Thank you, dear. A googling I had already gone. Damned tiny type.

I think it's wrong to enjoy the work of anyone who turns out to be an asshole.

I love that song, r88. I love that movie. Illeana Douglas as "Carole King" who married Matt Dillon's "Brian Wilson."

Hasbrook Heights / Hal David appreciation.

[quote]I think it's wrong to enjoy the work of anyone who turns out to be an asshole.

95% of all talented artists are assholes to some degree. Who are you left with if you keep such lofty standards? Mr. Rogers?

[quote]I like everyone's version of everything better than Elvis Costello's.

Fixed.

The Walker Brothers' version of Make It Easy On Yourself. Scott Walker is terribly underrated outside of hipster circles.

Dionne Warwick doing a medley of mostly BB/HD songs.

Her recording of this on Hot! Live and Otherwise is better, though.

"I think it's wrong to enjoy the work of anyone who turns out to be an asshole."

Nonsense. I don't care if it's a chef, an actor, a painter or a songwriter. If I enjoy someone's work, it's not on the basis of their character but on the quality of the output. If it didn't matter before these "revelations," why should it matter afterwards? Welcome to life. Do we eliminate Wagner from the opera house because he was a poster boy for the Nazis, or strip Caravaggios from museum walls because he was a murderer? A simplistic, childish notion.

Hmmm, does no one realize I was being sarcastic? On DL?

Betty Buckley, "Knowing When to Leave," from the London cast recording of "Promise, Promises."

Something completely different.

I notice no one's mentioned the "beloved" DL musical film Lost Horizon

"The world is a circle without a beginning and no one can say where it really ends." Brilliant lyric-writing.

The last great songwriting team. Pop music is lost without good songwriters and has been since 1970.

R102 LOL

[quote]You want a lyric? Hoagy Carmichael. Stardust. Just read the lyrics. It's a poem set to music.

Seriously? Hoagy Carmichael did not write the lyrics to "Stardust." He was primarily a COMPOSER, not a lyricist.

Mitchell Parish added the lyrics to "Stardust" in 1929, two years after Hoagy Carmichael composed the melody.

For some reason, loads of Bacharach/David songs featured in comedies in the late 90s/early 2000s:

My Best Friend's Wedding - about half of the soundtrack

Get Over It - "I'll Never Fall in Love Again"

Austin Powers - "What the World Needs Now Is Love", "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", " "Alfie" (as "Austin")

I'm sure there were more, but those are the only ones I can think of right now. I think there was a lot of nostalgia for the 60s around that period, so maybe it was just an extension of that.

[quote]The Walker Brothers' version of Make It Easy On Yourself. Scott Walker is terribly underrated outside of hipster circles.

I liked them back then. I was a hippie, though. Hipster came later. (And earlier.)

R72 if they were true nellies, they would have nailed the Glee choreography, which clearly they didn’t.

Walk On By, the Variety Show version.

I prefer the Herb Alpert version of This Guy's in Love with You (though I like many Bachrach/David songs performed by Dionne)

r73, He's a composer not a songwriter!

Hal David's lyrics were great!

It may have ended their careers but as a kid I had the soundtrack to Lost Horizon and it grew on me, and this song is about as good as the choreography.

R114 LOL. The choreography looks like it was inspired by ABBA.

Critic Judith Crist on Lost Horizon:

"What you get is . . . the embarrassment of good performers constantly tripped up by tripe, mawkish songs, and stop-the-action dancing that is strictly from the wave-the-scarf school of vaudeville performance; music that is at best derivative and at most spaghetti-western-symphonic; Jean Louis costuming that could kindly be called comic, and a vision of Shangri-La (arrived at through process shots of airplane and snow-trek adventure that would embarrass a junior-high film class) that Archie Bunker might fantasize on the basis of postcards from the Beverly Hills Hotel. . . . Only Ross Hunter, in this whole wide world, would remake a 1937 movie into a 1932 one."

Dionne’s version of Anyone Who Had a Heart for me too. I also like the Love version of My Little Red Book that Bacharach may or may not have hated (accounts differ).

My favorite version of Hasbrook Heights is Burt’s kind of goofy laid-back version. I’m don’t know whether anything else he sings is OK to listen to. His version of Make It Easy On Yourself was kind of unpleasant.

Derivative of exactly WHAT, Ms. Crist? Other sui generis Bacharach songs?

The best. Aretha version. Sorry Dionne.

Aretha's gospel-in-the-ghetto version is charming. I much prefer it over Dionne's.

Perry Como, "Magic Moments."

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

No one seems to remember (and probably for good reason) that the ORIGINAL version of "Close to You" was sung by one of our own ... Miss Richard Chamberlain!

I adore this odd one... "True Love Never Runs Smooth".... sung by teen angst master Gene Pitney.

It makes me want to tease my hair.

I think Johnny Mathis schmaltzy, sensitive style is gorgeous on his version of Make it Easy on Yourself. This song was recorded long before I was born but I love a man who modulates. You too Luther.

And let's not forget Gene Pitney's "Only Love Can Break a Heart". Kitschy but kind of magnificent.

I'm surprised this song was not covered much by others. Warwick and Glenn Campbell both did versions but they're nowhere to be found on youtube. Bobby Vinton also had a hit with it, but I'd love to hear a more sophisticated interpretation.

R125 Magnificent. Even though it's bombastic, on the edge of over-the-top, Mathis still makes it about the song.

Vandross makes it about Vandross.

I actually liked the song posted above from LV and I haven't seen that unforgettable(who could forget it?)movie since I sat through it stupefied in Loew's State.

But that choreography comes from the great Hermes Pan who clearly must have at that point been sitting through too many early 70s variety shows. Living Together Growing Together which has already been posted on DL though jaw dropping makes you at least be grateful it wasn't staged by Kathleen Marshall.

Hot Bears won hands down.

Sorry 'LH.'

Wynona's version of Anyone Who Had A Heart over Dionne's any day of the week (and twice on Sunday)!

They even dabbled in rock with My Little Red Book by Love.

[quote]Wynona's version of Anyone Who Had A Heart over Dionne's any day of the week (and twice on Sunday)!

She really does do an admirable job. Her voice and style is right for Bacharach. Sings Crow and Chenoweth under the table.

(Although I'll take Dionne or Dusty.)

Here's The Four Seasons' street corner version. Interesting:

Hands down greatest song writing duo of all time.

They gave it to Manfred Mann, R132, and then Love covered it (supposedly changing the chords in a way that Bacharach did not care for). Fun fact: Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive was based on their manager’s attempt to hum Live’s version of this song without quite remembering what it was.

(Love’s version, I mean; a version by Live would probably not be so hot)

Even Cecil Beaton who criticizes everyone and everything to death in his diaries and was super snob extraordinaire mentions enjoying listening to Bacharach's music.

In Riva's biography of her mother Marlene Dietrich she gives her mother's views on Disney's Snow White, the original production of South Pacific and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. All of which are very funny.

Casino Royale.

Burt Bacharach + Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.

Heaven.

"Wives And Lovers". So condescending. So sexist. So "Swingin' Sixties"... I love it!

Dionne is a crazy old bitch, now, but she was IT back in the day.

My favorite Christmas carol-so melancholy

This is an early '60s gem. I love the beat structure and orchestration over a very naive tune. Johnny sounds so sweet.

God, Miss Chamberlain was (and remains) sooo unbelievably handsome, the Armie Hammer of his day.

r138 Not technically a Bacharach/David song, since there are no lyrics.

I wonder why they never wrote another stage musical after "Promises, Promises"?

I always thought Aretha's version of I say a little Prayer was amazingly lazy because her backup vocalists do most of the work during the chorus.

R145, Bacharach has gone on record with his discomfort over lack of control in the theatre. He can tweak and go over things countless times in the studio, but in the theatre, musicians can be out sick, understudies may go on for performers, acoustics vary in different theatres — Bacharach hated that.

Dusty and D.W. Also my fave czech lady Marta Kubišová

I Smiled Yesterday

Dionne Warwick is the best interpreter of Bacharach/David. This thread is filled with inferior readings of songs Dionne introduced and turned into contemporary pop standards. Her whole catalog is outstanding.

Stephanie Mills - Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets

Nikki is beautifully orchestrated,and haunting especially when you know the back story.

Reminded of this Stephanie Mills track more memorably sung by Sylvester. He has Martha Wash shadowing him at the top of her range. Gives it a nice gospel feel. Almost not recognizable as a Bacharach/David tune.

Dionne recorded it too but her recording is still unreleased, I am sure it is exquisite.

r152=Miss Warwick

I stumbled upon it elsewhere, but for the last week my musical obsession has been "Toledo" by Bacharach and Elvis Costello. Fantastic lyrical complexity, but at the same time replicating the sound of Bacharach hits from the 1960s. Take a listen.

My first exposure to Bacharach was the second Carpenters album, where they did a medley of his hits. It was great, and got me interested in their songs.

In the 80s Bacharach worked with Carole Bayer Sager and their songs were recorded by the likes of Gladys Knight and Natalie Cole. Here's one of them.

That whole Bacharach/Costello CD is sublime. Costello later said it would have been even better if Luther Vandross had recorded the songs instead of him (Costello). I agree.

Thanks R160. On your recommendation I am listening to it. The album practically cries out for a Friday night and a bottle of wine.

I love Bacharach-David songs. Is the Costello one really good? I had heard of it, and listened to one of the songs years ago, but I didn't think it was good (based on that one song).

I STILL HAVE THAT OTHER GIRL is the best of the Costello-Bacharach songs.

He's a fine songwriter, but I've just never been able to stand Elvis Costello's singing. The only one who would be worse singing the songs on their collaboration would be Burt Bacharach! I wish they'd recruited a first-class singer to help them out on the album.

[quote] Dionne Warwick is the best interpreter of Bacharach/David. This thread is filled with inferior readings of songs Dionne introduced and turned into contemporary pop standards. Her whole catalog is outstanding.

Which, being that he wrote them for her voice, makes sense.