Burt Bacharach

Funkfingers

Composer, musician, legend, 94.

sev112

Ah crap,  one of my faves for many decades 

fretmeister

Proper legend.

stickyfiddle

Definitely a legend in the most absolute way. 

Also one to file under “thought he was already dead” for me…

Philtre

Damn. Love him.

LordBucketHead

An amazing talent. Created a lot of wonderful music. 

roberty

Wow, good innings. A legend in the truest sense

rlw

The sound of the sixties in many ways.  Brilliant writer, composer, all round great musician and massive contributor to the story of 20th century music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J6qqy3uKFY

rlw

rlw

west

What's it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What's it all about when you sort it out, Alfie?
Are we meant to take more than we give

Or are we meant to be kind?  .....   X  ;( 

SRich

God, give me strength

94 is a good time on this Earth though.

RIP Mr Bacharach

guitars4you

Wow - Only just heard - There are song writers and then there are song writers and then there is Burt - Many might not have heard of Burt - But they know his songs - We talk about the American Song Book with the likes of Berlin, Gershwin and Porter but Burt can certainly sit amongst such guys

I'm led to believe that his relationship with Dionne Warwick is that she sang the original demo songs, as the sketch pad for other artist - Then they heard how good she was

So many great memories that will leave with us forever - Thanks so much for helping to write some of my most favourite songs - So many to choose from but if I picked one it would be raindrops keep falling on my head - RIP Burt Bacharach

guitars4you

rlw said:

Shows how great a song it is as Cilla kills it - She might be a great entertainer/tv star but what a lousy singer 

Sandie Shaw was first offered the song, but turned it down - The movie company wanted a UK singer to sing it, hence Cilla - But Burt wanted Dionne - Dionne had the hit version with it in the USA later - Quite common at the time, for the same song to have 2 different singers, with the record companies releasing the same song, with different singers, for the UK and the USA - Something like nearly 20 takes of Cilla's version were reordered, engineered/produced by George Martin - And Burt flew in from the USA to arrange the song/recording and I think played piano on it as well

Blueingreen

I saw him a few years ago with a big band.  Unbelievable catalogue of great pop songs.  Possibly only Lennon/McCartney could better it.

He had one male and two female lead singers and he conducted from the piano, but sang "Alfie" himself. The voice, never very strong, had completely gone and was a cracked whisper.  But hearing that sublime song sung by the 90 year old genius who'd composed it was an incredibly moving experience.

guitars4you

then there is The Look Of Love 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf1d65OHYXo

guitars4you

Then I forgot about this - As I was thinking Herb wrote it - But it is a Burt song - Awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppYnbbu1OmA

merlin

My personal favourite....if it's possible to find a favourite. Offered first to Dionne Warwick but she turned it down and it was given to Jackie DeShannon. Dionne did a version later....

usedtobe

Great innings. So many great songs. RIP

rlw

I saw him at the RFH with Joss Stone guesting in 2015.  It was an almost spiritual experience hearing all those songs live and being taken back to a much easier time.

GoFish

RIP Burt.