“Forgotten Hollywood”- Songwriter Extraordinaire…
Manny P. here… 
“`Burt Bacharach was a composer that helped define the 1960s. His massive work with Hal David and Dionne Warwick led to a string of easy-listening hits. Bacharach also contributed to the mid-century cinema soundtrack. More than twelve-hundred artists performed his compositions, which won six Grammys and three Oscars.
“`Bacharach showed a keen interest in jazz as a teen and he used a fake identification to gain admission into nightclubs. He absorbed bebop music from Dizzy Gillespie and jazz from Count Basie, which later influenced his songwriting. Bacharach served in the Army during the Korean War, but wore a tuxedo instead of military fatigues while playing piano in officers’ clubs across America.
“`He worked in New York and became the pianist-arranger for Marlene Dietrich, Vic Damone, Steve Lawrence, the Ames Brothers and Polly Bergen. Once he teamed with David, success came early and often, as they worked with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels and Jerry Butler. Early hits included Tower of Strength, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Baby It’s You, Only Love Can Break a Heart, Any Day Now and Make it Easy on Yourself.
“`His breadth of work was imposing with hits such as Don’t Make Me Over, Anyone Who Had a Heart, Walk On By, I Say a Little Prayer for You, Do You Know the Way to San Jose, Promises Promises, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, Wishin’ and Hopin’, Blue on Blue, Wives and Lovers, My Little Red Book, A House is Not a Home, (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me, The Look of Love, What the World Needs Now is Love, What’s New Pussycat, Alfie, Casino Royale, (They Long to Be) Close to You, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, One Less Bell to Answer, This Guys in Love with You, Arthur’s Theme, On My Own, That’s What Friends are For and The Theme from The Blob. Whew!!
“`He made personal appearances in the Austin Powers series of flicks. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Bacharach and David at number thirty-two for their one-hundred Greatest Songwriters of All Time. The duo also received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first time the honor has been given to a songwriting team. And he was married for a time to actress Angie Dickinson and songwriter Carole Bayer Sager.
“`One of the most influential composers of twentieth-century popular music, Burt Bacharach (above right) was ninety-four.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2023 at 11:19 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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