Burt Bacharach, A Composer Who Gave The 1960s A High Gloss, Passes Away Aged 94
On Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, stylish pop composer, arranger, conductor, record producer, and infrequent performer Burt Bacharach passed away. His songs encapsulated the romantic optimism of the 1960s. He was 94.
His publicist, Tina Brausam, confirmed his passing. There was no cited justification given.
The late-19th-century symphonic music's chromatic harmonies and protracted, angular melodies were combined with modern, bubbly pop orchestration by Mr. Bacharach, a devoted romantic whose mature style might be described as Wagnerian lounge music. The resulting composition was then infused with a staccato rhythmic drive. For a generation of young adults just a few years older than the Beatles, his sparkling tunes embodied chic hedonism.
 |
| Burt Bacharach, A Composer Who Gave The 1960s A High Gloss, Passes Away Aged 94 |
Listeners who preferred the hard edge of ra ock or the intimacy of the singer-songwriter genre frequently dismissed the high gloss and apolitical stance of Mr. Bacharach's songs, which he co-wrote with his most frequent collaborator, the lyricist Hal David, during a period of confrontation and social upheaval, as little more than background music. In retrospect, however, the Bacharach-David duo holds a prominent position in the pantheon of pop songwriting.
Songs by Bacharach-David, such as Dusty Springfield's seductive 1967 hit "The Look of Love," Herb Alpert's 1968 No. 1-hit "This Guy's in Love With You," and the Carpenters' 1970 No. 1-hit "(They Long to Be) Close to You," evoked an affluent world of private jets, sports cars, and swanky bachelor pads. In 1997's "Austin Powers:
Songs by Bacharach-David, such as Dusty Springfield's seductive 1967 hit "The Look of Love," Herb Alpert's 1968 No. 1-hit "This Guy's in Love With You," and the Carpenters' 1970 No. 1-hit "(They Long to Be) Close to You," evoked an affluent world of private jets, sports cars, and swanky bachelor pads. In 1997's "Austin Powers:
International Man of Mystery," which parodied the swinging '60s atmosphere of the early James Bond films, Mr. Bacharach sang his 1965 song "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and made an appearance as himself, noddingly acknowledging this mystery. Additionally, he appeared in its two sequels in cameo roles.
Over the years, Mr. Bacharach worked with numerous lyricists and even contributed some original lyrics. However, Mr. David, who was seven years his senior and whom he met in the office of a music publisher in 1957, was his main partner. Beginning with the singles they composed and produced for East Orange, New Jersey native Dionne Warwick, a talented teenage gospel singer, the group's creative synergy came together in 1962.
When the Drifters were recording "Mexican Divorce" and "Please Stay," two songs he co-wrote with lyricist Bob Hilliard, Mr. Bacharach ran into Ms. Warwick. When Mr. Bacharach heard Ms. Warwick, a backing singer, he thought he had discovered the exceptional soprano who possessed the technical skill to perform his rangy, intensely challenging melodies, with their complicated time signatures and lengthy asymmetrical phrases.
The creative chemistry between Mr. Bacharach, Mr. David, and Ms. Warwick defined the voice of a youthful, passionate Everywoman on the run, brimming with romantic anticipation and vulnerability. The earthier Motown sound of the middle and late 1960s was directly influenced by their urbane sound.
The Midtown Manhattan music publishing hub known as the Brill Building is where Mr. Bacharach and Mr. David worked. They are frequently grouped with the younger songwriters of the so-called Brill Building school of teenage pop, such as the duos of Carole King and Gerry Goffin or Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. However, they hardly ever composed specifically for the teen market.
With success on Broadway and in Hollywood, as well as a famous movie star wife named Angie Dickinson, whom he had married in 1965, Mr. Bacharach entered the 1970s not just as a successful songwriter but also as a glitzy solo celebrity. He appeared to be impervious to wrongdoing. But things quickly changed.
The score for the 1973 musical picture "Lost Horizon," which was based on the 1937 Frank Capra fantasy movie of the same name, was written by Mr. Bacharach and Mr. David. The film was an abject failure. Soon after that, the already stale Bacharach-David-Warwick triad abruptly disbanded amidst a barrage of legal disputes.
In his autobiography, "Anyone Who Had a Heart: My Life and Music," co-authored with Robert Greenfield, Mr. Bacharach reflected on his breakup with Mr. David in 2013 and admitted that "it was all my fault. I can't think how many beautiful songs I could have written with Hal in the years we were away."
With two No. 1 singles in 1986—the Michael McDonald-Patti LaBelle duet "On My Own" and the AIDS awareness song "That's What Friends Are For," which later won the Grammy for Song of the Year—Mr. Bacharach and Ms. Sager reached the height of their commercial success.
Over the years, Mr. Bacharach worked with numerous lyricists and even contributed some original lyrics. However, Mr. David, who was seven years his senior and whom he met in the office of a music publisher in 1957, was his main partner. Beginning with the singles they composed and produced for East Orange, New Jersey native Dionne Warwick, a talented teenage gospel singer, the group's creative synergy came together in 1962.
When the Drifters were recording "Mexican Divorce" and "Please Stay," two songs he co-wrote with lyricist Bob Hilliard, Mr. Bacharach ran into Ms. Warwick. When Mr. Bacharach heard Ms. Warwick, a backing singer, he thought he had discovered the exceptional soprano who possessed the technical skill to perform his rangy, intensely challenging melodies, with their complicated time signatures and lengthy asymmetrical phrases.
The creative chemistry between Mr. Bacharach, Mr. David, and Ms. Warwick defined the voice of a youthful, passionate Everywoman on the run, brimming with romantic anticipation and vulnerability. The earthier Motown sound of the middle and late 1960s was directly influenced by their urbane sound.
The Midtown Manhattan music publishing hub known as the Brill Building is where Mr. Bacharach and Mr. David worked. They are frequently grouped with the younger songwriters of the so-called Brill Building school of teenage pop, such as the duos of Carole King and Gerry Goffin or Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. However, they hardly ever composed specifically for the teen market.
Misses and Hits
The group produced a consistent series of singles for Ms. Warwick starting with "Don't Make Me Over" in 1962, including "Anyone Who Had a Heart," "Walk On By," "Alfie," "I Say a Little Prayer," and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose."With success on Broadway and in Hollywood, as well as a famous movie star wife named Angie Dickinson, whom he had married in 1965, Mr. Bacharach entered the 1970s not just as a successful songwriter but also as a glitzy solo celebrity. He appeared to be impervious to wrongdoing. But things quickly changed.
The score for the 1973 musical picture "Lost Horizon," which was based on the 1937 Frank Capra fantasy movie of the same name, was written by Mr. Bacharach and Mr. David. The film was an abject failure. Soon after that, the already stale Bacharach-David-Warwick triad abruptly disbanded amidst a barrage of legal disputes.
In his autobiography, "Anyone Who Had a Heart: My Life and Music," co-authored with Robert Greenfield, Mr. Bacharach reflected on his breakup with Mr. David in 2013 and admitted that "it was all my fault. I can't think how many beautiful songs I could have written with Hal in the years we were away."
A New Collaboration
His marriage to Ms. Dickinson was over long before they divorced in 1981, and Mr. Bacharach went through several years of stagnation both personally and professionally. However, in the 1980s, thanks to his collaboration with the lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, whom he married in 1982, he experienced a commercial resurgence.With two No. 1 singles in 1986—the Michael McDonald-Patti LaBelle duet "On My Own" and the AIDS awareness song "That's What Friends Are For," which later won the Grammy for Song of the Year—Mr. Bacharach and Ms. Sager reached the height of their commercial success.
"That's What Friends Are For" was Mr. Bacharach's final big hit; it was originally performed by Rod Stewart for the soundtrack of Ron Howard's 1982 film "Night Shift" and later covered by an all-star group billed as Dionne and Friends, which included Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and Elton John. In 1991, he and Ms. Sager were divorced.
On May 12, 1928, Burt Freeman Bacharach was born in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1932, Bert Bacharach, a men's fashion journalist and nationally syndicated columnist, moved his family to Forest Hills, Queens. He was encouraged to pursue music studies by his mother, Irma (Freeman) Bacharach, an amateur singer and pianist. He studied piano, drums, and cello.
He slipped into Manhattan jazz bars while still underage and fell in love with the contemporary harmonies of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, which would have a significant impact on him.
Following his graduation from Forest Hills High School, he pursued a musical education at several institutions, including the Mannes School of Music in New York and McGill University in Montreal. Henry Cowell and Darius Milhaud, two composers, were among his tutors. He played piano, worked as a dance band arranger while serving in the Army in the early 1950s, and met Vic Damone, a vocalist with whom he later travelled as an accompaniment.
In 1958, he was appointed musical director for the two-year U.S. and European tour of German singer-actress Marlene Dietrich. The Ames Brothers, Polly Bergen, Georgia Gibbs, Joel Grey, Steve Lawrence, and a little-known vocalist named Paula Stewart, who became his first wife in 1953, were among the other artists he backed up in the 1950s. (In 1958, they got divorced.)
With Marty Robbins' "The Story of My Life" and Perry Como's "Magic Moments" in 1957, the Bacharach-David songwriting duo found immediate success. Early 1960s singles like Chuck Jackson's "Any Day Now" (lyrics by Mr. Hilliard) and "Make It Easy on Yourself" (lyrics by Mr. David), a smash for Jerry Butler in the US and the Walker Brothers in the UK, could be recognized as bearing Mr. Bacharach's developing melodic signature. The group acquired a swaggering, almost western feel for their Gene Pitney singles "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance" and "Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa."
The recordings of Ms. Warwick, which he co-produced with Mr. David and himself, encompassed every aspect of Mr. Bacharach's approach. Her vocals were backed by strings and backup vocalists in a typical Warwick smash, with trumpets aggressively punctuating the arrangements and evoking the sound of Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass.
Jackie DeShannon ("What the World Needs Now Is Love"), Dusty Springfield ("Wishin' and Hopin'," "The Look of Love"), Tom Jones ("What's New Pussycat?"), and the 5th Dimension ("One Less Bell to Answer") are a few more performers who have had success with the team's compositions. Ms. Warwick, however, served as their official interpreter.
The time finally helped mend the wounds from Mr. Bacharach's breakup with Mr. David and Ms. Warwick, and he later reconnected with both Mr. David and Ms. Warwick for "Sunny Weather Lover," which she recorded in the early 1990s. In the pop-soul balladeer Luther Vandross, whose sumptuous 1980s remakes of "A House Is Not a Home" and "Anyone Who Had a Heart" transformed them into dreamy quasi-operatic arias embellished with florid gospel melismas, he found his finest interpreter since Ms. Warwick.
In 1993, he wed Jane Hansen, his fourth wife. She, their son Oliver, their daughter Raleigh, and a son, Cristopher, from his union with Ms. Sager all, live on after him. His daughter with Angie Dickinson, Nikki Bacharach, committed herself in 2007.
On May 12, 1928, Burt Freeman Bacharach was born in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1932, Bert Bacharach, a men's fashion journalist and nationally syndicated columnist, moved his family to Forest Hills, Queens. He was encouraged to pursue music studies by his mother, Irma (Freeman) Bacharach, an amateur singer and pianist. He studied piano, drums, and cello.
He slipped into Manhattan jazz bars while still underage and fell in love with the contemporary harmonies of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, which would have a significant impact on him.
Following his graduation from Forest Hills High School, he pursued a musical education at several institutions, including the Mannes School of Music in New York and McGill University in Montreal. Henry Cowell and Darius Milhaud, two composers, were among his tutors. He played piano, worked as a dance band arranger while serving in the Army in the early 1950s, and met Vic Damone, a vocalist with whom he later travelled as an accompaniment.
In 1958, he was appointed musical director for the two-year U.S. and European tour of German singer-actress Marlene Dietrich. The Ames Brothers, Polly Bergen, Georgia Gibbs, Joel Grey, Steve Lawrence, and a little-known vocalist named Paula Stewart, who became his first wife in 1953, were among the other artists he backed up in the 1950s. (In 1958, they got divorced.)
With Marty Robbins' "The Story of My Life" and Perry Como's "Magic Moments" in 1957, the Bacharach-David songwriting duo found immediate success. Early 1960s singles like Chuck Jackson's "Any Day Now" (lyrics by Mr. Hilliard) and "Make It Easy on Yourself" (lyrics by Mr. David), a smash for Jerry Butler in the US and the Walker Brothers in the UK, could be recognized as bearing Mr. Bacharach's developing melodic signature. The group acquired a swaggering, almost western feel for their Gene Pitney singles "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance" and "Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa."
The recordings of Ms. Warwick, which he co-produced with Mr. David and himself, encompassed every aspect of Mr. Bacharach's approach. Her vocals were backed by strings and backup vocalists in a typical Warwick smash, with trumpets aggressively punctuating the arrangements and evoking the sound of Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass.
Jackie DeShannon ("What the World Needs Now Is Love"), Dusty Springfield ("Wishin' and Hopin'," "The Look of Love"), Tom Jones ("What's New Pussycat?"), and the 5th Dimension ("One Less Bell to Answer") are a few more performers who have had success with the team's compositions. Ms. Warwick, however, served as their official interpreter.
A Gathering
Following the failure of "Lost Horizon," Mr. Bacharach focused mostly on performing at concerts, directing his musical suites, and singing his songs in a laid-back style with a limited vocal range. He occasionally released solo CDs, with "Woman" (1979), a mostly instrumental song cycle recorded with the Houston Symphony, being the most ambitious. But the commercial impact of these records was minimal.The time finally helped mend the wounds from Mr. Bacharach's breakup with Mr. David and Ms. Warwick, and he later reconnected with both Mr. David and Ms. Warwick for "Sunny Weather Lover," which she recorded in the early 1990s. In the pop-soul balladeer Luther Vandross, whose sumptuous 1980s remakes of "A House Is Not a Home" and "Anyone Who Had a Heart" transformed them into dreamy quasi-operatic arias embellished with florid gospel melismas, he found his finest interpreter since Ms. Warwick.
In 1993, he wed Jane Hansen, his fourth wife. She, their son Oliver, their daughter Raleigh, and a son, Cristopher, from his union with Ms. Sager all, live on after him. His daughter with Angie Dickinson, Nikki Bacharach, committed herself in 2007.
Post a Comment