The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

I was back on my old stomping ground in Tokyo last week and as always when I stay there I heard Swing Out Sister played on the local radio stations. It was particularly gratifying to hear the Jobim influenced 'Closer Than The Sun' from 'Filth And Dreams' because this remains the only album of theirs...

The 12 minutes of the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special from 1971 that helped turn Andre Previn into a household name in the UK. How good is he in this sketch? Now our American colleagues on the forum can see what passed for humour, or should that be humor, in the UK circa 1971: https://m.youtube...

Having mentioned Morecambe and Wise, could someone please find Burt's appearance on their show... "Mr Backache". Bacharach never actually made an appearance on the Morecambe and Wise show and the reference to "Burt Backache" in one of their shows was in a sketch with Shirley Bas...

When you consider how successful and multifaceted Andre Previn's career was it's a shame that here in the UK he's probably best remembered for his appearance in a sketch on a Morecambe and Wise TV Christmas special from 1971, during which he was referred to as "Andrew Preview", a moniker t...

Another demo from 1966. Listening to 'Enough Of You' it just makes me wish that she'd recorded a fully realised studio version for her first album:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=szGLGRpm_gw

The repeated piano chord progression on that demo almost predicts the so called 'Allegro' section from Jimmy Webb's MacArthur Park, still a couple of years away.

We may be saying goodbye to Michel Legrand but not to his extraordinary music:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rkigCxDZH_s

As much as I love listening to Laura Nyro's recordings I think she was just too idiosyncratic a performer to ever have had hits with her most famous songs. However, I'll always prefer her exuberant version of 'Sweet Blindness' to the rather tame hit recording by the 5th Dimension: https://m.youtube....

A great Bacharach & David song which was a minor hit for Jackie Deshannon and which sounds like it may have been written with Gene Pitney in mind, especially the way she harmonisers with herself in the verses:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lEMOi7YGA2M

'Don't Give The Game Away' from the 'Almost Persuaded' album came on the radio while I was driving home from a gig late last night and it sounded wonderful, as relaxing as a cool G&T. Probably my third favourite song from the album after the title track and 'Everybody's Here': https://m.youtube....

I couldn't make the gig on Tuesday but I've heard that they might be doing more London dates early next year. In common with many old buildings the Islington Assembly Hall has quite echoey acoustics and is probably not best suited to modern PA systems. An overloud bass guitar is something I encounte...

I remember holidaying in Nice a number of years back and finding out that Lai was a bit of a local celebrity having lived there for most if not all of his life. This most Gallic of composers strayed into Antonio Carlos Jobim territory for his theme to 'The Bobo', a film from around '67 or '68 that s...

'Stripping Paper' is a personal favourite from this superb album. As has been mentioned already, Elvis Costello seems to be singing better than ever these days:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uJWckSvZC94

Blair mentioning the 'Who Are These People?' track from 'At This Time' reminded me that we've never solved the mystery of just who was the uncredited female lead vocalist alongside Elvis Costello? All we really established was that it was neither Donna Taylor nor Josie James, Bacharach's long-term c...

Ron, Bacharach has always left room in his concerts for new or recently written material and that's how we've got to hear in recent times songs like 'Every Other Hour', 'Hush', 'With A Voice' and the two songs written with Melody Federer, 'Bridges' and 'Blanket Capes'. It seems that if Bacharach is ...