The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

I’m fascinated by the fact that Burt’s father, Bert Bacharach, was quite well-known in his day as a newspaper columnist who provided household tips—sort of the Heloise of his day. Here’s some video of him from a newsreel (spoiler: He doesn’t look or sound much like Burt): https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Great find, thank you. I can never get enough renditions of “Knowing When to Leave” and “The Look of Love.”

Mama Cass Elliot—one of the greatest voices of her era—singing “The Look of Love” on the Carol Burnett Show. The staging is bizarre, but Cass is, as usual, infallible. I wish she’d done more Bacharach/David.

Wow! The Philadelphia Bacharach sound.

I watched Burt's Zoom concert/conversation tonight on behalf of WinWisconsin and really enjoyed it. It's good to see and hear him, more than two years after the last time I did so at an in-person event. I'm a sucker for his singing. And there was something magical about him turning "What the Wo...

I have a soft spot for Mandel’s “The Shadow of Your Smile,” since it was the love theme from the Taylor/Burton film THE SANDPIPER, which was written in part by my cousins Louis and Irene Kamp. (They had to go to arbitration to get credit after Dalton Trumbo did his own pass on the script.) It must b...

I think Frank genuinely dislikes Turkey Lurkey time...but maybe I’ll ask him for more memories of his PROMISES PROMISES experience next time I see him, and share them here.

(Me, I love the song.)

Great discovery. Bambi’s version is a bit too leisurely and smooth—I like the hectic quality of most versions that leaves singers challenged to keep up. In general, one of the things I like about the Promises, Promises songs is the human quality, with a bit less of the polish we usually associate wi...

I hope he comes to the Bay Area in 2020. He didn’t in 2019, for the first time in quite awhile.

Gimbel's Jobim lyrics were genuinely good. And he was responsible for a surprising percentage of the music bouncing around the back of my brain, including the songs for the bizarre HR PUFNSTUF movie, the WONDER WOMAN theme, and (recorded beautifully by Dusty) "It Goes Like It Goes."

I was also lucky enough to see Miles Davis, who stuck to his famous tradition of largely ignoring the audience--and even satirized himself by introducing us to the band by facing away from us and holding up signs.

Burt still doesn't talk THAT much, to the degree you might feel like he's robbing you of music. And ultimately, the quality of the talk determines how much quantity feels right. I saw Herb Alpert and Lani Hall last year and their show had a high patter quotient, and it was very enjoyable.

I’m also late to this, but I’m so sorry to hear that. My only interactions with Vincent were an exchange or two on this forum, but it was obvious he was a sweet guy and so very good at sharing his enthusiasm.

Just went to Burt’s sold-out concert here—the eleventh time I’ve seen him, I think, and a 20th anniversary special since the first time was at the “One Amazing Night” concert. It was a joy as usual, and significantly different from the last one I attended, last year in San Francisco, with more recen...

My wife and I were at the San Francisco concert last night. Burt has bounced all the way back from his injury and his only reference to it was mentioning that a bad shoulder kept him from playing tennis. The music was as great as ever, and his patter between songs was maybe the most engaging and ent...