The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

As you know, Sara, I was there too and it was a unique atmosphere for a Bacharach concert, no doubt influenced by the fact that the most of the audience were standing and the majority looked younger than 40! I recently got hold of a DVD of the 'Live at Edmonton' concert from 1977 and the contrast co...

One of the three tracks that are new to my collection on the recently released compilation 'Burt Bacharach - Make it Easy on Yourself 1962', along with Dee Dee Sharp's 'Any Day Now' and Bobby Vee's 'Anonymous Phone-Call', is Marlene Dietrich's 'Kleine Treue Nachtigall', a German language version of ...

I meant to put Rosemary Clooney's recording of Jimmy Webb's 'Time Flies' on here last week but got distracted by life and stuff. Now I go on to Youtube and find it's not there anyway. However, a televised concert version featuring Rosemary Clooney in duet with Linda Ronstadt will suffice, although i...

Blue, yes, Irving Berlin had a way with words, didn't he? And Music! No Blair, 'That's All I've got to Say' wasn't on the CD I made as I've never owned that particular soundtrack. I was disappointed by my friends' reaction to the disc because I personally love the songs, but I can't say I was surpri...

Sadly, I think the public’s apparent indifference to Jimmy Webb’s material began in the early 70, well before the changes in radio formatting and record company policies did so much to lower standards. As pljms wrote, Webb has written many excellent songs over the last four decades, but they just ha...

Yes Sara, Mary Carewe is a real 'trouper' and the kind of singer who can sing anything from the blues to opera. I've seen her in a number of revue type shows over the years, including a tribute to Cole Porter. Here's a video of her singing Kurt Weill's 'I'm a Stranger Here myself': http://www.youtub...

I see that the personnel for this show is virtually the same as the concert put on in tribute to Bacharach alone (not B&D) at the Cadogan Hall in London on Valentine's Day 2012, but this time with the BBC Concert Orchestra instead of the RPO and Abbie Osman taking over from Cat Simmons. I'm pret...

Enjoyable show, although not all their two piano collaborations worked and 'This Guy's in Love With You' in particular was a bit of a mess. From my experience of gigging around London for the last thirty years, most jazz musicians and followers don't 'get' Bacharach at all, or pretend not to. Musici...

If it doesn't rain it pours! The Cherry Red album contains at least one track I don't have, Marlene Dietrich's 'Kleine Treue Nachtigall (Small True Nightingale)', which went on to be better known as Message to Martha/Michael. I haven't seen the track listing for the other two but the Atlantic collec...

Yes, Blair, I stopped going to Webb concerts years ago because of how few songs there were and how little the set-list changed from year to year. A show featuring "Little Tin Soldier" to "Marionette" to "Someone Is Standing Outside", all 60s songs, of course, would have...

It's generally accepted, Sara, that Burt's score is the best thing about Casino Royale. Incidentally, the title 'Home James and Don't Spare the Horses' was originally used for a song in the 1930s and made famous by the English Music Hall singer, Elsie Carlisle. As we all know the tune by that name i...

The extraordinary thing about Jimmy Webb in the late 60s, Blue, was that he had three acts, four if you include Thelma Houston, who he wrote very different material for, all of the same standard, all very rich melodically and harmonically and yet so specific to a particular singer's or singers' styl...

Here's another tune from 'Casino Royale' that I've heard more than a few times on UK TV over the years, this time from the soundtrack album:

No Bacharach fan worth his salt would ever accuse you of being mad in this instance, although I personally would like at least a couple more days in LA as I think I'd spend one day alone just walking up and down Hollywood Boulevard looking at all the.....er.....sights. Great as it is to see Bacharar...

Well done Sara, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone referenced Gardeners' World on these pages! Other Bacharach tracks that tend to get used in the background on BBC factual TV shows are the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid tunes, 'South American Getaway', 'Not Goin' Home Anymore', ...