Search found 1123 matches

by Blair N. Cummings
Sun Aug 08, 2021 7:41 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Be Aware
Replies: 13
Views: 30892

Re: Be Aware

Although Streisand`s televised rendition of the song was aired in `71, Dionne`s recording was out of the gate at the start of `72. I wonder if the famously temperamental diva resented that and withheld her version out of spite.
Too bad BtoB isn`t still around. He might have some insight.
by Blair N. Cummings
Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:02 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Be Aware
Replies: 13
Views: 30892

Re: Be Aware

That makes the song`s non-appearance on her subsequent album all the more puzzling. Has she addressed that?
by Blair N. Cummings
Fri Jul 30, 2021 11:03 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Another Rare Laura Nyro Clip
Replies: 10
Views: 15696

Re: Another Rare Laura Nyro Clip

That is certainly among the rarest recordings I have ever heard or heard of, so thanks for posting it.
That said, it encapsulates everything I disliked about her later career.
PS: I`m surprised that physical 45 rpm singles were still being released in `83. Maybe just to pre-digitised radio stations?
by Blair N. Cummings
Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:23 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Jimmy Webb performing on TV in 1968
Replies: 4
Views: 13224

Re: Jimmy Webb performing on TV in 1968

This clip says so much: so much right and so much wrong. To those of us of a certain age and perspective it presages - and explains - the tragic arc of his career.
by Blair N. Cummings
Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:58 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Another Rare Laura Nyro Clip
Replies: 10
Views: 15696

Another Rare Laura Nyro Clip

This is from a performance at Yale in `73 (so she hadn`t been "countrified" yet): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCOY9vTb8vE This is from still another documentary promised but yet to see the light of day. The film in question here was apparently completed and "auctioned" - what...
by Blair N. Cummings
Fri Jul 02, 2021 7:03 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)
Replies: 1308
Views: 1248631

Re: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)

These are among the reasons I could never understand Burt`s slavish attention to "the charts." No one knew the business better than he and he surely knew not just the fickleness of the audience but the sheer impossibility of every "good" song becoming a hit.
by Blair N. Cummings
Thu Jul 01, 2021 2:48 pm
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)
Replies: 1308
Views: 1248631

Re: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)

I remembered this as receiving respectable airplay in the US but it peaked at #37 in July of `68.
By contrast "...Subway" made it to #5 in June of `67.
Audiences are fickle.
by Blair N. Cummings
Thu Jul 01, 2021 8:09 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)
Replies: 1308
Views: 1248631

Re: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)

This was always my favorite by that team (although I can`t say I much care for this rendition). Nevertheless, if the melody was a pastiche of three unrelated pieces, that would account for the chord changes that are unusual even by Hatch standards. Great song, still...but it really needs an upbeat t...
by Blair N. Cummings
Sat Jun 26, 2021 5:32 pm
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Be Aware
Replies: 13
Views: 30892

Re: Be Aware

I`m pretty sure that the studio recording was arranged and produced by whomever was assigned to Streisand at that time. I don`t believe that Bacharach had anything to do with it.
But my memory isn`t what it was, so we`ll see....
by Blair N. Cummings
Mon Jun 14, 2021 11:45 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)
Replies: 1308
Views: 1248631

Re: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)

I`ll be interested to hear Laura`s version (however brief) of "When Sunny Gets Blue." It has always been one of my favorite "standard" melodies. Perhaps significantly, Barbra Streisand had recently included it on an album and, although I`m not a "Babs" fan, the arrangem...
by Blair N. Cummings
Sat Jun 12, 2021 12:34 pm
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)
Replies: 1308
Views: 1248631

Re: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)

I`m very happy that Laura`s demos are finally receiving a legitimate release after bubbling around on the InterNet for so long. What I don`t understand is why this `94 concert from a tour of Japan (available as an import for years) is being hyped and available for pre-order when the far superior per...
by Blair N. Cummings
Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:29 pm
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)
Replies: 1308
Views: 1248631

Re: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)

She`s lip-syncing both. Those are album tracks. Although she was clearly playing piano in the studio, that`s not what we are hearing. For some reason, this was common of television performances in the `60s.
by Blair N. Cummings
Sun May 30, 2021 7:04 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: R.I.P. BJ Thomas
Replies: 8
Views: 17414

Re: R.I.P. BJ Thomas

Although Thomas had charted throughout the `60s, his albums never really took off. I thought that might change with his `72 release, Billy Joe Thomas. It included songs written and accompanied by the likes of Jimmy Webb, Mann & Weill et. al. It`s still a "hidden gem" by an under-apprec...
by Blair N. Cummings
Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:09 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Another Story That Won`t Die
Replies: 0
Views: 15411

Another Story That Won`t Die

It still seems to be accepted by the few who care that the singer on "Saturday Sunshine" was Jay North - known to those of us at a certain stage of chronological advancement as Dennis the Menace. I read some years back that it was, in fact, a twelve year old girl. Has anyone - for the sole...
by Blair N. Cummings
Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:56 am
Forum: The Burt Bacharach Forum
Topic: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)
Replies: 1308
Views: 1248631

Re: Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)

Paul, I had that album as an import. As you doubtless know, the first few Beatles and Stones releases differed in their UK and US forms. I was never sure why. There was no exact corollary here to Beatles For Sale but I always liked it.