The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Yes, it's funny how something like that can make your day. I remember a few years ago walking down Putney High Street in south-west London and a group of three or four young girls aged around 13 or 14 were singing 'Message to Michael', again word perfect. It was very reassuring to assume that these ...

Yes, it was the best thing played on the show, Martin. I remember for about a year after Thelma Houston's recording in '69 it seemed that just about every guest singer on a BBC TV show sang it, and here's Dusty Springfield performing the song in 1970 on Englebert Humperdinck's show: http://www.youtu...

Thanks for that, Roberto. I have a DVD copy of the concert and I never tire of it or Paul Gambaccini's remarkable opening speech! I was actually there that night and it was an extraordinary experience and the best Bacharach concert that I've attended, highlighted for me and I'm sure for many others ...

Yes, Henry Mancini was an extraordinary composer/arranger/orchestrator. I love his arrangement of 'Trav'lin Light' from the 'Mancini Touch' album.

Thanks for the video, Blue. Piero Piccioni's lovely piece must be one of the earliest examples of Bacharach's influence being heard on a film soundtrack. Incidentally, the theme for 'The Looking Glass War' was composed by Wally Stott not John Barry, although Barry's influence is all over the orchest...

As the Daily Express might have put it, "The list that shames Britain"! Maybe one or two of the earlier ones we did well to avoid, especially the Andy Williams track. 'Wives and Lovers', 'A House is not a Home', 'What the World Needs Now' and 'The Look of Love' all became standards within ...

'The Looking Glass War' was a classic British spy movie from the 60s and had a very atmospheric and haunting score by Wally Stott. The title theme had a few John Barry touches in the orchestration but featured a flugalhorn and had a harmonic sequence which I'm sure Bacharach would have been proud of...

I've just listened to the show as I was out on Friday. As it was billed as a tribute to Bacharach and David it was a pity that they left out a few of their classics ('Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa', 'The Look of Love' and 'This Guy's in Love With You') and included two of the hits Bacharach wrote wit...

From my knowledge of jazz musicians it's not the melody of a song that interests them it's the chord sequence. They'll play the melody at the beginning and return to it for the end but it's what they do inbetween when they improvise around the song's changes, the 'jazz', that concerns them, so it's ...

Thanks for posting in its entirety a radio show I've waited nine years to hear. Marion McPartland fails to illicit anything from Burt that we haven't seen and heard in a hundred interviews, but some of the music they play together is very enjoyable and his solo rendition of 'The Windows of the World...

I've never been a fan of Webb the performer nor a particular admirer of his songwriting since the end of the 60s, but listening to the new album and the one that preceded it, 'Just Across the River', I have to say that his vocal skills have come on in leaps and bounds and he's now a very convincing ...

Thanks Martin for inspiring a trip down memory lane. I remember a school friend and I going with her mother to see ‘Casino Royale’ the week it opened in April ’67. I was still at junior school age and although the movie seemed chaotic and made little or no sense it revealed to me an almost impossibl...

Fascinating following the recent links on this thread and hearing two Dionne Warwick tracks I've not heard in years and a cover of a DW track I've never heard before, so thanks to all concerned. Watching 'Gardeners' World' on BBC2 last night I heard in the background what has to be one of Bacharach'...

Thanks for posting that, Blue. 'Every Other Hour' sounds beautiful in Italian as well as English and, best of all, has a lot of the traits of a 'classic Bacharach' song. Pljms, I'm wracking my brains trying to think of all those great songs written by octogenarians!

I remember, Blue, for a few years after his appearance in the first 'Austin Powers' movie where he sang 'What the World Needs Now' he was referred to as a 'crooner' more than he was a composer in the UK press, even by some of the broadsheets. Apart from getting his name better known I can't see how ...