The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

All those songs are basically doing the same thing harmonically, but the root movement of Arthur tracks most closely to All the Things You Are Arthur's Theme: Em7 | A7 | D7 | G | C | F#7 | B All the Things You Are: Em7 | Am7 | D7 | G | C | F#7 | B Killing Me Softly: Em | Am | D7 | G | Em | A/C# | D ...

I found this 1986 exchange between Bacharach and music journalist Michael Fremer interesting, regarding the 1982 Air Supply song "Even the Nights Are Better". I think what Fremer is getting at is the similarity between the Air Supply melody on the chorus of "Even the Nights" and ...

Completely coincidentally, today I found a somewhat under the radar 1987 recording of the show's "Whoever You Are, I Love You" by cabaret singer Marlene VerPlanck. It won't blow anybody's mind, but if you can't get enough of Promises, Promises, maybe it will interest you: https://www.youtu...

This is great, thanks for posting it. It's amazing what turns up over the decades. Those Hal Blaine-style "wall of sound" drums certainly come through the low-fidelity. I'm not enough of a Broadway historian to know if mid-60s shows before Promises, Promises had any of this kind of muscula...

Most of us probably saw the news that 1960s crooner Steve Lawrence passed away March 7. He was on board the Bacharach train pretty early with "Loving Is a Way of Living" (1959), and recorded "Wives and Lovers" in 1966 so his lounge singer card would not be revoked, and he recorde...

The Ronald Isley album was recorded in part at Capitol ca.2003: https://www.discogs.com/release/396225-Isley-Meets-Bacharach-Here-I-Am You could look for your friend's name on the paged linked above. The "At This Time" album credits don't list Capitol Studios: https://www.discogs.com/relea...

Irving Berlin never learned to read music, and could only play piano in basically one key (which is why he used a transposing piano, the equivalent of a guitar player using a capo). He also outsourced harmonization (chord changes) at times and, like most of his peers, never did the full orchestral a...

when I first heard Bacharach's own slightly quirky instrumental version on his 'Reach Out' album I must admit I was a bit underwhelmed I can understand that reaction, but my two favorite Bacharach arrangements of his own vocal material on his solo albums are the 1971 'Wives and Lovers' and that ver...

Thanks for the NYRB review; I'd not seen that. From the review: "he had come to be viewed not only as a last bastion of the Tin Pan Alley tradition of the well-crafted song....but as an involuntary emblem of whatever notion of luxurious glamour the beleaguered epoch could cling to." I don'...

Here's a notable anniversary--November 3, 1998 was the release date of the original Rhino 3-CD "Look of Love" collection (I know international versions trickled out later), and it was following hard on the heels of the late September release of "Painted from Memory". I'm one of l...

Thanks for posting that--I was only aware of their "Me Japanese Boy" cover. Hard to believe their moment in the sun in the US was almost 30 years ago. The "Baby It's You" arrangement at 9:01 is probably the most eyebrow raising thing in the video. And who has successfully pulled ...

...when the lead singer of The Four Tops Levi Stubbs sings the line, "So I just did me some talking to the sun and I said I didn't like the way THEY got things done", it suggests to me that perhaps his heart wasn't really in the song. That's funny, I was taking a walk yesterday listening ...

Here's a very different take on the song from 1972 by The Dells which was arranged and produced by Charles Stepney. I love how The Dells titled the album "Sing Dionne Warwicke's Greatest Hits". I guess they figured Burt was getting enough publicity in 1972 from all those TV specials and c...

Apologies for resurrecting an ancient thread, but Adrienne Posta's 1966 U.K. recording of "Close to You" did eventually turn up on Youtube, and it's worth a listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJazfD2ABHo Possibly more interesting, or just interesting in a different way, is the B-side,...

Unlike Nick Palmer when in comparison to Cliff I think that Donna Marie's version more than holds its own Produced and arranged by Charles Calello, it was released as the b-side to 'The Whole Wide World Is Watching Us' in 1967. This is good...I hadn't heard it before. I like the tremolo guitar acce...