The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Managed to garner a few more snippets of info from Glenn A Baker's interview with Burt, on a Qantas return flight to Canberra this weekend: Burt credits Calvin Carter as the first producer to allow him free reign at producing a single, on Jerry Butler's version of 'Make it Easy on Yourself'. Burt us...

I too like this album and play it every so often. It's a while since I've seen the documentary "This is Now" (BBC 1996) but I recall Burt discussing 'Woman' in the documentary, and the pressure of recording it in one four-hour take. He remarked something along the lines of "If you mad...

Hi Rio, From what I recall, Burt spoke about 'Any Day Now' as one of the songs he wrote with Bob Hilliard. He also spoke about the thrill of having it recorded by Elvis Presley. I think Glenn A Baker mentions that Elvis's version was recorded quite some time after the original version by Chuck Jacks...

Hi, Today, whilst flying between Sydney and Melbourne, I happened to pick up the January Qantas inflight magazine and discovered that on one of the audio channels, Burt's music was being featured, with the maestro himself talking about the songs being played and the artists singing them. The host of...

That's great news - I think Burt really enjoyed his time with the Sydney Symphony, judging by his comments at the final Sydney concert. So I imagine he's looking forward to the reunion in the New Year. I saw him perform in Sydney in July because Melbourne, which is where I live, wasn't on the schedu...

What a great topic idea! I think I mentioned this way back but there's an album by a Scottish band called The Pearlfishers called 'Across the Milky Way'. Much of the music sounds as if it was ghost-written by Burt. In fact I reckon two of the tracks would have fitted nicely on one of his early A&...

Steveo, Just to answer your earlier questions, yes, I think the author of 'Off the Record' is the Joe Smith to whom you refer. At the time of the book's publication he was CEO of Capital Industries-EMI and had previously been president or chairman of several record labels. As to your other question ...

Regarding the record pressings discussion a few posts back, I have a book titled "Off the Record" by Joe Smith (1990), which features interviews with big-name recording artists including Burt Bacharach. Burt mentions his disdain for the poor quality of earlier record pressings though I don...

Hi Vincent,

In answer to your question above, I'm not aware that any of the radio or TV networks recorded Burt's Opera House performance, unfortunately.

I'm still keeping a look out for a broadcast date of his show with the Australian Idols at Sydney's State theatre.

Regards,
Martyn.

Hi Vincent,

Thanks for posting this article. Good to see Burt is well rested after his tour of Australia, and great to see we might be hearing some new orchestral-style music from him.

Martyn.

After seeing one of Burt's shows in Brisbane, on his current tour, I was eagerly anticipating his last two shows in Sydney (13 & 14 Jul), along with friends who are also big fans, and we weren't disappointed. Both shows were fantastic! I think the music program has been pretty well covered in th...

I think, for me, Dionne Warwick's version of 'Knowing When to Leave' would be the definitive one, from her 'I'll Never Fall in Love Again' album of 1970.

The arrangement is very similar to Burt's great instrumental version on his 'Make it Easy on Yourself' album.

Martyn.

A slight correction to my previous post: It was the audience, not the orchestra, that Burt engaged with on those topics familiar to us fans. Burt was certainly engaged with the orchestra musically and was clearly enjoying himself. What amazes me is his energy. He's been to Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane ...

I had the pleasure of taking my mother to see Burt perform at the Brisbane Convention Centre last Friday evening. There would have been 2000-2500 at the show, I'd say. A fantastic night with several standing ovations at the end. Burt started with a medley of hits, too numerous to mention here. This ...

Can anyone tell me if Burt is 78 or 79? Was he born in 1929 or 1928? As we know his bios either say one or the other. And, would you believe, his age was reported on the TV here in Australia last week as being 80! Someone told me the other night on the phone. If anyone can clear up the confusion tha...