The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Jackie DeShannon talking about Burt in the latest edition of Mojo: "Burt had all these sophisticated melodies, then he'd insert these chord changes with a rootsy, gospel feel. Think of Message To Martha or Reach Out For Me. Burt was in touch with the soul, and that brought listeners in. He tour...

Given how melodic and harmonically rich the songs of The Bee Gees often are, it comes as no surprise to me that Barry Gibb is a huge Bacharach fan, and this tribute is taken from the latest edition of Mojo. "He was the reason I started writing songs" Barry Gibb on his lifelong love of Burt...

When Steve Allen brought out two albums recorded by Carole... why no mention of 'Sometimes Late At Night' the album she recorded with Burt in 1981? 'blue' Yes and with Burt & Carole both sat there seemingly too polite to mention its absence. As for 'The Dancing Fool', the mystery of whether or ...

I see that this show was recorded at the time that Tony Newley was starring in 'Chaplin' at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles, which dates it to either August or September 1983 because the musical ran for only six weeks after opening on August 12th. Newley merely performed in this musica...

It might have been posted here before, blue, but it was a while ago and I for one thoroughly enjoyed watching it again. This show really is one highlight after another with Bacharach singing 'Any Day Now' at the piano backed by Steve Allen's band; Carole Bayer Sager performing 'Come In From The Rain...

The sound quality is poor but it's an interesting and an enjoyable listen all the same. Nice to hear Burt and Carole duetting near the end on 'Arthur's Theme' and 'Close To You' and the fact that he was writing No.1 hit records again would have contributed in no small way to his obvious good spirits.

Hearing 'Look Up Again' on the new collection reminded me that Herb Alpert cut an instrumental version a little while back. Was this really nearly seven years ago?

Elvis Costello taking us through the box set that is released this week.

A performance from 1969 by Tom Jones of 'What The World Needs Now' with Burt at the piano that is new to me. Given its relative brevity my guess is that it must have featured at the end of a medley.

Bacharach interviewed on BBC TV in 1964 talking about songwriting and how he went about constructing the arrangement for 'Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa'.

blue, I suspect that more and more excerpts like this one will be taken from the TV specials and uploaded on YouTube, which is obviously good news for us. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled.

Just heard the sad news that singer Chuck Jackson has died. As we all know he had his biggest hit with the Bacharach and Hilliard number 'Any Day Now' and here he is with the song on the TV special made in the UK in 1965 called 'The Bacharach Sound'. He's introduced by the composer. https://m.youtub...

Some absolutely priceless footage of Burt and Angie duetting on 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again', taken from a TV show they co-presented called Hollywood Palace and which first aired on the 10th of January 1970. Worth watching just to see Burt visibly wince after he messes up the rhyme with 'pneumoni...

Of all the tributes to Bacharach from fellow songwriters that I've read Jimmy Webb's is by far the most in-depth and personal. I don't know about everybody else on here but I think I must have read more on the net about Bacharach in the last ten days than I have in the past twenty-five years, the sh...

This article appeared in The Washington Post last weekend. I can't recall Carole King ever having commented publicly on Bacharach's music before, so it makes for an interesting read.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... ngwriting/