The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

And bossa nova is a good genre for singers without endless range, as witness one of my favorites, Astrud Gilberto. Yes, her vocal range was narrow and she was sometimes uncertain in pitch but what the now sadly late Astrud Gilberto possessed in bucketloads was charm. Of the several Bacharach songs ...

Eliane Elias's record company apparently persuaded her to sing more on her albums around about the time of 'Dreamer' so that she could be promoted as Brazil's answer to Diana Krall, but her exceptional piano playing skills were always going to overshadow her pleasant but limited singing voice. I saw...

For those who live in the London area, the singer Katriona Taylor and her quintet are performing a show called 'The Best Of Bacharach' at The Bull's Head in Barnes on Saturday, November 11th. Fans of trivia will be interested to know that she's the daughter of the former British no.1 tennis player R...

Blue, that video was posted on the forum several weeks ago on the topic 'The musical genius of Wichita Lineman'. I've remembered that there's a connection between Shawn Colvin and Jimmy Webb other than the fact that they both wrote songs with 'Wichita' in the title and it is that she recorded his 'I...

'Moon Over Wichita' has grown on me substantially since I first heard Daniel Tashian's original version eighteen months ago and I now find it just as haunting as another Wichita song. No, not THAT one:

I wonder when or even if we'll get to hear what were allegedly the last two songs Bacharach and Daniel Tashian wrote together, 'Starlight Hotel' and 'You're In My Heart Now'. Apparently Tashian was putting the finishing touches to both songs at the time of Burt's death.

From my recollection I'd say that "broken in two" has replaced "broken and blue" on numerous recordings of 'Walk On By' and the only thing to say in its defence is that it sounds a lot more elegant than "broken in pieces", which came courtesy of The Stranglers on their ...

The only version of 'Raindrops' that has ever worked for me is by BJ Thomas and 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'...

'Close To You' is such a great song that it was bound to be a hit for someone eventually and the only surprising thing was that it took as long as seven years after it was written for that to happen. Here's a very different take on the song from 1972 by The Dells which was arranged and produced by C...

Another Bacharach & David song known chiefly via a recording by Cliff RIchard is 'Through The Eye Of A Needle' and the only other version that I'm aware of is by Donna Marie. Unlike Nick Palmer when in comparison to Cliff I think that Donna Marie's version more than holds its own. https://m.yout...

Here's Nick Palmer's version of a Bacharach & David song known only through a recording by Cliff Richard. Both the arrangement and the production suggest to me that it was more likely to have been recorded in the first half of the 60s rather than in 1968 or '69 as stated in Serene Dominic's book...

Even though Robert John's 1968 UK chart entry 'If You Don't Want My Love' fared even worse than 'Sad Eyes' it's a song I'm at least familiar with, perhaps because it's been covered a few times. It does have a very catchy chorus and I can imagine it being very popular with the Northern Soul crowd. ht...

Thanks for sharing. There were one or two interesting selections in that medley and I really enjoyed the relaxed and informal vibe. I spent a lot of time in France in the 1980s and early 90s and got the impression, rightly or wrongly, that Bacharach's name wasn't particularly well known over there.

Going back to Robert John, I've just listened to his 'Sad Eyes' and despite apparently being a Top 40 hit in the UK in 1979 I don't recognise it at all. In my opinion there was a far superior song with the same title written by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody and recorded in 1976 by a woman with one of th...

Re Dusty Springfield not recording 'Knowing When To Leave', to my ears she doesn't seem entirely at ease with the song on the three different TV performances that I've seen on YouTube, sounding breathless, unsure of the song's time resulting in her nearly coming in too early for the chorus on one oc...