Hard to Find Burt Music

[RonnieHolt]

Greetings fellow Burt Bacharach fans. How pleasing to find a significant community of like minded individuals all in one place. I actually came here out of pure frustration. Let me explain.
I'm a newish piano player but have been a musician of other instuments my whole life. I'm a member of two different sheet music sharing communities and am always on the look out for interesting arrangements.
When my playing reached a certain level I sought out a songbook from the great Burt Bacharach. I bought a semi-comprehensive anthology of his work. However, between the sheet music sharing community and the anthology there's still a few pieces of Burt's music that I do not have. And at this point I don't even know where to look for them.
I'm looking for a decent sheet for 'The Fun Old City' from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. On any kind of internet search, regardless of which search engine I use, any reference to Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid comes up with a gogol of hits for Raindrops. But I'm not looking for Rainsdrops. I HVAE Raindrops. Infact I have 3 different arrangements of it! I'm looking for The Fun Old City. Actually I'd like the other songs from the score too; Sundance's Theme, Not Going Home Anymore, ESPECIALLY that one, South American Getaway etc.
My playing is not yet at the stage where I can create my own arrangements of these songs. But I have figured out the melody and bass lines.
Can anybody help me with this righteous but frustrating search? And Yes I've tried Ebay and Sheet Music Plus. Believe me, I've tried looking in very inventive ways hence my presence here. HELP!!!

[Steve Schenck]

I, too, was once looking for those and other pieces, when a salesman at a large music store in NYC told me they were never published. Songs like "The Sundance Kid" and "The Old Fun City" had no lyrics, so there was probably only a very tiny slice of the market that would be interested in buying them, or so the salesman said. I don't know that this is the bottomline truth, but I have never been able to find these pieces on sheet music, and it's sounds right to me.

[Tetsuyarandy]

Dear Great fans of Burt Bacharach.

It is nice to write a reply here.
I am not sure whether this information will help but I do have the old Bacharach/David music book which was published in Japan about 35 years ago.
The name of the publisher is " Nihon Ongakuku Shuppan CO.LTD"
It includes these next songs;

Another Night, The April Fools, Do You Know the Way to San Jose,
Dream Sweet Dreamer, Go With Love, He Who Loves,
I'll Never Fall in Love Again, I Say a Little Prayer, Odds and Ends of a Beautiful Love Affair, Paper Mache, Promises Promises,
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, This Guy's in Love With You,
The Windows of the World, As Long As There's an Apple Tree,
Everybody's Out of Town, Let Me Go To Him, Walkin' Backwards Down the Road, Walk Little Dolly, Who Is Gonna Love Me, Come Touch the Sun,
One Less Bell to Answer, South American Getaway

Most of them are piano score and some of them are just the vocal score
with the chord but it seems to me that it is the manuscript of his writings.
The vocal score is "Apple Tree", "Walking Backwards", "Walk Little Dolly",
"Who Is Gonna", "Let Me Go to Him."

"Come Touch the Sun" is in C Major. "South American Getaway" is in a minor and in 3/4.

I will write down the name of the publisher and their address;
Nihon Ongaku Shuppan Co, LTD(Nichion Inc.)
TBS-TV 2nd Bldg.3-50, 5chome Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo Japan

[steveo_1965]

Regarding the "Hard to find" music from Burt, you have (understandibly)
if you are under 60, missed the peak years of Burt's heydey. I can assure you a lot of sheet music was published, including all of the themes from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The problem is, as time goes by, publishers go out of business, sheet music becomes hard to find, etc.
You mention "The Old Fun City"...Hansen Publications were the publishers for Burt's music in the late 60's and early 70's and they put out a song folio on the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Suindance Kid"
These were piano\vocal and or instrumental sheets. They were "pulled off"
the record by ear, with a minimal lead line provided by Burt's publishing Co. The late George N. Terry(a fine musican) arranged these tunes for
John Q. Public...so to speak...
Search eBAY for these song folios...I used to have this sheet music, but I may have sold it..not sure...I'm almost certain of the former...

[An Enormous BB Fan]

.....The late George N. Terry(a fine musican) arranged these tunes for John Q. Public...so to speak...Search eBAY for these song folios...I used to have this sheet music, but I may have sold it..not sure...I'm almost certain of the former...

That's right. On my sheet music of "Freefall", it says "Piano Reduction by George N. Terry" and I always wondered who he was. He's blessed to have a musical "ear" like that if he simply transcribed that sheet music from the record.

Was George Terry a friend of Burt's or did he just work for the publishing company?

[steveo_1965]

Enormous,
George N. Terry had a fine ear for music. As far as his relationship with Burt, I don't know...I'm pretty sure he was working for the music publisher.
I do remember reading that George's involvement with music goes way back to the big band era...I also remember reading that George N. Terry is no longer with us.