The answer to that question is that we've always liked to think so, especially as the great man himself has told us so on numerous occasions, but, sadly, some of the facts that don't bear it out. For instance, below is a staggeringly long list of songs, including several that went Top 5, that were all Top 40 hits in the US and that have all failed to chart in the UK. In chronological order they are:
1/ The Blob
2/ With Open Arms
3/The Man who Shot Liberty Valance
4/ Any Day Now
5/ Only Love Can break a Heart
6/ Blue on Blue
7/ Be True to Yourself
8/ True Love Never Runs Smooth
9/ Don't you Believe It
10/ Wives and Lovers
11/ What the World Needs Now is Love
12/ Are you There with another Girl?
13/ The Windows of the World
14/ Who is Gonna Love Me
15/ Promises, Promises
16/ April Fools
17/ Everybody's out of Town
18/ Let Me go to him
19/ One Less Bell to Answer
20/ Living Together, Growing Together
21/ Stronger than Before
22/ Making Love
23/ Heartlight
24/ Love Power
Even The Look of Love Struggled to chart in the UK, having to wait until the early 70s when Gladys Knight took it to No.21.
I can think of only four songs where the trend was reversed; Another Tear Falls by the Walker Brothers, Long After Tonight is all Over by Jimmy Radcliffe, It's Love that really Counts by the Merseybeats and Keep Away from other Girls by Helen Shapiro. Remarkably, A House is Not a Home has never been a Top 40 hit on either side of the pond.
Bacharach appreciated more in the UK?
Moderator: mark
Bacharach appreciated more in the UK?
Last edited by pljms on Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:41 am, edited 8 times in total.
Paul
Re: Bacharach appreciated more in the UK?
Brilliant post, pljms, and I'm surprised nobody's responded up to now. It certainly inspired me and I had to re-register to reply because I'd forgotten my password, so long has it been since I've posted a message. Good to see that the site is now better regulated and that the lunatics, with all their reactionary views and profanities, have mercifully returned to the asylum.
I think the whole thing about BB being more appreciated in the UK than in his homeland was started by Burt himself in various interviews back in the mid-60s, by which time there had already been several no.1 records with his songs in the UK plus a Top 10 hit under his own name. As a young girl growing up in London during the 60s, I remember his name being mentioned just about every time one of his songs was played on the radio, a privilege up to then afforded only to the greats like Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, and seeing him on TV shows like Ready, Steady Go, Top of the Pops, Juke Box Jury and his own special, The Sound of Bacharach. Believe me, the fact that he was such a handsome man didn't do him any harm and definitely helped him to register with the female half of the British population! So you can see that the Cult of Bacharach had already been in place in the UK several years before he became a household name in the States, which was around about 1970 according to my American friends. Looking down the long list of songs that failed to chart in the UK, it's a measure of their greatness that several of them have attained standard status despite never being a 'hit'. Conversely, perhaps it could be argued that we Brits showed remarkably good taste in ignoring a few of the other songs (Only Love can break a Heart, Blue on Blue, Heartlight).
I recently read that Bacharach had to cancel a concert in Phoenix due to poor ticket sales, something that would be unimaginable in the UK. I was at the packed Roundhouse last week, just like I've been at all his previous London dates down the years, and it was very heart warming this time to see such a marvelous response from such a young (ish) crowd of people. The fact that the concert was televised, broadcast on radio and the man himself was all over the media last week proves that we still like to acknowledge and celebrate musical genius in this country, even if we didn't always make his songs Top 40 hits.
I think the whole thing about BB being more appreciated in the UK than in his homeland was started by Burt himself in various interviews back in the mid-60s, by which time there had already been several no.1 records with his songs in the UK plus a Top 10 hit under his own name. As a young girl growing up in London during the 60s, I remember his name being mentioned just about every time one of his songs was played on the radio, a privilege up to then afforded only to the greats like Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, and seeing him on TV shows like Ready, Steady Go, Top of the Pops, Juke Box Jury and his own special, The Sound of Bacharach. Believe me, the fact that he was such a handsome man didn't do him any harm and definitely helped him to register with the female half of the British population! So you can see that the Cult of Bacharach had already been in place in the UK several years before he became a household name in the States, which was around about 1970 according to my American friends. Looking down the long list of songs that failed to chart in the UK, it's a measure of their greatness that several of them have attained standard status despite never being a 'hit'. Conversely, perhaps it could be argued that we Brits showed remarkably good taste in ignoring a few of the other songs (Only Love can break a Heart, Blue on Blue, Heartlight).
I recently read that Bacharach had to cancel a concert in Phoenix due to poor ticket sales, something that would be unimaginable in the UK. I was at the packed Roundhouse last week, just like I've been at all his previous London dates down the years, and it was very heart warming this time to see such a marvelous response from such a young (ish) crowd of people. The fact that the concert was televised, broadcast on radio and the man himself was all over the media last week proves that we still like to acknowledge and celebrate musical genius in this country, even if we didn't always make his songs Top 40 hits.
Last edited by Sara D on Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Bacharach appreciated more in the UK?
Welcome back, Sara - it must be several years since you've posted. Good to see that you've lost none of your former eloquence! I agree with all your points and it's curious, isn't it, how Bacharach fans' least favorite of his hit songs tends not to vary a great deal (I would have picked the same three). Since my original post the list of US Top 40 hits which failed to chart in the UK has increased by two as I had somehow overlooked 'The Blob' and 'Are You There with Another Girl'. Maybe I was in denial over the last one because it just happens to be a personal favorite of mine.
Paul
Re: Bacharach appreciated more in the UK?
That list of 22 songs would make an excellent compilation - 'US Bacharach hit songs that failed to chart in the UK', or maybe something more catchy and less wordy.
Re: Bacharach appreciated more in the UK?
The above list seems to have finally settled on 24, while the number of Bacharach songs that hit the Top 40 in the UK but not in the US is now at 4. He's actually had more No.1s in the UK than in the US - 7 compared to 6 - and had already had 6 in the UK before his first in the US in 1968 with This Guy's in Love with You. Bobbie Gentry's version of I'll Never Fall in Love Again in 1969 is Bacharach's last UK No.1. The nearest any of the three US No.1s from the 80s came to replicating their success in the UK was On My Own which stalled at No.2 One of the more remarkable facts about Bacharach's UK chart history is the amount of songs that have had more than one hit version. Top of a very long list is The Story of my Life which in early 1958 no less than 4 singers managed to take into the Top 40! The other songs to have hit more than once, sometimes thrice, are Magic Moments, Baby it's You, Don't Make me Over, I Just don't know what to do with Myself, Anyone who had a Heart, Walk on By, Message to Martha, Trains and Boats and Planes, I say a little Prayer, I'll never fall in love Again, Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head, Close to You, and You'll never get to Heaven. And that, ladies & gentlemen, is how Bacharach has managed to achieve over 50 Top 40 hits in the UK with less than 35 songs.
Last edited by pljms on Wed Nov 05, 2008 4:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
Paul
Re: Bacharach appreciated more in the UK?
The Gratifying thing is that so many of those covers of former hits have occured in recent times. Unless I've missed something, the last was White Stripes and I Just Don't Know What to do with Myself from three or four years ago, which according to my daughter went Top 10. Still, the disparity between the US and the UK regarding hit records of Bacharach songs is mind boggling. Looking at the 4 songs that went Top 40 here but not Stateside we should be immensely proud of ourselves for making that dancefloor favourite Long After Tonight is all Over by Jimmy Radcliffe a hit, even if it did reach only N0.40!
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blueonblue
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Re: Bacharach appreciated more in the UK?
A "Northern Soul" classic, no less !!!! 
"blue"
"blue"
Re: Bacharach appreciated more in the UK?
Thanks, Blueonblue. Long after Tonight is all Over has long been a favourite of mine.
Here's a link to Lou Johnson's 1964 UK Top 40 hit Message to Martha, coupled with the Marvelettes' cover Message to Michael from 1967, great versions each.
Here's a link to Lou Johnson's 1964 UK Top 40 hit Message to Martha, coupled with the Marvelettes' cover Message to Michael from 1967, great versions each.
Paul