The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

I think Bacharach wasn`t mentioned primarily because the chat wasn`t about a Bacharach song.
As for Carole King...well, she made some pleasant if forgettable albums in the early `70s. It`s a minor mystery why her name is kept alive by means including a cheesy B`way musical (among others) when equally-if modestly - talented co-evals like Ellie Greenwich and Mann and Weill have disappeared down the memory hole.
If this track from her studio band of `68 had been released as a single, I would then and there have had all I needed from her (and even this is kind of a shameless Laura Nyro rip-off):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCR5syr ... Rj&index=3

Blair, it was that part of the interview when Elvis was asked about his famous collaborators over the years that Bacharach's name became conspicuous by its non-mention, although admittedly the NYT guy did steer him towards the 'safer ground' of his work with McCartney.

I can't say I hear much or anything of Carole King in that 'Burnt Sugar' song. While I've never been a big fan of hers and have never bought any of her albums, I think she has a pleasant if limited singing voice and I like the way she accompanies herself on the piano. My sister used to play her 'Rhymes and Reasons' album a lot in those days and I remember this being a favourite track.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xdTbH8Zy_Nc

Sara, if Burt can claim a writing credit for suggesting a single chord change to HGMT, who knows how little Carole had to contribute to "Burnt Sugar" for the same?

Billy Joel's version of a Goffin / King classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMfLKrGvCzI

'blue'

After collaborating with McCartney, Bacharach, Carole King and Allen Toussaint, I wonder if Elvis Costello has ever approached the likes of Brian Wilson, Jimmy Webb and Bob Dylan? Here's one of the songs he wrote and performed with the now sadly late Allen Toussaint from their album 'The River In Reverse':

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EwnUCp6jU5g

The only person I know to have done a collaboration with JW is Nikki Jean who (apart from Leon Russell) also has been "Dylan"`s only collaborator. (Actually, he allowed her to complete a song he had abandoned). If you missed my flogging of this album featuring her work with Bacharach, King, Mann & Weill and a number of others, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... TwlSoJZfIQ

Blair, Webb has also written a few songs with Carly Simon which she has also recorded. I seem to recall that the title track to her album 'Film Noir' was one of them.

If Bacharach's only contribution to 'He's Given Me Things' is but a single chord change then I doubt if it was much more for this collaboration from more than a decade ago. My feeling is that even a team of highly skilled musicologists would struggle to detect a single note of Bacharach in this.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n8A_J4KSvRg

pljms wrote:If Bacharach's only contribution to 'He's Given Me Things' is but a single chord change then I doubt if it was much more for this collaboration from more than a decade ago. My feeling is that even a team of highly skilled musicologists would struggle to detect a single note of Bacharach in this.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n8A_J4KSvRg

I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere, possibly on this forum, that Bacharach was responsible for the song's chorus. As he's to the best of my knowledge never featured the song in concert I think we're safe in assuming that he doesn't consider it among his finest collaborations.

... Burt's finest would require a "48 hour" Concert. ... So much of his greatest work is known only to his avid fans and admirers. .... Understandably his Live Concert repertoire is largely made up of his most commercially successful work! ... Always hoped that years ago Burt & Dionne could put together a SPECIAL CONCERT" for their most "loyal and appreciative admirers" .... Obviously NOT economically feasible - but a nice thought!
Ron

Ron, Bacharach has always left room in his concerts for new or recently written material and that's how we've got to hear in recent times songs like 'Every Other Hour', 'Hush', 'With A Voice' and the two songs written with Melody Federer, 'Bridges' and 'Blanket Capes'. It seems that if Bacharach is especially proud of a new song he'll hurry to present it in concert so perhaps it's significant that over the years songs like 'What Love Can Do', 'Don't Look Now' and 'Photographs Can Lie', the latter two according to Elvis Costello both written several years ago, and the more recent 'Live To See Another Day', have as far as I'm aware never been featured.

I saw him In Buffalo for the first gig of his tour (sort of) promoting At This Time. He and the Buffalo Philharmonic premiered "Who Are These People?" with Pagano singing and one of the instrumentals - I`ve forgotten which. Both were promptly dropped from the subsequent repertoire.
Has he ever resurrected any of that misbegotten album`s material?

Blair, when BB did some London dates in the summer of either '06 or '07 Rufus Wainwright performed 'Go Ask Shakespeare', but I can't recall anything else from the 'At This Time' album being played either that night or at any subsequent London show.

Blair mentioning the 'Who Are These People?' track from 'At This Time' reminded me that we've never solved the mystery of just who was the uncredited female lead vocalist alongside Elvis Costello? All we really established was that it was neither Donna Taylor nor Josie James, Bacharach's long-term concert singers who along with John Pagano sang the backing vocals on the track. Listening again now confirms me in my opinion at the time that if it had been more of a song and less of an instrumental it would have been more potent and far more effective in getting its message over:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SKraLpgqWkA