Burt Bacharach obituary: The king of easy-listening pop
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Few songwriters have been able to enjoy hits across six decades, as well as the bonus of a dramatic revival of interest in their work during the later years of their careers. Burt Bacharach, who has died aged 94, could claim both.
With his writing partner Hal David, Bacharach launched himself into the front rank of pop songwriters with a brilliant streak of hits for Dionne Warwick during the 1960s, beginning in 1962 with 'Don’t Make Me Over' and proceeding through (among others) 'Walk on By', 'Anyone Who Had a Heart', 'I Say a Little Prayer', and 'Do You Know the Way to San Jose'. All became standards in Bacharach’s chosen pop-easy-listening genre, their apparent simplicity concealing his mastery of different rhythms and metres.
He had soaked up the music of the jazz big bands and bebop, and also studied with the French composer Darius Milhaud, who urged his pupil to “never ever feel embarrassed or discomforted by a melody that people can remember or whistle”. Bacharach’s melodies were not only memorable but also frequently suffused with melancholy and regret. His gifts as an arranger allowed him to exploit all the resources of an orchestra with precision, and his use of plaintive “Bacharach trumpets” became a distinctive trademark.
Meanwhile, he was turning out imperishable classics for a string of different artists. Tom Jones never particularly liked 'What’s New, Pussycat?', the Oscar-nominated theme from the 1965 film of the same name, but acknowledged its enduring popularity.
Herb Alpert topped the US chart with the winsome ballad 'This Guy’s in Love With You', Jackie DeShannon did likewise with' What the World Needs Now Is Love', and BJ Thomas was the lucky recipient of 'Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head', from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (which brought Bacharach and David Oscars for best theme song and best original score). Bacharach was an Oscar-winner for a third time in 1982, with Arthur’s Theme from the film Arthur.
The son of Bert Bacharach, a sports star turned nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, and Irma Freeman, an artist and songwriter, Burt was born in Kansas City, Missouri. The family moved to Kew Gardens in Queens, New York, when he was a child. At the insistence of his mother, Burt studied the cello, drums, and piano. His ears were opened by the innovative harmonies and melodies of jazz musicians of the day such as Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, and he played with several jazz combos before enrolling in music courses at the Mannes School of Music, New York, and at McGill University in Montreal.
He served in the US army (1950-52), and while acting as a dance band arranger in Germany he met the singer Vic Damone. Back in the US after his discharge, Bacharach worked as piano accompanist to Damone and to numerous other artists on the club circuit. One of them was the actor and singer Paula Stewart, whom he married in 1953.
He was fortunate to fall into one of the all-time great songwriting partnerships with David, whom he first met at the New York songwriting beehive, the Brill Building (also to be the home of other renowned songwriting duos including Leiber & Stoller, Goffin & King, and Pomus & Shuman). David had been writing hits for such luminaries as Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra since the late 40s. Bacharach and David scored their first big commercial coup when the country singer Marty Robbins took their song 'The Story of My Life' into the US Top 20 in 1957. A cover version by Michael Holliday reached No 1 in the UK the following year, and Perry Como brought them another smash with his recording of 'Magic Moments', which spent eight weeks at No 1 in Britain.
After the breakdown of his marriage (he and Stewart divorced in 1958), Bacharach travelled to Europe to become pianist and bandleader for Marlene Dietrich, a role he would sustain until 1964. By 1961 he was back in New York, and wrote some material for the Drifters, as well as the Chuck Jackson hit 'Any Day Now' before resuming his partnership with David. Their song '(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance', inspired by the John Wayne/James Stewart western, became a US No 4 hit for Gene Pitney in 1962. Pitney did better still with the duo’s composition 'Only Love Can Break a Heart', which reached No 2 later that year.
Then came Bacharach and David’s historic hook-up with Warwick. She was a member of the Drifters’ backing group, the Gospelaires, and the songwriters invited her to make some demo recordings at their office at the publishers Famous Music, in the Brill Building. One of them was for 'Make It Easy on Yourself', which became a big hit for Jerry Butler. David recalled: “She said, ‘I thought that was my song!’ We said, ‘No, you just made a demo’. She was really very hurt and angry. Then we realised here’s this wonderful singer and we’re using her to make demos — she could be a star!”
So it proved, and the hits with Warwick became their calling card. They wrote and produced 20 American Top 40 hits for her over the ensuing decade, including seven that reached the Top 10. One of these songs, 'I Say a Little Prayer', also gave Aretha Franklin a US Top 10 hit and her biggest solo hit in Britain, where it reached No 4. Throughout the 60s anything Bacharach and David touched became commercial gold dust. They wrote film scores for , , and , and scored the successful Broadway musical , whose title song provided another hit for Warwick and spun off a chartbuster for Bacharach himself with 'I’ll Never Fall in Love Again'.
The writers always had a soft spot for the UK, probably because so many British-based artists had No 1 hits with their material, including Cilla Black — whose version of 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' was her breakthrough hit — Sandie Shaw, the Walker Brothers and Frankie Vaughan.
The Carpenters ushered in the 70s with '(They Long to Be) Close to You', a US No 1 which also reached No 6 in the UK, but although Bacharach’s 1971 album (called just Burt Bacharach) became a sought-after collector’s item, the decade would prove disappointing. In 1973 Bacharach and David collaborated on a new musical version of the 1937 film Lost Horizon, but it was a commercial disaster that prompted angry splits between Bacharach, David, and Warwick, and involved them in a spate of lawsuits. The writers parted company after a disagreement over royalties. Bacharach’s second marriage, to the actor Angie Dickinson, whom he had married in 1965, began to come apart, although they did not divorce until 1980.
It was not until the early 80s that Bacharach’s magic touch returned, when he won the Oscar for best original song for the chart-topping theme from the film , which he had also scored. One of its co-writers was the lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, whom Bacharach married the following year. The couple went on to write 'Making Love' for Roberta Flack and 'Heartlight' for Neil Diamond. In 1986, Bacharach enjoyed one of his best ever years, achieving two US No 1s with 'That’s What Friends Are for', recorded by Warwick with Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder as a charitable fundraiser for Aids, and the Patti LaBelle/Michael McDonald recording of the lachrymose 'On My Own'.
In 1991 his marriage to Bayer Sager ended, and two years later he married Jane Hansen. In a 2015 interview, Bacharach — who was nicknamed “the playboy of the western world” during the 60s — admitted: “I didn’t mean to hurt anybody, but when you wind up being married four times, there are a lot of bodies strewn in your wake.”
He reunited with David and Warwich in the 90s and was ultimately hailed as an icon of cool by the likes of Oasis, REM, Massive Attack, and the White Stripes.
Bacharach’s profile received a huge boost from his appearances in all three of Mike Myers’s 60s-spoofing Austin Powers films. He earned an Oscar nomination for the song 'Walking Tall', his first collaboration with the lyricist Tim Rice, which was performed by Lyle Lovett on the soundtrack of Stuart Little (1999).
In the 2000s, he won a Grammy for best pop instrumental album and opened the BBC Electric Proms, working with Adele and Jamie Cullum, before publishing an autobiography and performing at Glastonbury in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
He continued to tour past his 90th birthday, with concerts in the UK, US and Europe in 2018 and 2019.
In addition to his Oscars and six Grammy awards (plus a lifetime achievement award in 2008), he was awarded the Polar music prize in Stockholm in 2001. In 2011, the Library of Congress awarded Bacharach and David the Gershwin prize for popular song.
He is survived by Jane, their son, Oliver, and daughter, Raleigh, and another son, Cristopher, from his third marriage.