# Burt Bacharach and Hal David



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Bacharach wrote the unforgettable melodies but David wrote the lyrics which are also very strong.
Bacharach says he was heavily listening to the French Impressionists at the same time as pop/jazz music before he started writing his great songs.






Burt Bacharach Documentary


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I am a big fan of Bacharach/David--a genius team. So many great songs.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

​
Very good music,I like this one.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

The Great American Songbook of the 60s. Dionne Warwick is probably the first artist doing B&D songs that showed up on my radar as a kid, along with the Carpenters.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

I have these two.









(All but two of the songs with Hal David lyrics)









(Saw this on Broadway in 1969 - for those who don't know it, it's a musical adaptation of Billy Wilder's "The Apartment")


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

As much as I loved the Beatles, I can almost say I like Bacharach/David as much, although it was never consciously that I said to myself this, it was just the impact the songs had in my life. I wonder if it's almost as hip to say this now? lol


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Just found this (as an MQA recording) on Tidal.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Not remembering any of Burt's songs, I looked through a list of all of them. Sorry, there's nothing there that appeals to me.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Bulldog said:


> Not remembering any of Burt's songs, I looked through a list of all of them. Sorry, there's nothing there that appeals to me.


See a specialist.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Strange Magic said:


> See a specialist.


Yes, I need reconditioning in order to appreciate Burt's supply of syrupy pop music. I'm not saying it isn't good syrup; I just don't want any of it.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Burt Bacharach wrote _The Blob_. For that, much can be forgiven.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

jegreenwood said:


> I have these two.
> 
> View attachment 92813
> 
> ...


These look good, must check them out.


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2017)

The other day I was looking through some 50s songs and came across "My Heart is an Open Book" by Carl Dobkins, Jr. I was surprised to see Hal David as the lyricist (Lee Pockriss, who wrote a spate of songs himself, wrote the music). Then I was listening to Love doing "Little Red Book"--a song I heard millions of times as a kid--and found out it's another Bacharach-David composition. Then there was Jackie DeShannon with "What the World Needs Now" which was a song I played bass guitar on for a lady who used to perform that. This was back in the late 70s before I even joined the service. Then there was "Always Something There to Remind Me" a million people did. In addition to Dionne and Herb Alpert. Burt later married Carol Bayer Sager (who co-wrote "Groovy Kind of Love" with Toni Wine--the singing voices of Betty & Veronica--when both were teenaged girls in high school). Burt and Hal definitely influenced me musically as much as the Beatles and possibly even more because so many artists did their songs.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Victor Redseal said:


> The other day I was looking through some 50s songs and came across "My Heart is an Open Book" by Carl Dobkins, Jr. I was surprised to see Hal David as the lyricist (Lee Pockriss, who wrote a spate of songs himself, wrote the music). Then I was listening to Love doing "Little Red Book"--a song I heard millions of times as a kid--and found out it's another Bacharach-David composition. Then there was Jackie DeShannon with "What the World Needs Now" which was a song I played bass guitar on for a lady who used to perform that. This was back in the late 70s before I even joined the service. Then there was "Always Something There to Remind Me" a million people did. In addition to Dionne and Herb Alpert. Burt later married Carol Bayer Sager (who co-wrote "Groovy Kind of Love" with Toni Wine--the singing voices of Betty & Veronica--when both were teenaged girls in high school). Burt and Hal definitely influenced me musically as much as the Beatles and possibly even more because so many artists did their songs.


I have Jackie DeShannon's "What the World Needs Now" and her "Put A Little Love in Your Heart" in my phone.

She wrote those two songs and many others. There is a 30 minute interview with her on YT.


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## Guest (Mar 11, 2017)

"What the World Needs Now" is Bacharach-David. Jackie did co-write "Put a Little Love." She co-wrote a quite number of her own songs which set her apart from many divas of her day.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

A study of the influence of Bacharach and perhaps David, and also Herb Alpert on Arthur Lee and Love would be interesting. I think that there is a bit of Bacharach in Love's work, and certainly Alpert also. Love at their best were marvelous, with both music and lyrics coming at you from unexpected directions for "pop", with perhaps a push from Bacharach and David.


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## Guest (Mar 11, 2017)

jegreenwood said:


> I have these two.
> 
> View attachment 92813
> 
> ...


To go off-topic a bit, I was surprised to learn that Jerry Orbach sang the original version of "Try to Remember (the Kind of September)" from the 1961 movie "The Fantasticks." That was a very popular song for "square artists" to do on TV when I was a kid in the 60s. I heard it a million times but it never occurred to me to find out who originally recorded it but it was Jerry Orbach. In fact, I believe it is the opening song in the movie. It was co-written by Tom Jones, a man I respect because he stood up to the mob and got his butt kicked and his foot broken but he wouldn't give in to them, wouldn't let them own him. The days when men were men!!!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Orbach was the original "el Gallo" in the off-Broadway 1960 musical. Jerry Orbach for me was the ultimate New Yorker as a police detective in Law and Order on the tube. Classic face and accent.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Victor Redseal said:


> To go off-topic a bit, I was surprised to learn that Jerry Orbach sang the original version of "Try to Remember (the Kind of September)" from the 1961 movie "The Fantasticks." That was a very popular song for "square artists" to do on TV when I was a kid in the 60s. I heard it a million times but it never occurred to me to find out who originally recorded it but it was Jerry Orbach. In fact, I believe it is the opening song in the movie. It was co-written by Tom Jones, a man I respect because he stood up to the mob and got his butt kicked and his foot broken but he wouldn't give in to them, wouldn't let them own him. The days when men were men!!!


Different Tom Jones.

By the way, Orbach was the original Billy Flynn (the Richard Gere role) in the first Broadway production of "Chicago."


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## JohnD (Jan 27, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> Yes, I need reconditioning in order to appreciate Burt's supply of syrupy pop music. I'm not saying it isn't good syrup; I just don't want any of it.


I wonder how extensively you researched the music of Bacharach-David before you came up with the opinion that their music was syrupy.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

These two penned some of my favorite songs, and some of my least favorites, which I suspect proves they had great range.

My favorite collection of their work is a five disc set titled "Timeless". It is indeed _that_: timeless.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

JohnD said:


> I wonder how extensively you researched the music of Bacharach-David before you came up with the opinion that their music was syrupy.


I didn't feel the need to research their music; I lived it (born in 1947).


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I'd like to keep posting, but I have to go back inside. The raindrops keep falling on my head.


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