Bradley Ruzicka

This is the first in a series of posts I’ve entitled “A Tribute to an Enduring Past“. These posts are dedicated to singer / songwriters or groups I’ve admired over the years and that I believe have had a lasting impact on popular music. This music as originally written, recorded, and / or produced by these artists is as relevant today as it was at the time it was first released.

My first post is a tribute to the music of Mr. Burt Bacharach. Burt’s songs represent not only a portion of my past but a style of music that endures to this day. An American singer, songwriter, composer, record producer and pianist, Bacharach is a six-time Grammy Award and three-time Academy Award winner known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Bacharach was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in the Forest Hills section of New York City. He showed a keen interest in jazz as a teenager and listened avidly to bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, who were a major influence on him. Bacharach subsequently studied music at Montreal’s McGill University, the Mannes School of Music, and the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California

Many of Burt’s most popular songs were written in partnership with lyricist Hal David during 1960s and with lyricist Carol Bayer Sager during the 1980s. Listening today to Bacharach’s rich melodies and sophisticated orchestrations combined with either David’s or Bayer Sager’s soothing lyrics always transports me back to some moment in my past, bringing a smile and an all too brief moment of comfort. As of 2014, Bacharach had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits.

In the early and mid-1960s, Bacharach wrote well over a hundred songs with David after beginning their writing partnership in 1957. A large portion of this work was done with singer Dionne Warwick in mind leading to one of the most successful teams in the history of popular music. Beginning in 1962 and over the next 20 years, Warwick charted 38 singles co-written or produced by Bacharach and David including 22 Top 40, 12 Top 20, and 9 Top 10 hits on the American Billboard Hot 100 charts. These included the Grammy nominated hits Alfie, I Say a Little Prayer (1968), Do You Know the Way to San Jose (1969), This Girl’s in Love with You (1970), and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again (1971). Do You Know the Way to San Jose and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again both won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance while Alfie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1967.

However, Bacharach and David’s success during this time wasn’t limited to a single artist. Both also worked with artists as diverse as Tom Jones, Herb Alpert, B.J. Thomas, The Carpenters, and The Fifth Dimension producing hits such as What’s New Pussycat? (1965), This Guy’s in Love with You (1968), Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head (1969), Close to You, and One Less Bell To Answer (1970) respectively. This Guy’s in Love with You, Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, and Close to You were all No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for their respective artists.

Unfortunately, Bacharach’s partnership with Hal David all but ended in 1973 after a dispute and subsequent lawsuits prompted by the critical and commercial failure of the movie “Lost Horizon” for which Bacharach and David had written the film’s score. During the remainder of the 1970s, Bacharach released several solo projects but none yielded any hits.

By the early 1980s, Bacharach had begun a new partnership with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager. The two collaborated on several major hits during that decade including Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) (Christopher Cross – 1981), Heartlight (Neil Diamond – 1982), On My Own (Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald – 1986), and, perhaps most memorably, That’s What Friends Are For in 1985, a song which reunited Bacharach with singer Dionne Warwick. The partnership with Bayer Sager became personal as well as professional when the two married in 1982 after Bacharach’s 15 year marriage to Angie Dickinson ended in 1980.

Even though the hits have been few and far between since the 1980s, particularly after Bacharach’s divorce from Carol Bayer Sager in 1991, Burt’s music continues to this day to be appreciated by fans and artists alike. Although Bacharach’s compositions are typically more complex than the average pop song, he has expressed surprise in the fact that many jazz musicians have sought much inspiration from his works, saying “I’ve sometimes felt that my songs are restrictive for a jazz artist. I was excited when [Stan] Getz did a whole album of my music (What The World Needs Now: Stan Getz Plays The Burt Bacharach Songbook, Verve, 1968) but you’re never 100 percent sure of how good you are even after you’ve had success. But one night I had dinner with Miles Davis and he said, ‘”Alfie,” that’s a great song.'”

In the future, anytime you hear a Burt Bacharach song, take a minute to appreciate not only a past memory but a style of music that hopefully will be listened to long after my generation has passed. Those songs, characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by his background in jazz harmony, with striking syncopated rhythmic patterns, irregular phrasing, frequent modulation, and odd, changing meters, will never be duplicated.

To end this blog, I’ve attached video versions of my favorite Burt Bacharach songs; This Guy’s In Love With You sung by Herb Alpert and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head as performed by B.J. Thomas on the old Ed Sullivan Show.

Herb Alpert’s version of This Guy’s In Love With You was released in April 1968 and quickly reached No. 1 on the American Billboard Hot 100 chart in June 1968. It was the first No. 1 single for both Bacharach and Alpert.

B.J. Thomas’s version of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head was released October 1969 as part of the “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” movie soundtrack reaching No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1970. Not only was it a No.1 single for both Bacharach and Thomas, it won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1970.

As always, your feedback is appreciated!