Background and career
Burt Freeman Bacharach ( BAK-ə-rak; May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist, widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. A significant figure in orchestral pop and easy listening, he composed hundreds of songs, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David, and arranged, conducted, and produced much of his recorded output. His music often contained atypical chord progressions and time signature changes, influenced by his background in jazz, and uncommon selections of instruments for small orchestras. Bacharach and David formed their partnership in 1956 and had their first major hits with Marty Robbins' "The Story of My Life" (1957) and Perry Como's "Magic Moments" (1958). Most of their songs were tailored for Dionne Warwick from 1961 to 1972. Beginning with Jerry Butler's "Make It Easy on Yourself" (1962), Bacharach fully directed the recordings of his songs and, following the success of these collaborations, co-authored hits for singers such as Gene Pitney, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and B. J. Thomas. He expanded into film and stage work with songs and scores for What's New Pussycat? (1965), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1968), and the Broadway musical Promises, Promises (1968). After the commercial failure of Lost Horizon (1973), his partnership with David ended, and his collaboration with Warwick was interrupted by lawsuits. He later returned to prominence through work with Carole Bayer Sager and Elvis Costello. Over a thousand musicians have recorded Bacharach's songs and their recordings have featured in the soundtracks of numerous major feature films. He received six Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards, and one Emmy Award, and his work informed the development of later music styles such as sunshine pop/soft rock, chamber pop, and Shibuya-kei. In total, he composed fifty-two U.S. Top 40 hits between 1957 and 1987, including six chart-toppers: "This Guy's in Love with You" (Herb Alpert, 1968), "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (Thomas, 1969), "(They Long to Be) Close to You" (the Carpenters, 1970), "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" (Christopher Cross, 1981), "That's What Friends Are For" (Warwick, 1986), and "On My Own" (Bayer Sager, 1986). In 2012, Bacharach and David were the first songwriting team to receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. They were ranked at number 32 on Rolling Stone's 2015 list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time".
Bacharach was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, graduating from Forest Hills High School in 1946. He was the son of Irma M. (née Freeman) and Mark Bertram "Bert" Bacharach, a well-known syndicated newspaper columnist. His mother was an amateur painter and songwriter and encouraged Bacharach to practice piano, drums and cello during his childhood. His family was Jewish, but he said that they did not practice or give much attention to Judaism. "But the kids I knew were Catholic," he added. "I was Jewish, but I didn't want anybody to know about it." Bacharach showed a keen interest in jazz as a teenager, disliking his classical piano lessons, and often used a fake ID to gain admission into 52nd Street nightclubs. He got to hear bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, whose style influenced his songwriting. Bacharach studied music (Associate of Music, 1948) at McGill University in Montreal, under Helmut Blume, at the Mannes School of Music in New York City, and at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California. During this period he studied a range of music, including jazz, whose sophisticated harmony is a distinctive feature of many of his compositions. His composition teachers included Darius Milhaud, Henry Cowell, and Bohuslav Martinů. Bacharach cited Milhaud, under whose guidance he wrote a "Sonatina for Violin, Oboe and Piano", as his greatest influence.
Bacharach was drafted into the U.S. Army in the late 1940s and served for two years. He was stationed in Germany and played piano in officers' clubs there, and at Fort Dix and Governors Island. During this time, he arranged and played music for dance bands. Bacharach met the popular singer Vic Damone while they were both serving in the army in Germany. Following his discharge, Bacharach spent the next three years as a pianist and conductor for Damone, who recalled, "Burt was clearly bound to go out on his own. He was an exceptionally talented, classically trained pianist, with very clear ideas on the musicality of songs, how they should be played, and what they should sound like. I appreciated his musical gifts." He later worked in a similar capacity for various other singers, including Polly Bergen, Steve Lawrence, the Ames Brothers, and Paula Stewart (who became his first wife). When he was unable to find better jobs, Bacharach worked at resorts in the Catskill Mountains of New York, where he accompanied singers such as Joel Grey.
In 1956, at the age of 28, Bacharach's productivity increased when composer Peter Matz recommended him to Marlene Dietrich, who needed an arranger and conductor for her nightclub shows. He then became a part-time music director for Dietrich, the actress and singer who had been an international screen star during the golden age of Hollywood. They toured worldwide off and on until the early 1960s. When they were not touring, he wrote songs. As a result of his collaboration with Dietrich, he gained his first major recognition as a conductor and arranger. In her autobiography, Dietrich wrote that Bacharach particularly loved touring in Russia and Poland, because he thought very highly of the violinists performing there, and appreciated the public's reaction. According to Dietrich, he also liked Edinburgh and Paris, along with the Scandinavian countries, and "he also felt at home in Israel", she wrote, "where music was similarly much revered". In the early 1960s, after about five years with Dietrich, their working relationship ceased, with Bacharach telling Dietrich that he wanted to devote himself full-time to songwriting. She thought of her time with him as "seventh heaven ... As a man, he embodied everything a woman could wish for ... How many such men are there? For me he was the only one." Also in 1956, Bacharach and lyricist Hal David, who were both working in the Brill Building in New York City for Famous Music, published their first songs as co-writers. The songs published in 1956 included "I Cry More" (featured in the motion picture Don't Knock the Rock), "The Morning Mail", and "Peggy's In The Pantry". The two received a career breakthrough when their song "The Story of My Life" was recorded by Marty Robbins, becoming a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Country Chart in 1957. Soon afterward, "Magic Moments" was recorded by Perry Como for RCA Records, and reached No. 4 on the Most Played by Disc Jockeys chart. These two songs were also the first singles by a songwriting duo to ever reach back-to-back No. 1 in the UK (The British chart-topping "The Story of My Life" version was sung by Michael Holliday). Between 1956 and the dissolution of their partnership in the mid-1970s, Bacharach and David wrote over 230 songs together for the pop market, motion pictures, television, and Broadway.
Despite Bacharach's early success with Hal David, he spent several years in the early 1960s writing songs with several other lyricists in addition to continuing his work with David. During this period, Bacharach found the most success with songs written with lyricist Bob Hilliard, including "Please Stay" (The Drifters, 1961), "Tower of Strength" (Gene McDaniels, 1961), "Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)" (Chuck Jackson, 1962), and "Mexican Divorce" (The Drifters, 1962). In 1961, Bacharach was credited as arranger and producer, for the first time on both label and sleeve, for the song "Three Wheels on My Wagon", written jointly with Hilliard for Dick Van Dyke. Bacharach's career received a boost when singer Jerry Butler asked to record "Make It Easy on Yourself" and also wanted him to direct the recording sessions. It became the first time Bacharach managed the entire recording process for one of his own songs. In 1961 Bacharach discovered singer Dionne Warwick, who was working as a session backup singer at the time. That year the two, along with Dionne's sister Dee Dee Warwick, released the single "Move It on the Backbeat" under the name Burt and the Backbeats. The lyrics for this Bacharach composition were provided by Hal David's brother Mack David. Bacharach and Hal David were both excited by Warwick's singing and decided to form a production company, Blue JAC Productions, so they could write for Warwick and produce her recordings. Warwick signed with Bacharach and David's new company, and the team subsequently secured a recording contract with Scepter Records for Warwick's recordings. Warwick made her solo recording debut in 1962 with "Don't Make Me Over", which also became her first hit. As business partners, Bacharach and David began writing almost exclusively with each other from 1962 until the dissolution of their partnership in the mid-1970s. Bacharach and David's partnership with Warwick became one of the most successful teams in popular music history. Over the next 20 years, Warwick's recordings of Bacharach and David songs sold over 12 million copies, with 38 singles making the charts and 22 in the Top 40. Among the hits were "Walk On By", "Anyone Who Had a Heart", "Alfie", "I Say a Little Prayer", "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose". Bacharach released his first solo album in 1965 on the Kapp Records label. Hit Maker!: Burt Bacharach Plays the Burt Bacharach Hits was largely ignored in the U.S. but rose to No. 3 on the UK album charts, where his version of "Trains and Boats and Planes" had become a top five single. In 1967, he signed with A&M Records both as an artist and a producer, recording several solo albums (all consisting in a mix of new material and rearrangements of his best-known songs) until 1978. In addition to having his work recorded by pop and R&B acts, Bacharach's songs were occasionally recorded during these years by jazz and rock acts. The Bacharach/David composition "My Little Red Book", originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the film What's New Pussycat?, was also recorded by the psychedelic rock band Love and released as the band's first single. The Love version of the song went to number 52 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart and is considered by some writers to be a 1960s rock classic. In 1968, jazz musician Stan Getz recorded twelve Bacharach and David songs for What the World Needs Now: Stan Getz Plays Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Bacharach expressed delight and surprise for this choice, saying quote, "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". His songs were also adapted by several other jazz artists of the time, such as Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans, and Cal Tjader. Bacharach also continued to get commissions for film scores, including those for the 1966 heist comedy After the Fox and the 1967 James Bond spy parody Casino Royale. The music for Casino Royale included "The Look of Love", performed by Dusty Springfield, and the instrumental title song, which was a Top 40 single for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. The soundtrack album is widely considered to be one of the finest engineered vinyl recordings of all time, and is much sought after by audiophile collectors. Bacharach and David also collaborated with Broadway producer David Merrick on the 1968 musical Promises, Promises, which yielded two hits, including the title tune and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again". Bacharach and David wrote the latter song when the producer realized the play urgently needed another before its opening the next evening. Bacharach, who had just been released from the hospital after contracting pneumonia, was still sick, but worked with David's lyrics to write the song which was performed for the show's opening. It was later recorded by Dionne Warwick and was on the charts for several weeks. Promises, Promises was the second musical created by Bacharach and David who had earlier written the 1966 television musical On the Flip Side for the anthology program ABC Stage 67; a work which starred Ricky Nelson and Joanie Sommers. Also in 1968, the duo's song "This Guy's in Love with You" was recorded by Herb Alpert, who was best known at the time as a fellow songwriter and a trumpet player as the leader of the Tijuana Brass. The song went on to reach the top spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart later that year, becoming the first No. 1 hit for Alpert and his label, A&M Records. The year 1969 marked, perhaps, the most successful Bacharach-David collaboration, the Oscar-winning "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", written for and prominently featured in the acclaimed film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The two were also awarded a Grammy for Best Cast album of the year for Promises, Promises; the score was nominated for a Tony Award, as well. Bacharach and David's other Oscar nominations for Best Song in the latter half of the 1960s were for "The Look of Love", "What's New Pussycat?", and "Alfie".
Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bacharach continued to write and produce for artists, compose for stage, TV, and film, and release his own albums. He enjoyed a great deal of visibility in the public spotlight, appearing frequently on TV and performing live in concert. Between November 1969 and January 1974, Bacharach and his music were the focus of nine U.S. network television specials, including five on NBC, three on ABC, and one on CBS. Newsweek magazine gave him a lengthy cover story entitled "The Music Man 1970". In 1971, Barbra Streisand appeared on the special Singer Presents Burt Bacharach, where they discussed their careers and favorite songs and performed songs together. The other guests on the television special were dancers Rudolph Nureyev and Bettie de Jong, and singer Tom Jones. In 1973, Bacharach and David wrote the songs for Lost Horizon, a film-musical remake of the 1937 dramatic adventure film of the same title. A conflict arose between the two songwriters during the film's production, and strained their professional relationship to the point that they stopped working together regularly. As Bacharach explained the situation in his 2013 memoir, he grew dissatisfied with his share of the potential film profits, because, in addition to providing the music for the songs, he was also doing underscore music for the film, which he felt he was not being fairly paid for. Bacharach asked David for a larger share of the profits, and David refused to renegotiate. When the film was released, it was poorly received and lost an estimated $9 million, but by that point, Bacharach was refusing to work on additional projects with David. Dionne Warwick, whose lucrative 1971 Warner Bros. Records contract was based on having Bacharach and David as her production team, sued the songwriters because they could not fulfill the terms of their agreement with her, putting her relationship with Warner Bros. Records in jeopardy. David in turn sued Bacharach for abandoning their legal partnership, and the lawsuits among the three parties took many years to resolve. Despite the ongoing lawsuits, Bacharach and Warwick reunited in the studio in 1974 to record three new Bacharach songs for Warner Brothers, though the songs remained unreleased until 2013. Bacharach and David also reunited briefly, in 1975, to write and produce Stephanie Mills' second album, For The First Time, released by Motown. Following the Stephanie Mills album, the Bacharach & David partnership was effectively over, and both songwriters began working with other collaborators. During the 1990s, they briefly reunited on two occasions, in 1993 to write a song for a Warwick album, and in 1999, to write two songs for the soundtrack of the film Isn't She Great. Bacharach eventually expressed regret over his actions during the Lost Horizon production, and wrote in his autobiography:
