Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach ranks among the preeminent figures shaping popular music throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, his refined yet airy compositions absorbing elements from cool jazz, soul, Brazilian bossa nova, and classic pop. His debut appearance in the Top 20 arrived during 1957 with “The Story of My Life,” interpreted by Marty Robbins, after which his richly textured, emotionally resonant pieces both encapsulated and ultimately moved beyond the Brill Building pop sound of the 1960s. Over the course of his career Bacharach placed more than eighty entries on the Billboard Hot 100, the great majority arising from his extended collaboration with lyricist Hal David. Their partnership yielded multiple Top Five placements, among them “Magic Moments” (Perry Como, 1958), “Only Love Can Break a Heart” (Gene Pitney, 1962), “I Say a Little Prayer” (Dionne Warwick, 1967), and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (B.J. Thomas), the last taken from the 1969 soundtrack to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That film’s score earned Bacharach a pair of Academy Awards for best song and best original score. During the 1980s he joined forces with Carole Bayer Sager, producing several successes that included the chart-topping “Arthur’s Theme” (Christopher Cross, 1981; co-written with Peter Allen) and “On My Own” (Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald, 1986). “Arthur’s Theme” secured Bacharach a third Oscar. The 1998 release Painted from Memory, created alongside Elvis Costello, initiated a further sustained songwriting alliance. Additional collaborators across the decades included Bob Hilliard and Paul Anka. Almost five decades after his first hit single, Bacharach supplied lyrics of his own for the Grammy-winning solo album At This Time, issued in 2005. In 2011 the Library of Congress presented Bacharach and David with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. He issued the five-track Blue Umbrella EP with singer-songwriter Daniel Tashian in 2020.

Bacharach entered the world on May 12, 1928, in Kansas City. As a youngster he received instruction on cello, drums, and piano; his father, a nationally syndicated columnist, later relocated the family to New York City. Time spent there permitted him to slip into nightclubs and observe bebop luminaries Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, while he also performed with several jazz ensembles throughout the 1940s. His formal studies encompassed music theory and composition at the Mannes School in New York, the Berkshire Music Center, the New School for Social Research under Darius Milhaud, Montreal’s McGill University, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. Military service briefly halted his training, yet even while stationed in Germany Bacharach continued to arrange and perform piano for a dance band. Following discharge in 1952 he appeared in nightclubs and accompanied Steve Lawrence, the Ames Brothers, and Paula Stewart; he wed Stewart on December 22 of the next year.

Upon returning to the United States he began crafting material for Lawrence, Patti Page, the Ames Brothers, and other artists, though his first commercial breakthrough occurred late in 1957 when Marty Robbins carried “The Story of My Life” into the American Top 20 and to the summit of the British chart. That recording also marked the initial joint effort with Hal David, who would serve as Bacharach’s principal lyricist on nearly all subsequent major successes. Early in 1958 the team followed with Perry Como’s “Magic Moments,” another British number one and a Top Five American hit. Bacharach’s marriage ended in 1958, prompting a European tour with Marlene Dietrich. After returning in 1961 he wrote several pieces for the Drifters with Bob Hilliard, among them “Mexican Divorce” and “Please Stay,” before rejoining Hal David. During an arranging session he encountered Dionne Warwick, then performing with the Gospelaires, the Drifters’ backing vocal group; she would become the foremost interpreter of his songs.

By the close of 1962 Bacharach and David concentrated the bulk of their creative efforts on Warwick, who collected fifteen Top 40 singles between 1962 and 1968, among them the Top Ten entries “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “Walk on By,” “Message to Michael,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Valley of the Dolls,” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” The pair maintained comparable dominance in Britain, where Frankie Vaughan, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, the Walker Brothers, and Herb Alpert each reached number one with Bacharach/David compositions. In 1965 Bacharach married actress Angie Dickinson and placed his own recording of “Trains and Boats and Planes” at number four on the U.K. singles chart. He subsequently issued several well-received solo albums, including 1967’s Reach Out and 1969’s Make It Easy on Yourself. Amid a crowded schedule he also supplied scores for films such as What’s New Pussycat? (1965), Casino Royale (1967), and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). The last earned him Academy Awards for Best Original Score and, shared with David, Best Original Song for “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.” Late in the decade the duo composed the score for the Neil Simon Broadway musical Promises, Promises; during its three-year run the cast album captured the Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album, while Bacharach himself reached the Hot 100 with the show’s “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” in 1969.

The new decade opened promisingly when the Carpenters lifted “(They Long to Be) Close to You” to number one in the United States in July 1970. A year later his self-titled 1971 album, containing new readings of earlier hits, entered the Billboard 200 Top 20. Legal conflicts arising from the 1973 musical film Lost Horizon, however, severed his professional ties with both Hal David and, for a time, Dionne Warwick. Subsequent releases met limited commercial success, and in 1980 he and Dickinson divorced.

Following a modest 1980 hit for Jackie DeShannon (“I Don’t Need You Anymore,” co-written with Paul Anka), Bacharach joined Christopher Cross, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen on the Oscar-winning “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do).” Issued in August 1981, the track became his first Billboard Hot 100 number one since “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.” He married Bayer Sager the following year; together they wrote Roberta Flack’s Top 20 hit “Making Love” and “Heartlight,” which Neil Diamond carried to number five.

Resuming active songwriting, Bacharach enjoyed one of his strongest years in 1986, securing two further U.S. chart-toppers: the all-star “That’s What Friends Are For” featuring Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder, and the Patti LaBelle–Michael McDonald duet “On My Own.” He and Bayer Sager divorced in 1991, yet he reunited with Warwick two years later for “Sunny Weather Love” on her album Friends Can Be Lovers. Also in 1993 he contributed material to James Ingram, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Tevin Campbell. Around the same period numerous alternative acts cited him as an influence; Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher joined him onstage at the Royal Albert Hall and placed Bacharach’s photograph on the cover of Oasis’ Definitely Maybe (1994). A BBC documentary aired in January 1996, and Rhino issued a three-disc career retrospective in 1998. That year he also collaborated with Elvis Costello on the widely praised Painted from Memory and was honored at an all-star concert at Radio City Music Hall, later documented on the live album One Amazing Night.

In 2000 Bacharach composed the score for the commercially unsuccessful Isn’t She Great before returning with his own studio album, 2005’s At This Time, on which he wrote lyrics for the first time; Tonio K assisted with the words, while Elvis Costello, Dr. Dre, Chris Botti, and Rufus Wainwright also participated. Live at the Sydney Opera House, recorded with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, appeared in 2008, the year Bacharach marked his eightieth birthday. In 2011 he and Hal David received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Bacharach supplied music for the independent film A Boy Called Po in 2016. Elvis Costello’s 2018 album Look Now included three tracks written with Bacharach. He next partnered with Daniel Tashian on the five-song Blue Umbrella EP, released in 2020. Burt Bacharach died at his home in Los Angeles, California, on February 8, 2023, at the age of ninety-four.