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Burt Bacharach (IPA: [/bɝt-ˈbæ.kə.ˌɹæk/], born May 12, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an award-winning American pianist and composer. He is best known for his many pop hits from 1962-70, with lyrics written by Hal David, many of which were sung by Dionne Warwick. As of 2006, Bacharach had a total of 70 Top 40 hits in the U.S., and 52 Top 40 hits in the U.K. [1]
FamilyBacharach has been married four times, first to Paula Stewart (1953-1958), second to actress Angie Dickinson (1965-1980), third to lyricist Carole Bayer Sager (1982-1991)—with whom he collaborated on a number of pieces—and fourth (since 1993) to Jane Hanson. He has four children, two girls and two boys. Nikki Bacharach, Bacharach and Dickinson's daughter - for whom he wrote the instrumental piece 'Nikki' - died of suffocation using a plastic bag and helium on January 4, 2007 at age 40.[1] Nikki spent 9 years at the Wilson Center, a psychiatric residential treatment facility for adolescents located in Faribault, MN. Nikki had Asperger Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism.[2] Professional biography
Bacharach's music is characterized by unusual chord progessions, striking syncopated rhythmic patterns, irregular phrasing, frequent modulation, and odd and changing meters. It tends toward a greater climactic effect than most popular music, especially greater than most popular music of the period in which he is most associated. Bacharach is more than a mere songwriter, having himself arranged, conducted, and co-produced much of his recorded output. An example of his use of distinctive use of changing meter is found in "Promises, Promises" (from his score for the musical of the same name). In this song, he incorporates a very complex time signature sequence of |3/8|÷|4/8|3/8|÷|4/8|. Early workIn 1957, Bacharach and lyricist Hal David were introduced at the famous Brill Building in New York City, and began their songwriting partnership. Almost a year later, they received a major career break when their song "The Story of My Life" was recorded by Marty Robbins for Columbia Records, becoming a #1 hit on the U.S. Country charts in late 1957. Soon afterwards, "Magic Moments" was recorded by Perry Como for RCA Records, and became a #4 U.S. hit in February of that year. Other hits quickly followed. "Heavenly" was recorded by Johnny Mathis and became a gold record in the U.K. Later the same year another Bacharach song, "Faithfully", also achieved gold record status with Mathis in the U.K. In the early 1960s, Bacharach wrote well over a hundred songs with David, including a wealth of popular hits throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many of which still enjoy popularity today. Bacharach and David were associated throughout the sixties with Dionne Warwick, a conservatory-trained vocalist. She began working for the duo when they needed a good singer to "demo" their songs properly for other artists. Bacharach and David noticed that Warwick's demos often exceeded the quality of the performances others were recording[citation needed]. They started writing a portion of their work specifically with Warwick in mind, which led to one of the most successful teams in popular music history.[3] Over a twenty year period, beginning in the early 1960s, Warwick managed to chart 38 singles co-written or produced by Bacharach, including an twenty-two Top-40 hits on the American Billboard Hot 100 charts.
In addition to mainstream pop, many Bacharach songs were adapted by jazz artists of the time, such as Stan Getz and Wes Montgomery. The Bacharach/David composition, "My Little Red Book", originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the film What's New, Pussycat, and promptly covered by Love in 1966, has become a rock music standard. He composed and arranged the soundtrack of the 1967 film Casino Royale. Bacharach and David also collaborated with Broadway producer David Merrick on the 1968 musical production of Promises, Promises, which yielded several major hit songs (including the title tune). 1969 saw, perhaps, the most successful Bacharach-David collaboration ever, with the song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", which was prominently featured in the acclaimed film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" won the Oscar award for Best Song and also was Bacharach's biggest worldwide hit.[citation needed] 1970s and 1980sBy the early 1970s, changing public tastes created a more competitive atmosphere for pop music. In 1973, Bacharach and David opted to try their hand at reviving a classic 1937 film, Lost Horizon, and turned it into a film musical for Columbia Pictures. The result was a critical and commercial disaster, and resulted in a flurry of lawsuits between the songwriter and lyricist, as well as from Warwick, who reportedly felt abandoned when Bacharach and David refused to work together. Bacharach tried several solo projects (including the 1977 album Futures), but the projects failed to yield any memorable hits. By the early 1980s, Bacharach's marriage with Angie Dickinson had failed, but a new partnership with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager proved more rewarding, both commercially and personally. The two married, and collaborated several major hits during the decade, including "Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)" (Christopher Cross), "Heartlight" (Neil Diamond), "Making Love", "On My Own", and perhaps most memorably, "That's What Friends Are For" in 1985, which reunited Bacharach and singer Warwick. The profits for the latter song were given to AIDS research. Bacharach's 1980s tunes showed a new sound, proving that Bacharach's work could continue to change with the times. Other artists continued to revive Bacharach's earlier hits, giving them an entirely new audience in the 1980s and 1990s. Examples included Naked Eye's 1983 dance version of "(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me", Ronnie Milsap's smash 1982 country version of "Any Day Now", and many others. Bacharach also continued a successful concert career, appearing at auditoriums throughout the world, often featuring large orchestras as accompaniment. He also occasionally joined with Warwick, appearing in sold-out concerts in New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Later workIn 2006, Bacharach recorded a jazz album with Trijntje Oosterhuis and the Metropole Orchestra called The Look Of Love (Burt Bacharach Songbook) which is scheduled for released around November 20, 2006.[4] Film and televisionThroughout the 1960s and 1970s, Bacharach was featured in a dozen TV musical/variety specials videotaped in the U.K. for ITC, several of which were nominated for Emmy awards for direction (by Dwight Hemion). The guests included artists such as Joel Grey, Dusty Springfield, and Barbra Streisand. Bacharach and David also did the score for a short-lived ABC-TV series, ABC Stage '67, for a show titled On the Flip Side, starring Rick Nelson as a faded pop star trying for a comeback. While the series' ratings were dismal, the soundtrack showcased Bacharach's abilities to try different kinds of musical styles, ranging from (almost) 1960s rock, to pop, ballads, and Latin-tinged dance numbers. In 1969, his instrumental composition "Nikki" (named for his daughter) premiered as the theme for the ABC Movie of the Week, a TV series which eventually ran on various nights of the week until 1975. Also during the 1970s, Bacharach and then-wife Angie Dickinson appeared in several memorable TV commercials for Martini & Rossi beverages, and even penned a short jingle ("Say Yes") for the spots. Bacharach also occasionally appeared on TV/variety shows, such as The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and many others. In the 1990s and 2000s, Bacharach has had cameo roles in a number of Hollywood movies including all three Austin Powers spy spoof movies. His music is also credited as providing inspiration for these movies, partially stemming from Bacharach's score for the 1967 James Bond film Casino Royale. During subsequent Burt Bacharach concert tours, each show would open with a very brief video clip from the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, with Mike Myers (as Austin Powers) uttering "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Burt Bacharach." In late 2006, Burt Bacharach appeared as the celebrity in a Geico auto insurance commercial, where he sings and plays the piano. He translates the customer's story through song ("I was hit...in the rear!") Legacy and influence
Trivia
Selected discography
Hit singlesThe following is a list of Bacharach hit singles that appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio airplay and/or significant commercial sales.
Other Notable Recordings
Complete Work for Broadway
References
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