Legendary pop musician Burt Bacharach dies at the age of 94 – National | globalnews.ca

Burt Bacharach, the prodigiously talented and popular composer and Oscar winner who delighted millions with quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies Walk along, Do you know the way to San Jose and dozens of other hits, has died at 94.

Bacharach died Wednesday of natural causes at home in Los Angeles, publicist Tina Brosum said Thursday.

Over the past 70 years, only Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others rivaled his talent for instantly catchy songs that were performed, played and hummed long after they were written. He had a string of Top 10 hits from the 1950s into the 21st century, and his music is heard everywhere from movie soundtracks and radio to home stereo systems and iPods, whether alfie And I say A Little Prayer Or I’ll never fall in love again And this boy is in love with you,

Dionne Warwick was his preferred interpreter, but Bacharach also composed major material for Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and many others, usually in collaboration with songwriter Hal David. Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra were among the countless artists who covered his songs, and more recent artists have sung or sampled them including the White Stripes, Twista and Ashanti. Walk along It was covered by everyone from Warwick and Isaac Hayes alone to British punk bands The Stranglers and Cyndi Lauper.

Bacharach was both an innovator and throwback, and his career ran parallel to the rock era. He grew up on jazz and classical music and had little taste for rock when he was getting into business in the 1950s. His sensibility often seemed more aligned with Tin Pan Alley than with Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and other writers, but rock musicians appreciated the depth of his seemingly old-fashioned sensibility.

Elvis Costello, who wrote the 1998 album, said “his short form is that he does something with easy listening.” drawn from memory Bacharach, said in a 2018 interview with The Associated Press. “These songs may be pleasant to listen to, but there’s nothing easy about them. Try playing them. Try singing them.

He conquered many art forms. He was an eight-time Grammy-winning, award-winning Broadway composer. promises, promises and three-time Oscar winner. He received two Academy Awards in 1970 for the score of butch cassidy and the sundance kid and to sing Raindrops Keep Fallin ‘On My Head (shared with David). In 1982, he and his then-wife, songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, won an Oscar the best you can doby theme Arthur, His other movie soundtracks include What’s New, Pussycat?, alfie and the 1967 James Bond spoof casino Royale,

Bacharach was well rewarded, and well connected. He was a frequent guest at the White House, whether the president was a Republican or a Democrat. And in 2012, she was presented with the Gershwin Award by Barack Obama, who sang a few seconds Walk along during a campaign appearance.

In his life, and in his music, he was different from most. Fellow songwriter Sammy Kahn liked to joke that the smiling, wavy-haired Bacharach was the first musician he knew who didn’t look like a dentist. Bacharach was a “swinger”, as he called such men in his time, whose many romances included actor Angie Dickinson, whom he was married to from 1965–80, and Seger, his wife from 1982–1991.

Married four times, he made his most enduring relationships work. He was a perfectionist who took three weeks to write alfie And can spend hours perfecting a single chord. Seger once observed that the routine of Bacharach’s life remained essentially the same—only the wives had changed.

It started with the tunes – strong yet spaced out with changing rhythms and surprising harmonics. He attributes much of his style to his love of bebop and his classical education, particularly under the tutelage of renowned composer Darius Milhaud. He once played a piece for piano, violin and oboe for Milhaud with a melody he was ashamed to have written, because 12-point atonal music was in vogue at the time. Milhaud, who liked the piece, advised the young man, “Never be afraid of the melody.”

trending Now

• Part of the Sun breaks apart and creates a strange vortex, scientists are amazed

• 2 children killed after bus crashes into Montreal-area daycare, man charged with murder

“It was a huge confirmation for me,” Bacharach recalled in 2004.

Bacharach was essentially a pop musician, but his songs became hits for country artists (Marty Robbins), rhythm and blues artists (Chuck Jackson), soul (Franklin, Luther Vandross) and synth-pop (Naked Eyes). In the 1990s, with the help of Costello and others, he reached a new generation of listeners. mike myers will remember the sultry talk the look of Love increasingly finding inspiration on and for the radio Austin Powers retro spy comedy, in which Bacharach made a cameo appearance.

In the 21st century, he was still testing new ground, writing his own songs and recording with rapper Dr. Dre.

He was married to his first wife, Paula Stewart, from 1953–58, and married for the fourth time in 1993, to Jane Hansen. He is survived by Hansen as well as their children Oliver, Raleigh and Christopher, Brusum said. He was preceded in death by Nikki Bacharach, his daughter with Dickinson.

Bacharach knew great heights of praise, but he himself recalled growing up a loner, a small and self-conscious boy so uncomfortable with being Jewish that he even taunted other Jews. His favorite book as a child was by Ernest Hemingway. the sun Also Rises, He was related to Jake Barnes, a sexually impotent who considered himself “socially impotent”.

He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but soon moved to New York City. His father was a syndicated columnist, his mother a pianist who encouraged the boy to study music. Although he was more interested in sports, he practiced piano every day after school, not wanting to disappoint his mother. While still a minor, he would sneak into jazz clubs, carrying a fake ID, and listen to greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie.

“They were so incredibly exciting that all of a sudden, I was drawn into music in a way I had never been before,” he recalled in the memoir. anyone who had a heartPublished in 2013. “What I heard in those clubs made my head spin.”

He was a poor student in high school, but managed to secure a spot at the music conservatory at McGill University in Montreal. He wrote his first song at McGill and listened to Mel Tormes for months. Christmas Carol, Music may also have saved Bacharach’s life. He was drafted into the army in the late 1940s and was still on active duty during the Korean War. But the authorities soon learned of his gifts and wanted him around. When he went abroad, he went to Germany, where he wrote orchestrations for a recreation center at a local military base.

After his discharge, he returned to New York and tried to break into the music business. He had little success at first as a songwriter, but became a popular arranger and accompanist, touring with Vic Damon, the Ames Brothers, and Polly Stewart, who became his first wife. When a friend who was touring with Marlene Dietrich was unable to make a show in Las Vegas, he asked Bacharach to step in.

The young musician and ageless singer clicked quickly, and Bacharach traveled the world with her in her late 50s and early 60s. During each performance, she introduced him in grand style: “I want you to meet the man, he’s my arranger, he’s my accompanist, he’s my conductor, and I wish I could say he’s my composer. . But that’s not true. He’s the musician of all … Burt Bacharach!

Meanwhile, he had met his ideal songwriting partner – David, as businesslike as Bacharach, was so domesticated that he left his wife and kids at 5 a.m. each night to catch the train to Long Island. Working in a small office in Broadway’s famous Brill Building, he created his first million-seller, Magic MomentsSung by Perry Como in 1958. In 1962, he noticed a backup singer for the Drifters, Warwick, who had “a very special kind of grace and elegance”, Bacharach recalled.

The trio produced hit after hit, starting with don’t finish me and continues with Walk along, I say A Little Prayer, Do you know the way to San Jose, train and boat and plane, anyone who had a heart even more. The songs were as complex to record as they were easy to listen to. Bacharach liked to experiment with time signatures and arrangements, such as when two pianists play Walk alongHis performance was slightly out of time to give the song “a jagged kind of feel”, he wrote in his memoir.

In addition to Warwick, the Bacharach–David team was crafting winners for other artists. from them: Make it easy on yourself for jerry butler what the world needs now is love More for Jackie DeShannon this boy is in love with you for Herb Alpert.

The partnership ended badly with the dismal failure of the 1973 musical remake. lost horizon, Bacharach became so depressed that he isolated himself at his Del Mar vacation home and refused to work.

He told the AP in 2004, “I didn’t want to write with Hal or anybody.” Nor did he want to fulfill the commitment to record Warwick. Both she and David sued him.

Bacharach and David eventually reconciled. When David died in 2012, Bacharach praised him for writing the song “like a short film”. Meanwhile, he continued to work, vowing never to retire, always believing that a good song could make a difference.

He told the AP in 2018, “Music softens the heart, if it’s good it makes you feel something you haven’t felt before.” It’s something you have in your heart to do.

,

The late Associated Press writer Bob Thomas was a contributor to this report from Los Angeles.