Customer Reviews

Love Songs of Burt Bacharach

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Burt Bacharach's music is infused into the subconscious of everyone who listened to popular music in the 60's and 70's. This CD is a compilation of the airplay hit versions of Bacharach/David songs. They are interesting, but Burt is not playing on them (except for the last song w. Elvis Costello). The original production quality of many of these 60's cuts is pretty rough by today's standards. I was looking for more polished Bacharach-performed orchestrations... If you want to hear Burt play his songs, keep looking thru the CD bin. I did not enjoy Jerry Butler's version of "Make It Easy on Yourself", which I think is one of Burt's best songs ... The Naked Eyes version of "Always Something There to Remind Me" is a trite 80's jingle. Why is it so hard to find a CD with "THis Guy's in Love" on it? Jackie DeShannon does a great job with "What the World Needs Now" and Sergio Mendes cooks with "Look of Love".

Contrary to the last reviewer's comments, Burt was actually in the studio when many of these cuts were recorded, and whether or not he actually sat at the piano, he shaped every aspect of the arrangements he supervised. That said, this compilation is a bit of an odd mix of classic "original" versions and later versions. The Rhino Records box set has the best versions of most of these songs, and would be a much better choice if you can afford to spring for 3 CDs.As to Burt's own slick orchestral intrumental versions of his hits, I find the mid-fi 1960s radio versions infinitely more charming. Burt's reputation as the elevator music king was certainly reinforced by those mediocre solo albums he released in the 60s and 70s.

The Australian pressing (Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd - Catalouge No.541 564 2) of the above is better. It has 22 songs including "This Guy's In Love With You" - Herb Alpert, "Magic Moments" - Perry Como and some others not on the US CD. It sure brought back some memories from the 60's

I was looking for "What's New Pussycat," as my version left off the beginning (with the crashing glass). That may be a funny reason to buy a CD but it worked out great for me.

What I found was hit after hit after hit that I didn't know Burt had even written. From Perry Como's "Magic Moments" to "This House Is Empty Now" with Elvis Costello, this CD gives a cross section of Burt's versatility and shows his longevity. It's no wonder he had a great writing career; and here I thought he only wrote for Dionne Warwick.

1/3 of the songs are covers, i.e., Dusty Springfield singing Dionne Warwick's song, "I Just Don't know To Do With Myself," but every song is great no matter who sings it and that's the tell tale sign of a great song.

One other note; Dusty Springfield's version of "The Look Of Love" only went to #22 in July of 1967 while Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66's version went to #4 almost a year later. However, the only version you hear now-a-days is Dusty's, although they almost sound like two different songs.

every song is great I enjoy this cd very much and highly recomend getting it.

With the exception of 2-3 songs I could listen to this CD over and over again. My favorites are Aretha Franklin's "Say A Little Prayer," anything by Dusty Springfield , Jackie DeShannon, Perry Como's "Magic Moments". I didn't care for Naked Eyes or Tom Jones. It's good easy listening with a sprinkling of soul and pop.

As this disc shows, Burt Bachrach has had a very long career spanning a tremendous diversity of songs. I guarantee you that unless you are a total expert you will be surprised by at least a few of the songs and find yourself saying, HE wrote that? A couple of the versions here are questionable, especially the Naked Eyes, but the vast majority of the songs are excellent and, even where the original hits are not used, the versions are quite good. An entertaining, reasonably good CD.