Customer Reviews

Very Best of Burt Bacharach

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Back in the 1960s I had to hide my "Dionne Warwick sings Burt Bacharach" album from my excessively hip friends; why would anyone want to listen to that pop in the ear of Cream, Hendrix and all that psychadelia? Luckily the current generation of young music listeners knows what musicians have always known: Burt Bacharach is one of the greatest and hippest composers of all time, and his collaborations with Hal David are some of the greatest pop tunes ever written.

I still get chills from "Anyone who Had a Heart", or "Always Something There To Remind Me". These are the great tunes that inspired so many of the great pop writers that followed- people like Andy Partridge of XTC or Gifford and Tilbrook of Squeeze. This is pop at its best.

If you can afford it, buy the three-disc set that these tunes are taken from. But if all you can swing is this one disk, buy it. It's truly the best of the best.

I remember hearing some of these tunes when I was very young, some even as a toddler with my mother. I recently bought this album as a present for my mother -- I must admit I really enjoyed listening to it though. There are a few songs on here that I did not recognize and/or did not care for, but most are wonderful. Personal favourite: "I say a little prayer" by Dionne Warwick. Other great songs include: "Walk on by" again by Dionne Warwick [I also like the Strangler's version -- not on this album -- which is surprisingly faithful to the original. The Strangler's stamp of approval makes this song particular chic!] and "What's new Pussy Cat" by Tom Jones (I wonder if anybody else could get away with this song -- Tom adds macho edge to an otherwise fairly soppy lyric -- result: magic!). Good value.

Was there a better pop tunesmith in the second half of the 20th century than Burt Bacharach, and did he ever have a more copacetic partner than Hal David? Nowhere is that more evident than in this wonderful collection of Bacharach's hits. Truly the most impressive tracks are right in the middle of the disc between Dionne Warwick's groundbreaking "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and Marilyn McCoo's swooning take on "One Less Bell to Answer", and it is certainly no coincidence that these songs reflect Bacharach and David during their most fertile period in the sixties.

Dionne Warwick obviously had her fair share of hits from them, six included here highlighted by my personal favorites "Walk on By" and "Alfie". It's also great to hear Dusty Springfield's original version of "The Look of Love", where her smoky tones perfectly fit the mood of the song, which was aptly used for a slow motion seduction scene in "Casino Royale". Jackie DeShannon's symphonic rendition of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and Tom Jones' Vegas-style "What's New Pussycat?" are also terrific to hear again. The disc does fall short at the beginning where the first two songs feel rather primitive compared to the sophistication of the rest, and sadly at the end where Bacharach partnered with his then-wife Carole Bayer Sager on two of the most overplayed songs from the eighties, "Arthur's Theme" and "That's What Friends Are For". Frankly, I would have preferred "Message to Michael", "You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)" or even the Carpenters' "(They Long to Be) Close to You" instead. But these lapses are completely excusable.

Although it will make you feel immediately nostalgic to hear these songs one after the other, what will linger in your mind is how potent these songs continue to be as timeless pop classics. By the way, if you are looking for other definitive versions of Bacharach-David songs, check out Barbra Streisand's amazing, fugue-like medley of "One Less Bell to Answer" and "A House Is Not a Home" on her 1971 "Barbra Joan Streisand" CD.

...and we're talking song/perfomance/arrangement masterpieces. And you may even be able to find more on this priced right product. My opinion is that:

#1 Alfie is pop music at it's finest. When Warrick goes "until you find the love you missed...you're nothing", it is a moment of greatness, captured on tape.

#2 Dusty Springfield's rendition of The Look of Love, even without the digital noodlings of Bill Inglot and staff at Rhino records, was a must have item. This version you will fall deeply for.

#3 Can you find a better matching of artist/writer/arrangement than that version of Dionne's Do you Know The Way to San Jose?
I don't think so...

But, when I say there are three certified masterpieces here do I mean those three mentioned above or BJ Thomas' Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Jackie Deshannon's What the World Needs now Is Love or Chris Cross' Arthur's Theme?

Get what I Mean?

One thing, though. Where's The Carpenter's Close to You? Or This Guy's In Love With You by Herb Alpert? A Part II wouldn't be in the future would it?

The folks at Rhino have done it again! What a great, well-produced and engineered album! When the sax part started playing during "The Look of Love", I could have sworn the player was in my living room!

There can be no doubt that the David-Bacharach songwriting team ranks up there among the best that ever was. "Anyone Who Had a Heart", "Look of Love" and "Walk on By" are my favourites and still give me great thrills whenever I listen to them. So why you may ask only the 4 stars?

Well, I thought the album was a trifle too short and surely they could have squeezed in "Close to You" by the Carpenters! Also, I didn't really enjoy the first two and the last two tracks as much as although they were great hits for Burt, I don't think they really represent his best work.

I suppose this was meant to be a sampler to get you to wanna get the other Rhino releases like the 3-disc version and/or "The Very Best of Dionne Warwick" or "Dusty In Memphis" but the point has been made. Many, many artistes owe a great deal to Bacharach for the great songs that made them great and this is a decent sampler for anyone who wants to get to know timeless pop aka works of art.

Take it from a Pink Floyd fan: This is not elevator music, it represents a conpendium of the best work from one of the best pop composers ever.

Mr. Bacharach's music is indeed brilliantly eccentric, as many before me have noted: unexpected time and chord changes, etc. Always an indelible melody. This CD has the great "Anyone who had a heart," "Do you know the way to San Jose," etc. But the final 2 tracks, Arthur's Theme and THat's what Friends are For, may now hold the dubious status of shmaltziest songs in my 1000+ record colletion. They show none of the quantum creative leaps of I say a little prayer or even What's New Pussycat. But hey that's what the STOP button is for.

Being a major Dionne Warwick fan, I find this to be a very well chosen snapshot of the work of the incomparable Bacharach and David.

Like Michael, I tended to play down my appreciation of Dionne and the superb songwriting team behind her and so many others, back in the sixties. While I loved Hendrix and Cream and Airplane etc., I also loved the crooners, and the work of Burt Bacharach was a cornerstone of the music of the era.

When Mike Myers introduced Burt Bacharach in a semi-surreal romantic moment in Wayne's World, it was a superb tribute from a brilliant actor/comedian to a true music industry icon. It was Mike's way of saying, 'Come on, admit it, the guy's a genius.'

No argument here.

And I never even realized he'd written the Arthur theme song...

I was having the devil's own time trying to find a CD with "Alfie" on it when I stumbled across this one. What a goldmine! Not only is it a great selection of Burt's absolute best, it's the VERSIONS of them you remember. Dionne Warwick is especially prominent. I'm finding that Burt Bacharach's music is timeless--I love it and so does my five year old daughter. We listen to it all the time in the car, with her singing along. Her favorite song? Alfie, of course!

This is what "The Love Songs of Burt Bacharach" should have been. I am so glad I waited and didn't buy that CD. This one is so much better, with original versions, rather than second-rate covers. Dionne Warwick shows up on seven songs, which might seem a bit much, but she really WAS Burt Bacharach for much of the 60's. Only Tom Jones' "What's New Pussycat?" seems a little out of place, even though it is a great song.

A fantastic CD that will really take you back 35 years.