Burt Bacharach revolutionised popular songwriting, employing a previously unimagined technical sophistication that would find full expression in the 1960s, when with an astonishing run of memorable hits, he and his lyricist partner Hal David ruled the pop charts.
Inspired by his love of the French Impressionist composers, Brazilian folk music, Bebop and modernist jazz, Bacharach won the respect of everyone from Brian Wilson to Bill Evans, to Frank Zappa, but his early years had been ones of struggle and frustrating compromise.
This collection reveals an eclectic apprenticeship (a dizzying world of Frankie Avalon- esque US teen idols, male and female soul singers, doo-wop and close harmony groups, B movie theme tunes, torch singers, crooners and novelty records) that culminated in the landmark first hits; ‘Magic Moments’, ‘The Story of My Life’, ‘Make It Easy on Yourself’, ‘Baby It's You’, ‘I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself’ and (with the emergence of Bacharach & David's greatest interpreter Dionne Warwick) ‘Don't Make Me Over’.
The First Book of Songs 1952-59
1 Nat King Cole - Once in a Blue Moon
2 Patti Page - Keep Me In Mind
3 Mel Torme - These Desperate Hours
4 Sherry Parsons - Peggy's In The Pantry
5 The Gallahads - The Morning Mail
6 Alan Dale - I Cry More
7 June Valli - Beauty Isn't Everything
8 Della Reese - How About?
9 Johnny Mathis - Warm And Tender
10 Jo Stafford - Underneath The Overpass
11 Marty Robbins - The Story Of My Life
12 Michael Holliday - The Story Of My Life
13 Jerry Lewis - Sad Sack
14 Gale Storm - Winter Warm
15 Peggy Lee - Uninvited Dream
16 Bob Manning - Love Bank
17 Perry Como - Magic Moments
18 The Four Preps – Humble Pie
19 Bernie Nee - Country Music Holiday
20 Patti Page – Another Time, Another Place
21 Margaret Whiting - Hot Spell
22 Mary Mayo - It Seemed So Right Last Night
23 Marty Robbins - Sitting in a Tree House
24 Tony Bennett - The Night That Heaven Fell
25 The Five Blobs - The Blob
26 The Four Coins - Wendy Wendy
27 Marty Robbins - The Last Time I Saw My Heart
28 Sonny James - Dream Big
29 Steve Lawrence - Loving Is A Way Of Giving
30 Jack Jones - Make Room For The Joy
31 Four Aces - Paradise Island
32 Burt Bacharach - Searching Wind
33 Burt Bacharach - Rosanne
Long Ago Last Summer 1959-61
1 Gloria Lambert - Moon Man
2 John Ashley - The Hangman
3 Jane Morgan - With Open Arms
4 Johnny Mathis - Heavenly
5 The Eligibles - Faker Faker
6 Gene McDaniels - In Times Like These
7 Johnny Mathis - Faithfully
8 Larry Hall - A Girl Like You
9 Rosemary June - Your Lips Are Warmer Than
Your Heart
10 Paul Hampton - Two Hour Honeymoon
11 Paul Hampton - Creams
12 The Avons - You're Only Young Once (Yeh Yeh
Yeh)
13 Keely Smith - Close
14 Charlie Gracie - I Looked for you
15 Diana Trask - Long Ago Last Summer
16 Everit Herter - Boys Were Made For Girls
17 Rusty Draper - Ten Thousand Years Ago
18 The Wanderers - I Could Make You Mine
19 Buddy Clinton - Joanie's Forever
20 Dick Van Dyke - Three Wheels On My Wagon
21 Frankie Avalon - Gotta Get a Girl
22 Connie Stevens - And This Is Mine
23 The Turbans - Three Friends (Two Lovers)
24 The Rangoons - Moon Guitar
25 The Drifters - (Don't Go) Please Stay
26 Tommy Sands - Love In A Goldfish Bowl
27 Chuck Jackson - I Wake Up Crying
28 Del Shannon - The Answer To Everything
29 The Shepherd Sisters - Deeply
30 Gloria Lynne - You Don't Have To Be A Tower Of
Strength
31 The Four Coins - The Miracle Of St. Marie
32 The Shirelles - Baby It's You
Make It Easy On
Yourself 1962
1 Jerry Butler -
Make It Easy On
Yourself
2 Sophia Loren –
Donne Moi Ma
Chance
3 Jack Jones -
Dreamin' All The
Time
4 Jack Jones - Pick
Up The Pieces
5 The Four Coins -
The Windows Of Heaven
6 Gene McDaniels - Another Tear Falls
7 The Drifters - Mexican Divorce
8 Etta James - Waiting For Charlie To Come
Home
9 Jane Morgan - Forever My Love
10 Gene Pitney - (The Man Who Shot) Liberty
Valance
11 The Fairmount Singers - (The Man Who Shot)
Liberty Valance
12 The Exotics - Manpower
13 Chuck Jackson - Any Day Now (My Wild And
Beautiful Bird)
14 Babs Tino - Forgive Me (For Giving You Such A
Bad Time)
15 Timi Yuro - The Love Of A Boy
16 Andy Williams - Don't You Believe It
17 Gene Pitney - Only Love Can Break a Heart
18 Gene Pitney - Little Betty Falling Star
19 Tommy Hunt - I Just Don't Know What To Do
With Myself
20 Tommy Hunt - Don't Make Me Over
21 The Shirelles – It's Love That Really Counts (In
The Long Run)
22 Jimmy Radcliffe-(There Goes)The Forgotten
Man
23 Helen Shapiro - Keep Away From Other Girls
24 Dionne Warwick - Don't Make Me Over
25 Dionne Warwick - I Smiled Yesterday
26 Joey Powers - Don't Envy Me
27 Bobby Vee - Anonymous Phone Call
28 Paul Evans - The Bell That Couldn't Jingle
29 Marlene Dietrich - Kleine Treue Nachtigall
(Small True Nightingale)
30 Marlene Dietrich - Sag Mir Wo Die Blumen Sind
(Where Have All The Flowers Gone)
Burt Bacharach /
Influences and
Inspirations
1 Mel Torme - The
Christmas Song
2 Claude Debussy -
Reflets dans l'eau
from Images Pour
Piano Book 1 -
Marcelle Meyer
(piano)
Maurice Ravel -
Daphnis & Chloe - No
2 15.39
3 Lever Du Jour
4 Pantomime
5 Danse Générale - Detroit Symphony Orchestra / Paul
Paray
Darius Milhaud - from Saudades do Brasil
6 Overture
7 Soracaba
8 Botafogo
9 Corcovado - Concert Arts Orchestra / Darius Milhaud
10 Bohuslav Martinů - Parable Of A Sculpture. Andante
Pastorale from The Parables - Czech Philharmonic /
Karel Ančerl
11 Henry Cowell - Intro to The Tides Of Manaunaun
12 Henry Cowell - Tides Of Manaunaun
13 Arnold Schoenberg - Mondestrunken (Moonstruck)
from Pierrot Lunaire - Jeanne Héricard (soprano) /
Hans Rosbaud
14 Alban Berg - Allegro misterioso from Lyric Suite
Juilliard String Quartet
15 Anton Webern - Langsam, Marcia funebre (Funeral
March) from 6 Pieces for Orchestra, Op 6
SWR Baden-Baden / Hans Rosbaud
16 Leonard Bernstein - Masque from The Age of
Anxiety - Lukas Foss (piano) New York Philharmonic /
Leonard Bernstein
17 Gil Evans Orchestra - La Nevada
18 Tadd Dameron - Fontainebleau
19 Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie - An Oscar for
Treadwell
20 Count Basie - April in Paris
21 Agostinho Dos Santos and Roberto Menescal - A
Felicidade (from Black Orpheus)
