Goodbye Bacharach

The legendary Burt Bacharach has died, so here's a little tribute.

What's funny is that I've been thinking about writing about him recently, as over the past few months, I've had a little Bacharach revival. I knew he had written a couple of songs that were cool, but I had no idea that he had written nearly ALL of my favorite songs growing up in the 70s and 80s. It was getting so that I'd dream of a song, and my mind would analyze it and tell me: "Burt Bacharach wrote this song, too." And sure enough, when I looked it up: it was Burt!

He has a unique style -- he loves the major seventh chords and other popular jazz chords. His melodies often jump to the 7th scale degree, and sometimes even hover around the 7th. I even just now learned that he studied from the prolific and unique composer Darius Milhaud.

My father would tell me how much he loved Burt's music, and that's probably where I got my exposure: he most likely played his Bacharach vinyl several times while I was going to sleep.

And what songs has Burt created? Perhaps you know one of the following:

(They Long to Be) Close To You

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

What the World Needs Now Is Love (Sweet Love)

Magic Moments (Yeah -- the Perry Como song they play at Christmas)

I'll Never Fall in Love Again (and a lot of other Dionne Warwick songs)

What's New Pussycat?

Arthur's Theme: Best That You Can Do

That's What Friends Are For

... and so on.

Here is one of my faves. I've always known it as "I Need Your Love," but it's really called something cheesy: "This Guy's In Love With You." I want to say I heard it played every now and then on TV stations when they were experiencing technical difficulties -- like that Bee Gees' song on Atlanta's Channel 46. (Oh -- I haven't posted that yet? I'll come back next week with that.)

So, here you go ... enjoy ...