Burt Bacharach (May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023)

Burt Bacharach died yesterday aged 94. Composer of many hits during the 1960s and well into the 1980s, Bacharach, along with lyricist Hal David (and others), was in many ways, as defining a voice of the times as were Lennon and McCartney. 

Most of the better singers of popular music recorded his songs with Dionne Warwick being perhaps the most prolific.

The jazz fraternity skated cautiously around him although his early roots were playing jazz piano. Stan Getz's Verve album What the World Needs Now is an album of numbers by Bacharach, plus Ella and Tony Bennett also included songs by him both live and on record. Strangely, Sinatra, in his latter years when he attempted to latch on to 'some of the newer guys' didn't go down that road. 

BB's songs weren't the tried and tested formulae of the Broadway songsmiths but were often quite complex with changes of time, tempo and key. This didn't mean he was better, just that he was different and, having learned from his predecessors, found his own voice.

Was he the last of the great American songwriters? Probably not but he certainly set a benchmark.

Rest In Peace. Lance 

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