Digging out further thanks to COVID-19 but I can never ignore this awesome gentleman even if his music wasn’t really, directly, my thing. He influenced who I liked and provided a great Monty Python joke in The Meaning of Life. Hang in there, the joke will show up with him as part of the punchline on how we Americans suck at Philosophy.
Burt got a brief comeback in the Nineties via a pair of movies. The most obvious one was Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery with him singing alongside the Posies to the hit “What the World Needs Now is Love.” Should I ever run into Jon and Ken, I need to ask them about the experience.
The other I recommend highly is Allison Anders’ film, Grace of my Heart starring the wonderful Illeana Douglas as a proxy for Carole King. Burt teamed up with Elvis Costello to do “God Give Me Strength.” I wish the soundtrack had both versions, not just Elvis singing it. The movie had Illeana’s singing stand-in with the Specter-esque Wall of Sound behind it. As much as I love his, I prefer the movie take as it is a song about a Illeana’s character’s broken heart.
Lastly, Elvis told a great story at his book signing Mark M and I attended about working with the great Burt. Elvis said, “I faxed him my work (lyrics and music) and it came back all marked up, graded and corrected like a schoolmaster reviewed it.” Even heroes have to follow the advice of being careful when they meet their heroes?
Thanks for everything Mr. Bacharach! Your music made the world a happier place!