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Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach

42 articles

Audio interviews

Hal David (1999)

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 25 May 1999

In London to receive an Ivor Novello Award, the great lyricist recalls his days in Manhattan song factory the Brill Building with writing partner Burt Bacharach; hanging out with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller; writing for Frank Sinatra; Dionne Warwick's transformation from demo singer to star; 'Make It Easy On Yourself' and 'Anyone Who Had a Heart'; his favourite songwriters; riding the rock wave; and the revival of interest in his work.

File format: mp3; total file size: 57.5mb, total interview length: 59' 54" sound quality: ****

List of articles in the library

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Composer Burt Bacharach Avoids Pop Music Pitfall

Interview by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 11 July 1966

BETWEEN BITES of eggs Benedict in an elegantly subdued lunchery, Burt Bacharach, the gold-fingered composer of 'What's New Pussycat?', 'Wives and Lovers', 'What the World ...

Burt Bacharach: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 June 2013

BURT BACHARACH strolls onto the Festival Hall stage like he's stepping on board a yacht, the brass buttons on his blazer gleaming in the spotlight. ...

Burt Bacharach: The Look of Love – The Burt Bacharach Collection

Review by James Hunter, New York Observer, 23 November 1998

Kitschy-Kitschy-Koo: Look of Love Gets Too Cute ...

Pop, In The Name Of Love: Grace of My Heart

Report and Interview by David Kamp, Vanity Fair, October 1996

The soundtrack for Grace Of My Heart, Allison Anders's film a clef about the early-1960s blossoming of artists such as Burt Bacharach, Carole King, and ...

Burt Bacharach: Lost Horizon

Interview by David Toop, GQ, June 1996

NOTE: This is the "director's cut" version of an interview published by GQ in 1996. ...

Burt Bacharach and the Invention of Modern Cosmopolitan Pop

Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, March 2020

GENERALLY, SONGWRITERS who aren't also performers don't become celebrities. They don't get to host television specials, or appear in commercials alongside their glamorous wives, or ...

Little Big Things: Burt Bacharach's What the World Needs Now

Review by James Hunter, L.A. Weekly, 28 April 2003

IN THE LATE '80s, I sat with the great Japanese pop artist and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto on a hotel rooftop in L.A. talking about Burt ...

Michael McDonald

Interview by Sam Sutherland, Musician, January 1981

Songwriter, keyboardist, arranger, member of the Doobies and owner of The Voice reveals himself as a somewhat reluctant superstar. Thrust into pop music's center stage ...

Burt Bacharach: The man who put neurosis into top pops

Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 29 August 1964

THE INTRODUCTION of the Neurotic Ballad to British popular music is the responsibility of an American called Burt Bacharach. We first developed a taste for ...

Burt Bacharach, Orange Colored Sky: Cow Palace, Daly City CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 24 July 1971

An Evening With Bacharach Pop Format-Artistry Gets to Be Repetitious ...

Burt Bacharach and Joss Stone: Eventim Apollo, London

Live Review by Rick Pearson, The Evening Standard, 18 July 2019

"THE QUESTION I always get asked is, 'Why are you still doing this?'" The answer for Burt Bacharach, 91, is love, sweet love. "It makes ...

The Hit Factory: New York's Brill Building

Retrospective and Interview by David Kamp, Vanity Fair, November 2001

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I spent much of 2001 interviewing the songwriters, machers, and artists of the Brill Building era for this oral history. It was the ...

Industry Profile: Hal David

Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Celebrity Access, 26 July 2011

HAL DAVID'S NAME should be a lyric. This prolific American lyricist who turned 90 on May 25, 2011, is chairman emeritus of the Songwriters Hall ...

Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello: Kings of America

Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 19 September 1998

Burt Bacharach had his first hit when Elvis Costello was in short trousers. Costello had hits of his own when Bacharach's star was waning. Now, ...

Ballads: Heart of Darkness

Essay by David Toop, The Face, September 1996

Can the ballad survive in the post-soul '90s, asks David Toop. ...

New albums from Sly & the Family Stone, Quicksilver et al

Review by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 26 July 1969

New Sly & Family Stone LP begins where other R&B LP's leave off ...

Grace Jones et al.: Love Supreme Jazz Festival, Sussex

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 7 July 2016

Burt Bacharach, GoGo Penguin and Esperanza Spalding are other highlights ...

"He writes in hat sizes. Seven and three-fourths." Frank Sinatra on Burt Bacharach

Comment by Mitchell Cohen, Rock's Backpages, 27 April 2013

IF THE DETAILS of Burt Bacharach's romantic escapades — and there were many, since as Sammy Cahn once said, Burt was the only songwriter who ...

Dionne Warwick — The Ability to Communicate an Emotion

Profile and Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 25 April 1970

DIONNE WARWICK'S beautiful performance in concert at London's Royal Albert Hall last week was a demonstration of how a rare talent overcomes any sort of ...

Two's Company — Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach: Painted From Memory

Review by Tom Doyle, Q, November 1998

Mr Long Chin meet Mr Crap Hat. ...

Burt Bacharach: Royal Festival Hall, London SE1; Anyone Who Had a Heart (Alcourt)

Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 18 July 2013

The effect of seeing Bacharach live at the Royal Festival hall was to be hit by more top-40 songs that you'd think a single act ...

Bacharach helps the Manfreds

Report and Interview by Richard Green, Record Mirror, 8 May 1965

RICHARD GREEN TALKS TO THE MANFRED MEN ...

Inside the head of... Burt Bacharach

Interview by Jon Wilde, Event Magazine, 30 May 2015

The composer says he's a perfectionist to the point of obsession (as Dionne Warwick or Cilla Black will tell you). It caused his biggest regret: ...

Burt Bacharach: What Was it All About?

Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 1 June 2013

AT THE AGE OF 85, the man who has been described as the greatest songwriter of the 20th century cuts a surprisingly energetic and restive ...

Burt Bacharach: Portrait In Music (A&M)

Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 March 1971

REMEMBER HOW far-out 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' sounded in '63? All those cliff-hanging stops and starts, and that incredible arrangement... almost as weird as ...

'Money Means Nothing To Me' says Bacharach

Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 17 April 1965

ISN'T IT weird how people who make a living out of a particular talent often have personalities quite different from that you might expect? A ...

Anyone Who Had A Heart: The Songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David

Retrospective and Interview by Robin Platts, DISCoveries, December 1997

AS THE 1960s sped from Beach Blanket Bingo through Beatlemania to Psychedelia, Vietnam and beyond, the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David played on ...

Burt Bacharach: See You Later, Elevator!

Profile and Interview by Stuart Maconie, Q, July 1996

Imprisoned in music's metaphorical lift for years, Burt Bacharach has emerged on to a mezzanine packed with thousands of dewy-eyed disciples. "It's sensational news," he ...

"Do you know the Way to Monterey? Santa Fe? Whitley Bay?"

Retrospective and Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, March 1996

Thankfully, Messrs. Bacharach and David got there in the end, polishing yet another pop gem and putting an unremarkable California city on the map forever. ...

Bacharach to the Future

Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 21 October 1995

As grey-haired, 67-year-old composers go, Burt Bacharach is pretty f***ing cool. Paul Lester interviews the melodic inspiration behind Oasis, Stereolab and Pulp. ...

Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach: Painted From Memory

Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, November 1998

ONLY FIVE years ago in the UK, it needed to be reaffirmed that Burt Bacharach is one of the greatest popular musicians of the second ...

Déjà Vu: The Unstoppable Dionne Warwick

Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Arroyo Monthly, June 2010

You could be a good singer from now 'til hell and back and if you haven't got material, you're just standing there with your mouth ...

At This Time: Burt Bacharach

Report and Interview by Gene Sculatti, ICE, November 2005

AFTER 40-PLUS YEARS, one of America's greatest songwriters finally has something to say. Which is not to suggest that songs like 'Close to You' or ...

Burt Bacharach: "Time Is My Enemy"

Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 4 September 1964

"I JUST DON'T get enough time to cram everything in," top U.S. songwriter, arranger and producer Burt Bacharach told me, during a two-day visit last ...

Pop Go Costello And Bacharach Onstage

Live Review by Frank Tortorici, sonicnet.com, 15 October 1998

New-wave pioneer and '60s-pop tunesmith open their tour at Radio City Music Hall. Contributing Editor Frank Tortorici reports ...

What's It All About, Bacharach?

Special Feature by Bill DeMain, Switch, June 1997

"WHERE IS that whistling coming from?" ...

We're In Love With This Guy: Hal David

Interview by Terry Staunton, music365.com, 27 May 1999

Lyrical legend HAL DAVID has just become the first non-Briton to be honoured with a prestigious Ivor Novello Award by the British Academy Of Composers ...

The Backpages Interview: Burt Bacharach

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2005

RBP: What exactly did Sony BMG's Rob Stringer say that prompted you to try something so different with At This Time? ...

Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach: Painted From Memory

Review and Interview by Dave DiMartino, MOJO, October 1998

Two years in the making, the full-on follow-up to ‘God Give Me Strength’, their collaboration from the soundtrack to Grace Of My Heart. ...

Back to the Brilliance of Bacharach

Profile by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, 22 August 1990

Anyone who has a heart, including a new generation of British youngsters, is still falling for the magical Sixties music of Burt Bacharach, says Barney ...

Burt Bacharach: The Look Of Love

Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, December 1997

Three-CD box packing 75 examples of highly-crafted pop magic and spanning four decades. The gang’s all here — Dionne, Dusty, Cilla — with only Aretha’s ...

see also Dionne Warwick

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