Singer and performer, who had 73 Top 40 hits in the US and 52 in the UK, died at home in Los Angeles of natural causes.
They scored back to back UK No 1s with two of their earliest songs, The Story of My Life by Marty Robbins (Michael Holliday in the UK hit version) and Magic Moments by Perry Como. Together, he and David created a string of all-time classics: I Say a Little Prayer, sung by Aretha Franklin, What’s New Pussycat? He also worked as an arranger and conductor for Marlene Dietrich when she toured Europe in the late 50s and early 60s. He was a giant in the music business. [Burt Bacharach](https://www.theguardian.com/music/burt-bacharach), the songwriter and performer who turned easy listening into high art, has died at 94. Burt was a hero of mine and very influential on my work.
Songwriter created prime material for Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and many others.
The trio produced hit after hit, starting with “Don’t Make Me Over” and continuing with “Walk on By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” “Trains and Boats and Planes,” “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and more. He reached a new generation of listeners in the 1990s with the help of Costello and others. “Music softens the heart, makes you feel something if it’s good, brings in emotion that you might not have felt before,” he told the AP in 2018. “I didn’t want to write with Hal or anybody,” he told the AP in 2004. He once played a piece for piano, violin and oboe for Milhaud that contained a melody he was ashamed to have written, as 12-point atonal music was in vogue at the time. During each performance, she would introduce him in grand style: “I would like you to meet the man, he’s my arranger, he’s my accompanist, he’s my conductor, and I wish I could say he’s my composer. When a friend who had been touring with Marlene Dietrich was unable to make a show in Las Vegas, he asked Bacharach to step in. He was a perfectionist who took three weeks to write “Alfie” and might spend hours tweaking a single chord. In his life, and in his music, he stood apart. He grew up on jazz and classical music and had little taste for rock when he was breaking into the business in the 1950s. He was a frequent guest at the White House, whether the president was Republican or Democrat. His other movie soundtracks included “What’s New, Pussycat?”, “Alfie” and the 1967 James Bond spoof “Casino Royale.”
Artists Bacharach wrote include Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Sir Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick and Elvis Costello, among more than 1,000 in total. One of the ...
[Metro Football on Snapchat](https://story.snapchat.com/p/bace44d9-d6f8-4ec0-b0d2-6448cf365eab/1436206298976256). [Metro Showbiz on Snapchat](https://story.snapchat.com/p/16289297-eb61-4990-9aab-45ce173b8058/). [Snapchat show Pop Cultur’d](https://story.snapchat.com/p/1bfe6c2d-403d-49dd-a535-903658badff8), the go-to place for all things pop culture. [at Glastonbury in 2015](https://metro.co.uk/2015/06/27/glastonbury-2015-burt-bacharach-87-might-have-just-stolen-the-show-from-the-younger-performers-5269456/). [Funny Woman reviewed by comedian and The Traitors star Hannah Byczkowski: ‘Why Gemma Arterton’s new drama drove me mad’](https://metro.co.uk/2023/02/09/funny-woman-reviewed-by-the-traitors-star-and-comic-hannah-byczkowski-18254339/?ico=more_text_links) [died on Thursday at the age of 94](https://metro.co.uk/2023/02/09/burt-bacharach-dead-i-say-a-little-prayer-composer-dies-aged-94-18255066/), is responsible for hudreds of pop songs and dozens of hits from the 1950s through to the 1980s.
The cause of death, which happened at home in Los Angeles, was natural causes, his publicist Tina Brausam said on Thursday.
He once played a piece for piano, violin and oboe for Milhaud that contained a melody he was ashamed to have written, as 12-point atonal music was in vogue at the time. "Music softens the heart, makes you feel something if it's good, brings in emotion that you might not have felt before," he said in 2018. "I didn't want to write with Hal or anybody," he said in 2004. Although he was more interested in sports, he practised piano every day after school, not wanting to disappoint his mother. Nor did he want to fulfil a commitment to record Warwick. He was preceded in death by his daughter with Dickinson, Nikki Bacharach. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but soon moved to New York City. Mike Myers would recall hearing the sultry The Look Of Love on the radio and finding fast inspiration for his Austin Powers retro spy comedies, in which Bacharach made cameos. He was a perfectionist who took three weeks to write Alfie and might spend hours tweaking a single chord. Fellow songwriter Sammy Cahn liked to joke that the smiling, wavy-haired Bacharach was the first composer he ever knew who did not look like a dentist. He was a frequent guest at the White House, whether the president was Republican or Democrat. He triumphed in many artforms.
American composer and pianist Burt Bacharach, who has died aged 94, wrote dozens of songs with lyricist Hal David which have gone down in pop/soul history.
(1968) - another Warwick hit which won her her first Grammy. - "Alfie" (1966) - theme song of the movie of the same name starring Michael Caine. - "(They long to be) Close to you" (1963) - the breakthrough hit of the American brother-and-sister duo "The Carpenters".
With the passing of the legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach, Goldmine gives you the top songs written by the top tunesmith, as he described them.
Composer Burt Bacharach - perhaps best known for his Oscar-winning song Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head - has died aged 94. Hailed as one of the greatest ...
Looking back on his time with her in his autobiography, Bacharach wrote: "We went to Russia, Israel, the Middle East. Without doubt, his most enduring and fruitful professional relationship was with lyricist Hal David, who he met in 1957. It was finally settled out of court in 1979 for $5m (£4.1m). It was thanks to his mother's love of music that Bacharach undertook piano lessons as a child. One after his Neil Diamond collaboration, inspired by film E.T. Their first and only Broadway show, it won them a Grammy. It went on to be sung by stars including Barbra Streisand, The Four Seasons and The Wailers. The family moved to New York when he was three. In the 1980s, Bacharach's music inspired many of the songs coming out of the post-punk era, and in the 1990s his work was introduced to a whole new generation of fans thanks to a lounge music resurgence, led by bands including Divine Comedy and The Mike Flowers Pops. Burt Bacharach also collaborated with stars including Frank Sinatra, Cilla Black, and even Dr Dre. Not a fan of the classical music he would play in his classes, he would later sneak into jazz clubs as a teenager, with the style going on to influence his songwriting later in his career. His mention in Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life was proof of his rightful place in pop culture, as well as his reputation as a ladies man.