Through the looking glass with Burt Bacharach... part 1

My name is Pieter and I am a Burtoholic. Before these posts are over (Christ, I don't know how many I'll need), you'll have an idea just how far down this addiction can lead a man.

I rarely pass on the opportunity of purchasing more of Burt's work. It all started with Rhino's defining 3CD The Look Of Love set of Burt and Hal's most well-remembered and best songs and productions. Now, for the sake of this topic, I'm going to take it as read that we all know this stuff: 'Baby it's you', 'Make it easy on yourself', 'I just don't know what to do with myself', 'Don't make me over', '24 hours from Tulsa', 'Anyone who had a heart', 'Walk on by', 'What the world needs now is love', 'Trains and boats and planes', 'My little red book', 'Alfie', 'I say a little prayer', 'The look of love', 'Do you know the way to San José', 'This guy's in love with you', 'Raindrops keep fallin' on my head', 'I'll never fall in love again', '(They long to be) Close to you', … You either agree we're talking about the top of Mount Olympus or you're just plain wrong. But there's so much more to it...

A couple years ago the flood of compilations of Bacharach (& David)'s productions and songs really started. Rhino selected some random covers from the Warner & Atlantic labels for What The World Needs Now Is Burt.

Soon Ace got on the case with a more thought out approach.

A little later two more rarities compilations appeared: Rare Bacharach. The Early Years 1958-1965 and The Rare Bacharach 1: Elusive Songs And Versions.

Cherry Red weighed in with The First Book Of Songs 1954-1958, the pre-fame efforts.

Recently the action is in copyright expiration sets like these:

There's a lot of overlap here, but both contain plenty of new additions to the canon.
There are ever more and I struggle to keep up.

For the sake of this topic I've organized all this stuff in a year-by-year list. That doesn't make it a complete list of Bacharach versions of course. Where are the Beatles, where's the string of Dusty Springfield covers, Love, Aretha Franklin, the Walker brothers, Elvis Presley, Bobbie Gentry, Isaac Hayes? For starters. (Not to mention more recent versions: where are the Stranglers? The White Stripes? Ronan Keating? Dr Dre? But I digress.) This is just to show what's on those Bacharach compilations and as such constitutes the core of what I think of as Burt's oeuvre in singles.

Cause Rhino's Look Of Love built up an image of Bacharach as the suave, worldwise aesthete, a man who never stumbled, who never failed to get things exactly as he wanted them, a man who used the world as his bachelor pad, with a snap of his fingers he gets the biggest stars into the studio, a composer of superhuman elegance. Not quite, as the rest of this discography makes clear. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath is a world filled with B-movie theme song assignements, end-of-the-pier overly tanned matinee idols, comedy records, louche crooners down on their luck, TV show actor hopefuls looking to break into a singing career... To love Burt, you've got to start loving this cheap neon backroom showbizz world (& I do, lord help me). So follow me on this path. Place your money right and you too can own a version of Buddy Clinton's 'Take me to your ladder (I'll see your leader later)'.

1952
Once in a blue moon – Nat King Cole

1955
Keep me in mind – Patti Page
These desperate hours – Mel Torme

1956
Peggy’s in the pantry – Sherry Parsons
The morning mail – The Gallahads
I cry more – Alan Dale
Beauty isn’t everything – June Valli

1957
The story of my life – Marty Robbins
Uninvited dream – Peggy Lee
Love bank – Bob Manning
Warm and tender – Johnny Mathis
Underneath the overpass – Jo Stafford
Sad sack – Jerry Lewis
Winter warm – Gale Storm
The story of my life – Michael Holliday
Wild honey – Cathy Carr
I looked for you – Charlie Gracie
How about – Della Reese
Miracle of Sainte Marie – Four coins

1958
Magic moments – Perry Como
Hot spell – Margaret Whiting
The night that heaven fell – Tony Bennett
The blob / Saturday night in Tiajuana – The five blobs
Wendy Wendy – The four coins
Sittin’ in the treehouse – Marty Robbins
Humble pie – The four preps
It seemed so right last night – Mary Mayo
Heavenly – Johnny Mathis
Another time, another place – Patti Page
That kind of woman – Joe Williams & the Count Basie orchestra
Searching wind / Rosanne – Burt Bacharach
Hot spell – Ernie Felice
Ooooh my love – Vic Damone
Moon man – Gloria Lambert
The last time I saw my heart – Marty Robbins
Country music holiday – Adam Faith

1959
Faker, faker – The eligibles
Loving is a way of living – Steve Lawrence
Make room for the joy – Jack Jones
The hangman – John Ashley
With open arms – Jane Morgan
Don't, unless you love me – Paul Hampton
Faithfully – Johnny Mathis
Dream big – Sonny James
Write me – Paul Hampton 

I've placed all the '50s stuff together, because it's not very good.

From his first recorded composition in 1952 (which I've YouTubed just to show you how far off he was), upto the end of the decade, Burt fumbled around in the dark looking for the light. The surprise success of Marty Robbins' 'The story of my life' in 1957 brought him more assignements in 1958. Apart from Perry Como's 'Magic moments' and the deliciously moronic 'The blob' by the Five Blobs from the movie The Blob, all of these assignements fell flat. By 1959 the first flash of success was over. Back to start.

There are occasional flashes of something good in these '50s records. I quite like Margaret Whiting's 'Hot spell' (from the movie Hot Spell) – also available in a watered down crooner version by Ernie Felice. But all of these records are so far inside the template they may as well not exist. Burt blamed the situation on the producers of these records who simplified the compositions to something they could roll off the assembly line. Knowing what comes later, there may be some truth in that, but it's hard to grasp how small alterations could save this material. When Burt got the chance to release his first single under his own name (instrumental 'Searching wind' b/w 'Rosanne') he offered some romantic orchestral charts which express nothing much at all.

Part of the problem are dreadful lyrics by all sorts of writers who are not fit to tie Hal David's shoelaces ('Love bank' I don't call my baby baby / I don't call my baby sugar / I call my baby love bank – really? The last time I saw my heart / was on my way up to your lips – you get the drift). Such potential gold as 'Peggy's in the pantry', 'Sittin' in the treehouse' or 'Sad sack' never delivers. We can write off all these records as juvenilia, but at the end of the '50s Burt's already in the game for almost a decade, & if he'd decided to trade it in for a sensible career at the end of 1959, few would have disagreed it was for the best. No one would be writing this thread for him now.

1960
Joanie’s forever – Buddy Clinton
Boys were made for girls – Everit Herter
The timeless tide – The freemen
Come completely to me – Steve Rossi
I could make you mine – The wanderers
Long ago last summer – Diana Trask
Your lips are warmer than your heart – Rosemary June
I looked for you – Charlie Gracie
Crazy times – Gene Vincent
A girl like you – Adam Faith
Indoor sport – Jo Stafford
Take me to your ladder (I'll see your leader later) – Buddy Clinton
10.000 years ago – Rusty Draper
A girl like you – Larry Hall
Two hour honeymoon – Paul Hampton
Close – Keely Smith
Creams – Paul Hampton 

1960 was still a quiet year, but the first inklings started creeping into some conservative records. My favorite of the year – inching towards the great Bacharach ballads soon to come: 'Joanie's forever' (Buddy Clinton).

More business as usual but a nice melodic sweep to pop b-side 'Boys were made for girls' (Everit Hester) and The Freemen's 'The timeless tide' (no video, sorry).

1961
Please stay – The Drifters
I wake up crying – Chuck Jackson
Tower of strength – Gene McDaniels
Baby it's you – the Shirelles
And this is mine – Connie Stevens
Sinner’s devotion – Tina Robin (unreleased demo)
Along came Joe – Merv Griffin
You’re following me – Jimmy Breedlove
Somebody else’s sweetheart – The wanderers
Moon guitar – The Rangoons
Deeply – The Shephers sisters
The story behind my tears – Vic Dana
The breaking point – Chuck Jackson
Three friends (Two lovers) – The Turbans
I gotta get a girl – Frankie Avalon
Loveliness or happiness – The Drifters
Love in a goldfish bowl – Tommy Sands
I wake up crying – Del Shannon
Move it on the backbeat – Burt & the backbeats
You're telling our secrets – Dee Clark
Sinner's devotion – Tammi Terrell (released 1967)
You're following me – Perry Como
Three wheels on my wagon – Dick van Dyke (Burt's 1st credited production)
I'll bring along my banjo – Johnnie Ray
You don't have to be a tower of strength – Gloria Lynne
Out of my continental mind (live) – Lena Horne
You're only young once (Yeh Yeh Yeh) – Avons 

The ball starts rolling with four smashes in 1961: the Drifters with 'Please stay', 'Chuck Jackson's 'I wake up crying', Gene McDaniels' 'Tower of strength' and of course 'Baby it's you' by the Shirelles (covered by the Beatles two years on). Some more favorites:

Connie Stevens – 'And this is mine'

Tina Robin – 'Sinner's devotion' (an unreleased demo)

Merv Griffin – 'Along came Joe'

but most of these records have something cool going on. There's a new groove (I believe it's called soul) and dynamic feeling to the productions. Hal David starts pitching in more. It's all coming together...

1962
Don’t make me over – Dionne Warwick
Make it easy on yourself – Jerry Butler
Only love can break a heart – Gene Pitney
The man who shot Liberty Valance – Gene Pitney
It’s love that really counts (in the long run) – The Shirelles
I just don’t know what to do with myself – Tommy Hunt
Mexican divorce – The Drifters
Any day now ( My wild beautiful bird) – Chuck Jackson
(There goes) the forgotten man – Jimmy Radcliffe
Dreamin’ all the time – Jack Jones
Waitin’ for Charlie to come home – Jane Morgan
Another tear falls – Gene McDaniels
I smiled yesterday – Dionne Warwick
The answer to everything – Del Shannon
Waiting for Charlie (to come home) – Etta James
Don’t envy me – Joey Powers
Wastin’ away for you – The Russells
Manpower – The exotics
Forever my love – Jane Morgan
The hurtin’ kind – Lonnie Sattin (unreleased demo)
The answer to everything – Sam Fletcher
For all time – The Russells
(It’s) Wonderful to be young – Cliff Richard & the Shadows
The love of a boy – Timi Yuro
Third window from the right – Dean Barlow
In times like these – Gene McDaniels
Anonymous phone call – Bobby Vee
30 miles of railroad track – Hammond brothers
The story of my life – Big Al Downing
I wake up crying – Cliff Richard
Don't you believe it – Andy Williams
3 wheels on my wagon – New Christy Minstrels
Pick up the pieces – Jack Jones
Feelin' no pain – Paul Evans 

The breakthrough! Hal and Burt start working together exclusively and in 1962 Dionne Warwick releases her debut single 'I smiled yesterday' b/w 'Don't make me over' (soon flipped). The classic Bacharach formula is set. Look at the top of that list of songs: 'Make it easy on yourself', 'Only love can break a heart', '(The man who shot) Liberty Valance', 'It's love that really counts (in the long run)', 'I just don't know what to do with myself', 'Mexican divorce', 'Any day now', '(There goes the) Forgotten man' – all in their definitive versions. And all before the Beatles and as the Beach Boys are just getting started.

There's a rich second tier just below the top:

Jack Jones – 'Dreamin' all the time'

Two wonderful versions of 'Waiting for Charlie to come home': Etta James and Jane Morgan (no Youtube).

Gene McDaniels – 'Another tear falls' (the definitive version before the Walker Brothers got their hands on it).

It's only when you encounter a howler like 'Three wheels on my wagon' by the New Christy Minstrels that you realize how far off the '50s are.