Hal David, Dionne Warwick, and Burt Bacharach. By 1962 lyricist David and melodist Bacharach, both working together and separately, had enjoyed some success as songwriters. However, the success wasn't so immense that they could just sit back and let the record companies and recording artists come knocking on their door. They still had to take their wares and hawk their wares to labels big and small, and that was best done with demos. Hire a competent sessions vocalist to give voice to a song the two had composed, and if the record exec liked what they'd heard, they'd assign the song to a different vocalist, one who was already a star, or on the fast track to becoming a star. The sessions vocalist Bacharach and David hired was a young woman by the name of Dionne Warwick. Stories vary, but Warwick seems not to have realized at first that the two men wanted her only as a demo singer, to be merely a tool to make someone else a star, rather than turning her into a star herself. Once she wised up to their nefarious plan, she was said to have shouted out in anger, don't make me over! Rather than take offense at this act of insubordination and fire her on the spot, Bacharach and David looked at each other and said something along the lines of, hey, that might not be a bad idea for a song title. The demo for "Don't Make Me Over" with Warwick's vocals was sent to a label. The record exec heard it and didn't assign the song to a different vocalist who was already a star or who was on the fast track to becoming a star, but to Dionne Warwick herself, who quickly became a star herself. Many, many more Warwick/Bacharach/David collaborations followed. In the little booklet that came with my The Very Best of Dionne Warwick CD, I count fourteen and I'm sure there were more. Eventually, Bacharach and David themselves became songwriting stars, and recording artists as disparate as B.J. Thomas and Jackie DeShannon and Herb Albert and Tom Jones and The Carpenters came knocking, even banging, on their door. Dionne Warwick lives on, but Hal David died in 2012 at age 91, and Burt Bacharach (who also cowrote several hits with third wife Carole Bayer Sager) passed away just the other night at 94. R.I.P Burt.
Some of his music sounds cringeworthy now but some stands the test of time, such as What the world needs now... It's a beautiful song.
ReplyDeleteHence the Jackie DeShannon reference, Andrew.
DeletePure genius. Great choice of song today, too.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, I agree that he was but I think recognition of his genius may have fallen a bit through the cracks as pop music critics and pop music historians tend to focus more on what the rockers and folk singers of the 1960s were doing, and not on someone whose songs were geared, or at least marketed, to an over-30 audience.
DeleteHi, Kirk!
ReplyDeleteI was shocked when my stepson told me at dinner last evening that Burt Bacharach had died at age 94. The Reaper continues to chip away at the treasure chest of boomer era greats and I am not amused.
Bacharach - David compositions launched Dionne Warwick's singing career and carried it to the stratosphere. By the same token, Dionne's string of hits built their career and developed their brand. "Don't Make Me Over" is an otherworldly song, one that challenges the vocalist's range to the max. Dionne's pipes met the challenge and, I dare say, few other singers could have done justice to the song. That song, released in the fall of 1962, along with Dionne's (Bacharach's & David's) next major hit, "Anyone Who Had A Heart," were two records that the late Jerry Blavat loved to play on his radio and TV shows. Perhaps The Geator and the famed songwriting team are comparing notes in heaven even as we speak.
In 1957, "The Story of My Life" became the first successful collaboration between Hal David and Burt Bacharach. Recorded by Marty Robbins, "The Story of My Life" topped the country chart. My country loving parents bought the record and I listened to it often as an 8 year old boy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q647qETip-M
Throughout the 1950s, my parents and I watched Perry Como's TV shows. In 1958, they bought his top 5 hit "Magic Moments." The record was another early favorite of mine. I played it along with the Marty Robbins platter on my tiny tinny turntable down in the basement, pretending that I was a DJ.
As I scroll down through the list of Bacharach - David song collaborations, it boggles my mind, because the team cranked out many of my favorite songs: "Please Stay," "I Wake Up Crying," "Tower Of Strength," "Baby, It's You," 'Any Day Now," "Liberty Valence," "Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself," "Make It Easy On Yourself" and "Only Love Can Break A Heart," and these were all published in the years leading up to the team's win streak with Dionne Warwick. I already have carpal tunnel just working up to the fall of '62. As the world knows, many many more great songs were written by the pair in the years that followed.
My next post on Monday is the annual Valentine's dance party hosted by Austin Powers - International Man of Mystery (and Music History). It features a vocalist who, at times, sounded more like Dionne Warwick than Dionne Warwick. The post was drafted months ago and scheduled for this date. The coincidental timing will allow us to recall the scene in the first Austin Powers film in which Austin and Vanessa ride atop a bus and dine and dance to the sound and the song of the late, great, terrific, prolific Burt Bacharach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3RlIjj8l-Q
Have a safe and happy weekend, good buddy Kirk!
Shady, I only have the one song because there just was too many great tunes to choose from and I didn't have time to go sorting through all the videos. Since "Don't Make Me Over" had an interesting story behind it and, despite the earlier successes you mentioned, was a
Deletemajor turning point in Bacharach's career, I chose it. Incidentally, though I like it a lot, it's not my favorite Bacharach song. That would be the one Andrew mentioned in his comment, but someday I may do a post on Jackie DeShannon (or Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice, or the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon) and I'll want to save it for that.
Those songs were all among the big hits of my adolescence and take me right back there when I hear them.
ReplyDeleteDebra, that's what good songs do. In fact, that's what good art does no matter what the medium.
DeleteIt seems like the entertainers of my generation are dropping like flies. Somebody make it stop!
ReplyDeleteMike, I'll talk to God about it.
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