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Just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed ...

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At 94 it is hard to really feel sorry about Burt Bacharach's passing, especially since his music will live on forever.  I think no one did more to define the elegant pop song than Burt, putting together a string of hits that defied convention.  His favorite chanteuse was Dionne Warwick, collaborating with her on a great number of songs, including my favorite Walk On By.  As someone described, his songs always had an element of surprise with unexpected chord shifts and nimble arrangements that made a pop song seem oddly operettic. Of course, having someone with such a beautiful voice sing these songs only made them more special.

As the story goes, this combination was purely accidental.  Burt and Hal David were looking for someone to make a demo of Make It Easy on Yourself and hired Dionne.  When she found out they had given the song to Jerry Butler she was hurt.  It was then that they realized they were missing out on a golden opportunity to work with Warwick, and the rest as they say is history.

However, Burt would work with almost anyone.  Probably his biggest hit was Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, which he wrote for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  This song had everything, a clever little ukulele intro followed by the warm voice of B.J. Thomas and a wonderful arrangement with the ukulele still floating through it.  Producers doubted whether the song fit the theme of the movie, but director George Roy Hill stood behind Burt and the song and the movie became pure gold.  

Of course he wouldn't have pulled it off had not Hal David, who passed away in 2012, penned the lyrics for many of these songs, but funny enough Hal couldn't think of any better lyrics for the dummy lines Burt wrote for Raindrops, figuring they would be replaced later.  He just needed something to get him going.  Hal filled in the rest, keeping with the theme of the refrain.

Burt was apparently very difficult to work with, demanding that lyrics match up precisely with his unalterable melodies, his former wife and collaborator Carole Bayer Sager once said.  He would demand take after take in the studio until the song came out just right, an exasperated Cilla Black said after 30 takes of Alfie.  Burt obviously knew what he was looking for and wouldn't stop until he got it.

Even though you didn't hear much more about Burt after the 70s, he kept going.  Burt collaborated with  Elvis Costello on a theme song for the movie Grace of My Heart in 1995.  Here at the two of them together on David Letterman.  They felt so comfortable with each other that they decided to do an album together, Painted from Memory, which came out three years later, and is now being released with extra songs on vinyl.

Many musicians give Burt credit for inspiration, including Alice Cooper of all people, who urged anyone starting out in music to listen to Burt Bacharach, among others.  The guy knew how to write a song that sticks in your memory.  Indeed.  I never got Raindrops out of my head, learning the one-handed melody on my mother's piano from a 1972 Reader's Digest Treasury of Best Loved Songs.

Shockingly, he was repeatedly overlooked by Kennedy Center Honors, and now the opportunity is lost unless they make an exception to honor him posthumously.  

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