His sophisticated collaborations with the lyricist Hal David on songs like The Look of Love, Walk On By, Alfie, Say A Little Prayer, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again and many more hits made him a die - hard romantic.
Burt Bacharach, the debonair pop composer, arranger, conductor, record producer and occasional singer whose hit songs in the 1960s distilled that decade’s mood of romantic optimism, died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles from natural causes. He was 94.
Born in 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri, Bacharach won six Grammys and three Oscars and recorded 73 top 40 hits in the US and 52 in the UK.
Seen as one of the 20th century’s most important composers of popular music, the legendary composer for songs that also included Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, What the World Needs Now, (They Long to be) Close to You and Magic Moments, also teamed up with David and Dionne Warwick to write some of the star’s biggest hits including Do You Know The Way to San Jose? and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.
Bacharach also wrote songs for Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, The Carpenters and Tom Jones among others. While the likes of Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra covered his songs and he worked with Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Natalie Cole, Carly Simon, Elvis Costello and many others.
He wrote the movie soundtracks for What’s New, Pussycat? Alfie and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the latter of which won him his first Oscar in 1970.
He will surely be missed by the music fraternity.