Burt Bacharach Biography

Burt Bacharach (IPA: , born May 12, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an award-winning American pianist and composer. He is best known for his many pop hits from 1962-69, co-written with Hal David and sung mostly by Dionne Warwick.

Bacharach studied music at McGill University and the Mannes School of Music. In the 1950s and early 1960s he was the pianist, arranger and bandleader for Marlene Dietrich with whom he toured. In 1959 while still a relatively unknown songwriter, he got a big break when his song Heavenly recorded by Johnny Mathis and title of the album became a gold record. Later the same year another Bacharach song Faithfully also achieved gold record status with Mathis. The two artists have remained lifelong friends.

In the early sixties Bacharach paired with lyricist Hal David (and occasionally others) and wrote a wealth of popular songs throughout the '60s and '70s, many of which still enjoy popularity today. He and David wrote songs specially for Dionne Warwick who has charted some 21 Bacharach wriiten songs.

The many songs of Burt Bacharach have been sung by a number of popular singers including The Beatles, The Carpenters, Aretha Franklin, B.J. Thomas, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, The Drifters, Jack Jones, Luther Vandross, and, of course, Dionne Warwick, with whom he developed a remarkable musical chemistry and legacy.

Bacharach's music is characterized by the frequent use of innovative chord changes, striking rhythmic patterns, frequent modulation (that is, key changes), and odd time signatures (for example, 5/4 or 3/2), going from one time signature to another in the same song, often successively. An example of his use of peculiar time signatures is found in "Promises, Promises" (from his score for the musical of the same name). In this song, he incorporates a tricky time signature sequence of |3/8|÷|4/8|3/8|÷|4/8|. He currently (as of 2006) has a total of 52 Top 40 hits. In addition, many of his songs were often adapted by jazz artists of the time, such as Stan Getz and Wes Montgomery. The Bacharach/David composition "My Little Red Book", originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the film What's New, Pussycat, and promptly covered by Love in 1966, has become a rock standard. He composed and arranged the soundtrack of the 1967 film Casino Royale.

He has been married four times, first to Paula Stewart (1953-1958), second to actress Angie Dickinson (1965-1980), third to lyricist Carole Bayer Sager (1982-1991)—with whom he collaborated on a number of pieces—and fourth (since 1993) Jane Hanson. He has four children, two girls and two boys.

In 1998, he collaborated on an album called Painted From Memory with singer/songwriter Elvis Costello. His 2005 album At This Time features collaborations with Costello, Rufus Wainwright, and Dr. Dre (who provides bass-and-drum loops).

Bacharach has had cameo roles in a number of Hollywood movies including all three Austin Powers movies. His music is also credited as providing inspiration for these movies.

During subsequent Burt Bacharach concert tours, each show would open with a very brief video clip from the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, with Mike Myers (as Austin Powers) uttering "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Burt Bacharach".

Bacharach appeared in a 2006 commercial for GEICO Insurance. In 2006 Bacharach recorded a jazz album together with Trijntje Oosterhuis and the Metropole Orchestra called The Look Of Love (Burt Bacharach Songbook) which is scheduled for released around November 20, 2006.

Bacharach appeared as himself in the October 24, 2006 Episode of Nip/Tuck: Connor McNamara