How Burt Bacharach Got Me In Trouble

The Burt Bacharach/Hal David musical Promises, Promises got me and my future wife into a lot of trouble back in 1970. It seems we'd bought tickets for the show on a date my future in-laws expected us to be somewhere else It wasn't our fault. It was a misunderstanding. But they never forgot it and, in some ways, for this and other perceived infractions, they never quite got over it. Oh, well . . . 

Not they we ever blamed Broadway or Bacharach. His musical version of the Billy Wilder film The Apartment was every bit the sort of boffo smash that you expect from Broadway. But it was an unusual hit because the songs were pure Bacharach. Which is to say they were not typical Broadway numbers. They were just a little bit different -- a bit off the beaten track.

All of Bacharach's music is like that -- unexpected harmonies, surprising doses of country, blues, rock, jazz. . Nobody's music ever sounded like Burt's --not then, not now. And because it is so unique, the stuff's not always easy to sing. Even his premier vocal interpreter, Dionne will admit that. Unfortunately Burt never wrote another Broadway show. But, then again, he didn't have to. 

I saw Bacharach perform at the Mann Music Center in what must have been one of his last live performances. The show was wonderful. How could it not be? Burt was a perfectionist and he had a fine ear that could detect not just every note but the way it was played by every instrument in the orchestra. Bacharach conducted much of the show from the piano and actually sang very little. But then again, he didn't have to. His songs were so familiar -- so much a part of our lives -- that the words were already ingrained in us. You listen to his music, you naturally hear the words. What the world needs now . . .  What's is at all about . . .  The moment I wake up . . .  If you get caught between the moon and  . . . Raindrops keep falling . . . 

The magical, enduing legacy of a great songwriter!