Burt Bacharach, Architect of the Modern Pop Song, Dead at 94

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Burt Bacharach, the acclaimed songwriter and composer whose lush orchestrations, challenging jazz chord progressions, and effortless melodies made him synonymous with the golden era of American pop music, has died at the age of 94.

According to the Associated Press, Bacharach died Wednesday (February 8th) at home in Los Angeles of natural causes.

The six-time Grammy winner and three-time Academy Award winner was known for songs such as “This Guy’s in Love with You,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” and “That’s What Friends Are For.”

Born in 1928 in Kansas City and raised in New York,  Bacharach used a fake ID as a young man to sneak into nightclubs and hear great jazz artists like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. While also drawn to the classical  avant-garde — “I had been hanging out in New York with John Cage,” he told Jazz Times in 2004 — a summer studying at Music Academy of the West convinced him that his greatest gifts lay in melody. “The middle section of my piece was very melodic, and I worried that it was too melodic. [Instructor Darius] Milhaud said, ‘Never be afraid to be melodic.’” He never would be again.

Bacharach was drafted into the Army during the Korean War, eventually touring Army bases in Germany as a uniformed pianist. In Germany he met his first great collaborator, the singer Vic Damone. He toured with Damone after the war, and in 1956 became the personal conductor and arranger for film and cabaret star Marlene Dietrich.

By 1957 he found work in New York’s vaunted Brill Building, at the time the center of the pop music world. Through his connections at the Brill Building he met the two people who would forever be associated with his name. The first was lyricist Hal David, whose compact and witty constructions brought Bacharach’s melodies to life. That same year, they wrote Marty Robbins’ “The Story of My Life”which hit No. 1 on the US Country, and Perry Como’s “Magic Moments,” which peaked at No. 4 in the US and hit No. 1 in the UK. Bacharach’s second great collaborator was Dionne Warwick.

Bacharach met Warwick as a teenager, and first hired her to sing demos he could pitch to other singers. But Warwick’s versions always sounded better, and her skill inspired Bacharach to weave increasingly complex ideas into his songs. In 1962 she released her debut album Presenting Dionne Warwick with Bacharach and David, led by the single, “Don’t Make Me Over.” That song, along with the trio’s collaborations “Walk On By” and “Alfie,” for the movie Alfie, have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The latter also earned him his first Grammy Award in the category of Instrumental Arrangement, during a year when he was also nominated for his work on Casino Royale. He picked up two wins at the 1970 Grammys for his scores for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the musical Promises, Promises, and that same year he won both of his Academy Awards, for Best Score (Butch Cassidy) and Best Song (“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” from the same film.)

Bacharach also won song of the year in 1982 for Rod Stewart’s “That’s What Friends Are For,” which today is best remembered for a Warwick cover featuring Elton John. His final category win came for Best Pop Instrumental Album for the 2005 project, At This Time. In 2008, the Recording Academy presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2012, he and David accepted the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first time it had been awarded to a songwriting team. To younger audiences, he is perhaps best known for his hilarious cameos in the Austin Powers films.

Check out some of Bacharach’s classic songs below.

Burt Bacharach, Architect of the Modern Pop Song, Dead at 94
Wren Graves

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