I’m Gonna Be Strong – Gene Pitney
Maybe, Maybe Baby – The Magnificent Men
Take Me To The River – Eva Cassidy
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini – Brian Hyland
Trouble Child – Joni Mitchell
California Sun – Gin Blossoms
He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother – The Hollies
I’m The One Who Loves You – The Impressions
Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting – Glen Hansard
Engine Engine #9 – Roger Miller
Gloria -- Them
https://variety.com/2023/music/obituaries-people-news/burt-bacharach-dead-american-music-1235517943/
https://variety.com/2023/music/news/burt-bacharach-best-songs-1235518533/
While Burt Bacharach was talented as a pianist, conductor,
arranger, and producer, his greatest contributions to American popular music
were the hundreds of songs that he composed. Variety’s excellent “Best Songs”
article (referenced above) characterizes his work as “musically sophisticated,
complex and often downright weird, combining a world of influences — from jazz
and classical to bossa nova and westerns — along with startling yet seemingly
smooth key and time-signature changes, unusual voicings and more.” Although he
worked with various performers and lyricists over the course of his career, his
work with Hal David and Dionne Warwick is undoubtedly one of the most prolific
and satisfying songwriter/performer collaborations ever.
A number of years ago, when my former employer had a big
employees-and-family picnic every June, I was hanging out with a couple when
one of them mentioned that she would shortly be heading out to San Jose for the
project that she was working on. When I asked, tongue in cheek, whether she
knew the way to San José, I learned that neither one of them had much use for
Bacharach and David’s work. How could one possibly mention them in the same
breath as, say, Bob Dylan.
Hey – I like Dylan too! But surely the world is large enough
for both. So, Rick and Kay, these lists are for you.
Favorite Bacharach/David songs, Dionne Warwick division:
Walk On By
Do You Know The Way To San José
Anyone Who Had A Heart
I’ll Never Fall In Love Again
Trains And Boats And Planes
Promises, Promises
Don’t Make Me Over
Reach Out For Me
The Green Grass Starts To Grow
Favorite Burt Bacharach songs, other artists (written with
Hal David unless otherwise noted):
The
Look Of Love – Dusty Springfield
Any
Day Now – Chuck Jackson, Ronnie Milsap [Burt Bacharach/Bob Hilliard]
Make It Easy On Yourself – Jerry Butler, The Walker
Brothers*
Long Ago Tomorrow – B.J. Thomas
I Say A Little Prayer – Aretha Franklin*
One Less Bell To Answer – The 5th Dimension
On My Own – Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald [Burt
Bacharach/Carole Bayer Sager]
(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance – Gene Pitney
You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart) – The
Stylistics*
Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa – Gene Pitney
* - also recorded by Dionne Warwick
Barrett Strong will mostly be remembered as a prolific songwriter,
mostly working with Norman Whitfield on songs for the Temptations and other
Motown acts. He didn’t have nearly as much success as a singer, but he did have
the honor of recording “Money
(That’s What I Want)”, which was the Motown empire’s first hit record.
In an interview
with the Detroit Free Press in 2019, Strong characterized his career as
follows: “I feel good about it. I did something. I did my part, what I was put
on this earth to do. I made people smile. I made people have babies. I made
people do a lot of things. So I contributed something
to my being here.”
And as was the case with the late Lamont
Dozier, “Levi
Stubbs’ Tears” also includes a tribute to Barrett Strong, even though he
and Whitfield contributed very little to the Four Tops Roster of Hits:
Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
Are here to make everything right
that's wrong
Favorite songs co-written by Barrett Strong:
Stay
In My Corner – The Dells
Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) – The Temptations
I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Gladys Knight & The
Pips, Marvin Gaye, CCR, …
Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) – Marvin Gaye
(B-side), Paul Young
Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone – The Temptations
War – Edwin Starr, Bruce Springsteen
Smiling Faces Sometimes – The Undisputed Truth
