Search - Burt Bacharach :: Burt Bacharach's Greatest Hits

IC B. (icberry)
Reviewed on 1/17/2020...

This is the real thing: Burt Bacharach's genuine, and deceptively simple-sounding arrangements of what would become the absolute pinnacle of pop music songs for a while there. You get the half-sleepy double-tracked trumpets, the soft girl-singer choirs, the odd, lackadaisaical percussion, stinging harpischords and seemingly-unrelated codas that round things out to the requisite three minutes per song.

What you don't get is the radio-ready superstar vocal-tracks for these incredibly famous songs -- so in a way, it's like a pop-musicologist's dream record because like a clean, clear diagram, it includes only what's relevant to the study of the subject at hand. In this case: Bacharach. A couple of the tracks do have a vocal -- his? -- but mostly they are just perfect demonstrations of his pop craftsmanship, as if ready-made to assign to the next superstar-to-be to sing in the studio.

So go ahead and study them. Backwards-engineer them if you have the musical chops, because you'll never get a better, cleaner chance to hear what's going on under those famous vocals. Or even better, belt along with 'em, with karaoke-style. Me, I like this record. I'lllll Never fall in love AGAINNNNNNN!!!!

Kathy F. from MINNEOTA, MN
Reviewed on 11/14/2009...

I have always loved Burt's music, but didn't have any of it. I am happy to have gotten this CD. It has some of his best hits on it.

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Easy listening, instrumental collection of Burt's tunes.

09/12/1998

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I had wanted a collection of Burt's best tunes, as sung by the original singers, but I couldn't find any. So, I settled for this CD. Not too bad a collection of mostly instrumental pieces as orchestrated by Burt, with some help from anonymous background vocalists. Burt also sings in a couple of songs - well, he tries to. We all know why he stuck to song-writing.This CD will not be the most satisfying collection for Burt's fans. It is good for the uninitiated and for those, who like me, would like some unintrusive late-night music from a great song-writer."

A Dud

08/21/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"If you are going to put out a 12-track CD under the title "Burt Bacharach's Greatest Hits" shouldn't you be expected to include the only four hits he had under his own name?



We all know he wrote, in conjunction with Hal David, all of the songs in this CD, but with the exception of tracks 1 and 4 none were hits for him per se. I suppose one could be charitable and say the title of the CD is meant to convey the message that these were his babies [or partly so], even if someone else had the actual hits.



But when I see "greatest hits" following the name of an artist who actually HAD a few under his or her own name I fully expect to see those at the very least. His first, in late 1967, was Reach Out For Me, a song he produced for Dionne Warwick in 1964, which reached # 38 on the Adult Contemporary [AC] charts b/w The Look Of Love from the film Casino Royale [tracks 4 and 5].



A year and a half later in 1969 his version of I'll Never Fall In Love Again [track 1], a huge hit for Dionne Warwick early in 1970, and from the Broadway musical Promises, Promises, topped out at # 18 AC and # 93 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in June [his only Hot 100 hit]. The flip of that was Pacific Coast Highway, not included.



After another 18-month drought, All Kinds Of People also made it to # 18 AC and # 116 Hot 100 "bubble under" in February 1971 b/w She's Gone Away. Neither is included here, nor is his last hit, Something Big, which reached # 50 AC in January 1974. However, the uncharted flipside - Living Together, Growing Together IS here at track 12.



Incidentally, Burt does not sing on any of the four charted hits credited to him, all vocals being performed by a chorus. Which, perhaps, explains why they charted in the first place. Another drawback to this CD, in addition to the missing hits and B-sides, is the fact there are no liner notes. All in all a poor effort by the folks at A&M."