Fond Memories of the World's Greatest Ever Songwriter - Burt Bacharach

Family favourite Burt Bacharach sadly passed away on the 8th of February at age 94. He leaves behind a most amazing musical legacy - he is in particular celebrated for his partnership with lyricist Hal David, and his long-standing Muse - Dionne Warwick (Aunt to Whitney Houston). I would say he’s pretty indisputably the finest songwriter of all-time!

He wrote numerous chart-topping hits throughout the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s in particular - obviously for Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, the Carpenters, Gene Pitney, Herb Alpert, Sandie Shaw, Jackie DeShannon, Perry Como, Petula Clark,  BJ Thomas, Bobbie Gentry, Cilla Black, Gene McDaniels, Jack Jones, Jerry Butler, Marty Robbins, Scott Walker / Walker Brother, Tom Jones, and even the two Elvis’s (Presley & Costello!).

Three of the songs are from Movie Soundtracks - Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head from Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (for which Burt took the Oscar for Song and Soundtrack), Alfie from the Michael Caine Movie of the same name, and Arthur’s Theme from the Dudley Moore Movie of the same name (also won an Oscar), Surprisingly Burt only won half a dozen Grammy’s -where he really should have won a whole load more - but genius it not always recognised by its own generation!

Here below are my 20 All-Time Favourite Burt Bacharach Songs - where I’ve hand-picked my specific favourite version of each - with appropriate video accompaniment! And where 8 of them feature Dionne Warwick, and 3 feature Dusty Springfield. Some of your own personal favourites may be missing from this list as I decided to draw the line at 20 - I could probably have done twice that number - but the 20 here certainly stand the test of time!