Wishin' and Votin' - the BURT BACHARACH SONGBOOK Poll Results

listen, i had this ranked pretty high and i think there's something about the simplicity and the directness that was refreshing in the context of a lot of burt songs with their unusual meters, convoluted melodies, and complex chord changes. it just kinda reached out and grabbed me.

that and the arrangement is so delicate and breezy and the background vocals are downright angelic.

― budo jeru, Tuesday, May 14, 2019 5:03 PM (yesterday)

Thanks for your take on this -- my comment came across too much as "this song is unworthy" instead of "I need someone else's insight."

37. The Story of My Life — 126 Points, 4 Votes
Lyric: Hal David
Marty Robbins, 1957 single, 80 points — https://youtu.be/BrHZCmVQnNA
Michael Holliday, 1958 single, 46 points — https://youtu.be/Gzk0bdlDr3Y

ok, back to work, might be back today, might be tomorrow

I voted for the Broadway version of "Knowing When to Leave." #20 of 20-song ballot) In fact, I once spun it on WFMU.

(that was shortly before it appeared on the Rhino box; I also played the cast version of "I'll Never Fall in Love Again")

"Story of My Life" was the one that I really had no clue was Bacharach/David, for obvious reasons i think. I've always loved it anyway. Could've voted for either of those versions but my inner cowboy won out.

are u there with another poll?

"Story of My Life" was the one that I really had no clue was Bacharach/David, for obvious reasons i think. I've always loved it anyway. Could've voted for either of those versions but my inner cowboy won out.

it was my number 13, which was too high but i voted in the moment. i say i had "no clue" but i must've known and forgotten, i've got a fairly comprehensive BB CD compilation somewhere still in the house.

re: "Knowing When To Leave", i wish they'd written more musicals

Yeah, it was a littler high on my ballot too, but it’s kind of impossible to get the ranking just so.

um, like Lost Horizon? xp

Littler

lol Morbs this is why musicals should start life on the stage

well Promises was a decent-sized hit, and it was an adap of The Apartment

This I did not know

there are quite a few Bacharach/David songs that have this interstitial quality to them - they feel like they start mid-story and they don't really resolve anything at the end, especially melodically - and that's a good trick for musical theatre where as many of the songs need to be building blocks as they do show-stoppers

oh yeah Redd, "Knowing When to Leave" is for the MacLaine character, Lemmon's finishes with "Promises, Promises"

never wanted to see a staging of it, cuz Neil Simon rewriting Wilder-Diamond, ugh

I haven't seen it staged either (despite having chances to--it became popular again for local companies after the Chenoweth-starring revised* revival), but I used to have that one big book of Simon plays that had PromisesX2 in it. IIRC, the book is somewhat reasonably faithful to original script, but yeah, Simon put in some new gags and the Pop Culture references were brought up to 1968.

*They found a way to work in "I Say A Little Prayer", which Burt said was written apart from the show, but somehow was still of a piece with it.

I find the horn break in "Turkey Lurkey Time" very funny, typical arrangement of the BB era

promise us anything

Even a wedding ring

OK, I'm caught up on my shit and waiting for other people to catch up on their shit, so let's have some more results.

36. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance — 126 Points, 6 Votes
Lyric: Hal David
Gene Pitney, 1962 single, 126 points — https://youtu.be/IU8bBlPtBK4

Awesome. My #13

Burt's memoir, a very thin document, has a page and a bit on writing and recording this -- taking a long time to write it, odd structure, his habit of troubleshooting a song by going into a bathroom stall and just thinking about it instead of going to the piano. "In order to fix whatever was wrong, I always had to hear the song and the arrangement in my head."

Wow. Think I may have to read that.

Feel like we should have a thread about such memoirs.

There is a lot of text from other people — his wife and ex-wives, Hal David, Cilla, Dietrich — presented in oral-history style. On one hand, it's nice that Burt lets other people have their say, but it reveals the material from Burt himself as pretty thin. It has the feel of a book knocked out in a week of interviews with Robert Greenfield, the coauthor. It's still very much worth the read.

Wonder how it stacks up next to the Donald Fagen book.

My autocorrect does not like Fagen.

35. In the Land of Make Believe — 142 Points, 5 Votes
Lyric: Hal David
Dusty Springfield, from Dusty in Memphis, 1969, 108 Points — https://youtu.be/tYwa0QL0Vps
The Drifters, 1964 b-side of "Vaya Con Dios," 34 points — https://youtu.be/lUDm6N6M9HU

Not on my radar. Will give a listen

It's a punch in the heart, and still I had to cut it from my ballot.

I like the Dusty version, although I don’t remember it from the album, which I haven’t listened to in a whiledecade or two, for some unknown reason.

Rectifying this now

Listening to Dusty In Memphis is always the right thing to do.

You can't imagine my envy for the person about to absorb Dusty In Memphis for the first time.

34. Wives and Lovers — 147 Points, 5 Votes
Lyric: Hal David
Jack Jones, 1963 Kapp Records single, 109 points — https://youtu.be/rZ7WT02wFOk
Dave Douglas, from Great Jewish Music: Burt Bacharach, 1997, 38 points — https://youtu.be/CkUW_Fc2xj0

Those lyrics are not wholly attractive. A vocal-less version highlighted in the other thread demonstrated that BB contributed a fine tune, however.

Also: belated "yay!" for "Knowing When To Leave!"

Last one for the night.

33. Don't Go Breaking My Heart — 151 Points, 3 Votes
Lyric: Hal David
Dionne Warwick, 1966 b-side to "Trains and Boats and Planes, 70 points — https://youtu.be/fcKIX-xrsuk
Marc Ribot, from Great Jewish Music: Burt Bacharach, 1997, 55 points — https://youtu.be/K6de2BkfhEo (electric version)
Astrud Gilberto, 1966 single, 26 points — https://youtu.be/mBRl241KfB0

I was the Ribot voter, specifically for the solo acoustic version, but that's not on youtube. It's not quite as outside as if Eugene Chadbourne had covered the song, but it's got some sharp edges on it.

Pretty sure I voted for Gilberto here. So no sharp edges at all. LOL. I might have been semi-consciously strategically voting against Warwick a little, to avoid a complete Dionnefest on my ballot.

Another tune not really on my radar. Enjoying the Dionne Warwick version right now.

assorted versions of "Wives and Lovers" got a ton of airplay on easy listening stations 50 years ago. I knew it well by the time I was 8.

Yeah, although I didn’t even know what the title was for a few decades.

A thread is still a thread
Even if there’s no one posting there

Good morning! Some early results for the UK and EU.

32. Please Stay — 152 Points, 3 Votes
Lyric: Bob Hilliard
The Drifters, 1961 single, 152 points — https://youtu.be/1iY2UpSz9Vs

I thought about voting for the Elvis Costello version of this because it starts really nice but he goes way overboard by the end.

31. Mexican Divorce — 165 Points, 3 Votes, 1 #1 Vote
Lyric: Bob Hilliard
The Drifters, 1962 b-side to "When My Little Girl Is Smiling," 113 points — https://youtu.be/_UwQjkmQ5KM
Ry Cooder, on Paradise and Lunch, 1974, 52 points — https://youtu.be/5Cci6Jn2t-Y