Hello again and welcome to the second of the three least related consecutive posts in music blog history.
You look at the other ones and they're great, but they're all one thing or another. Here we aim to subvert that orthodoxy.
To that end, today we honor a major milestone birthday of someone many consider to be one of the ten greatest songwriters in human history.
We all grew up on his tunes; they are as ubiquitous as any ever written and have been covered by so many artists, that if I listed them all this post would go on into next Tuesday.
What's It All About, Alfie? I'll tell you what it's all about. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, but I'll Never Fall In Love Again. Even though What the World Needs Now Is Love, I Say a Little Prayer that you'll Make It Easy On Yourself and Reach Out.
No? That's One Less Bell to Answer, even though they long to be Close to You. So just Walk On By. Because There's Always Something There to Remind Me that You'll Never Get to Heaven If You Break My Heart.
So What's New, Pussycat? Are You There with Another Girl? That's The Look of Love. Trains, Boats and Planes.... but Do You Know the Way to San Jose?
Who Is Gonna Love Me? You know This Guy's In Love with You. Oh, Promises, Promises already.
I guess this means I'm On My Own. Oh well... That's What Friends Are For, I suppose. The Best that You Can Do is fall in love.
It's all right, I'm a Better Man for Having Loved You. We always knew A House Is Not a Home anyway. Another Night, and A Lifetime of Loneliness. Let's get to the share before I start weeping.
Burt Bacharach and Marian McPartland
"Piano Jazz"
Manhattan Beach Studios
New York City, NY
11.4.2004
01 intro and conversation
02 Alfie
03 conversation
04 I'll Never Fall In Love Again
05 conversation
06 This Guy's In Love with You
07 conversation
08 Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
09 conversation
10 What the World Needs Now Is Love
11 conversation
12 Portrait of Burt Bacharach
13 conversation
14 The Windows of the World
15 conversation
16 Close to You and outro
Total time: 55:58
Burt Bacharach - piano & vocals
Marian McPartland - piano & vocals
digital capture of an August 2014 NPR rebroadcast
206 MB FLAC/May 2018 archive link
Yes, Burt Bacharach is 90 today! Sorry if I got a little carried away with his many titles, but I couldn't stop myself. Anyone Who Had a Heart would understand.
I'll be back in Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa, with something that couldn't be less similar to this if you dressed it in a tuxedo and sat it down at a piano. But for now, do grab and enjoy this lovely, unissued hour of (I will blog her soon I promise) Marian McPartland's ultra-fabulous Piano Jazz, wherein she and Burt casually chop it up and play a passel of his hits... including a version of Alfie that had me blubbering by the second verse. HBD BB and many more!--J.
