Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books and now writer/director of award-winning films. He was also a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy.
With wild, sad, coincidence, early on Thursday I posted my usual Song of the Day, the Bacharach-David “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” in versions by Dionne, Dusty, Linda Ronstadt and Bjork. Two hours later we all learned that Burt had died. After that, the many obits and social media posts appeared, usually with pretty much the same career pop highlights: the Warwick hits, “Raindrops,” “Close to You,” and etc. But myself, I thought of his early recordings, often more in the “rock” vein, and covers by a range of others. So here’s a quickly assembled collection. Enjoy, then subscribe, before I walk on by, it’s still free!
One of his first tunes, pre-Hal David, a semi-rocker for vintage star Gene Vincent.
And, believe it or not, for the classic bad ‘50s movie….
My deepest dive with Burt was as a big Gene Pitney fan, pre-Beatles, early 1960s. Gene had three hits with Bacharach-David. Here’s “24 Hours from Tulsa.”
Next from Gene, the ballad “Only Love Can Break a Heart”
Finally, from the film, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”
Same time period, giant hit for The Shirelles, “Baby, It’s You”
And from same period, Chuck Jackson’s “Any Day Now” with young Burt on organ intro.
And another early ‘60s smash, Gene McDaniels’ “Tower of Strength”
Then the Beatles arrived, but Burt carried on, here live with double legends, Dusty Springfield and Martha Reeves (of Vandellas fame) with “Wishin’ and Hopin’.”
Classic cult ‘60s group, Arthur Lee and Love, on Bandstand with their proto-punk “My Little Red Book,” from What’s New, Pussycat.
Jackie DeShannon in studio declaring “What the World Needs Now Is Love.”
Aretha had a hit with cover of “Say a Little Prayer,” here live and on fire.
Jumping ahead now, we get to the Elvis Costello-Burt Bacharach lovefest (displayed memorably in an Austin Powers film). Here with Burt on piano, Elvis does “I Just Don’t Know What to Do” which he first recorded early in his career. There’s also a White Stripes rocking version on their 4th album and Linda Ronstadt’s in 1993. And from 1964, Dusty live introduced by Burt himself.
His notable wife, Diane Krall, covered “The Look of Love” for Obama.
Burt joined by then little-known Adele in 2008 for “Baby, It’s You”
Sheryl Crow decided to “Walk on By” for the tribute.
We tried but we couldn’t leave out Tom Jones (you’ll see why, below), still very young here.
And for a fun chaser: John Mulaney’s classic comedy bit on what happened when he played Tom’s “Pussycat” 21 times in a row on a diner jukebox….
Cartoon of the Day
Your selections bring back memories long lost. Gene Pitney, a voice never to be duplicated in my music pantheon.
Once you hear Aretha's Prayer it's very hard for anything else to come close!