Very Best of Burt Bacharach

I still get chills from "Anyone who Had a Heart", or "Always Something There To Remind Me". These are the great tunes that inspired so many of the great pop writers that followed- people like Andy Partridge of XTC or Gifford and Tilbrook of Squeeze. This is pop at its best.

If you can afford it, buy the three-disc set that these tunes are taken from. But if all you can swing is this one disk, buy it. It's truly the best of the best.


Bacharach & David in the Sixties...a Pinnacle in Pop Music   August 25, 2004
Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Was there a better pop tunesmith in the second half of the 20th century than Burt Bacharach, and did he ever have a more copacetic partner than Hal David? Nowhere is that more evident than in this wonderful collection of Bacharach's hits. Truly the most impressive tracks are right in the middle of the disc between Dionne Warwick's groundbreaking "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and Marilyn McCoo's swooning take on "One Less Bell to Answer", and it is certainly no coincidence that these songs reflect Bacharach and David during their most fertile period in the sixties.

Dionne Warwick obviously had her fair share of hits from them, six included here highlighted by my personal favorites "Walk on By" and "Alfie". It's also great to hear Dusty Springfield's original version of "The Look of Love", where her smoky tones perfectly fit the mood of the song, which was aptly used for a slow motion seduction scene in "Casino Royale". Jackie DeShannon's symphonic rendition of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and Tom Jones' Vegas-style "What's New Pussycat?" are also terrific to hear again. The disc does fall short at the beginning where the first two songs feel rather primitive compared to the sophistication of the rest, and sadly at the end where Bacharach partnered with his then-wife Carole Bayer Sager on two of the most overplayed songs from the eighties, "Arthur's Theme" and "That's What Friends Are For". Frankly, I would have preferred "Message to Michael", "You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)" or even the Carpenters' "(They Long to Be) Close to You" instead. But these lapses are completely excusable.

Although it will make you feel immediately nostalgic to hear these songs one after the other, what will linger in your mind is how potent these songs continue to be as timeless pop classics. By the way, if you are looking for other definitive versions of Bacharach-David songs, check out Barbra Streisand's amazing, fugue-like medley of "One Less Bell to Answer" and "A House Is Not a Home" on her 1971 "Barbra Joan Streisand" CD.



This CD has At Least Three Certified Masterpeices...   December 10, 2003
yygsgsdrassil (Crossroads America)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

...and we're talking song/perfomance/arrangement masterpieces. And you may even be able to find more on this priced right product. My opinion is that:

#1 Alfie is pop music at it's finest. When Warrick goes "until you find the love you missed...you're nothing", it is a moment of greatness, captured on tape.

#2 Dusty Springfield's rendition of The Look of Love, even without the digital noodlings of Bill Inglot and staff at Rhino records, was a must have item. This version you will fall deeply for.

#3 Can you find a better matching of artist/writer/arrangement than that version of Dionne's Do you Know The Way to San Jose?
I don't think so...

But, when I say there are three certified masterpieces here do I mean those three mentioned above or BJ Thomas' Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Jackie Deshannon's What the World Needs now Is Love or Chris Cross' Arthur's Theme?

Get what I Mean?

One thing, though. Where's The Carpenter's Close to You? Or This Guy's In Love With You by Herb Alpert? A Part II wouldn't be in the future would it?


The Best Versions of His Best Songs   July 23, 2003
B. Lapadat (twincities,mn)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I was having the devil's own time trying to find a CD with "Alfie" on it when I stumbled across this one. What a goldmine! Not only is it a great selection of Burt's absolute best, it's the VERSIONS of them you remember. Dionne Warwick is especially prominent. I'm finding that Burt Bacharach's music is timeless--I love it and so does my five year old daughter. We listen to it all the time in the car, with her singing along. Her favorite song? Alfie, of course!


As good as it gets   January 25, 2005
Steven Cain (Temporal Quantum Pocket)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Being a major Dionne Warwick fan, I find this to be a very well chosen snapshot of the work of the incomparable Bacharach and David.

Like Michael, I tended to play down my appreciation of Dionne and the superb songwriting team behind her and so many others, back in the sixties. While I loved Hendrix and Cream and Airplane etc., I also loved the crooners, and the work of Burt Bacharach was a cornerstone of the music of the era.

When Mike Myers introduced Burt Bacharach in a semi-surreal romantic moment in Wayne's World, it was a superb tribute from a brilliant actor/comedian to a true music industry icon. It was Mike's way of saying, 'Come on, admit it, the guy's a genius.'

No argument here.

And I never even realized he'd written the Arthur theme song...