Burt Bacharach has died | Hacker News Reader

Burt Bacharach has died

independent.co.uk

115 pointsjacquesm23 comments

I have many great memories involving Burt Bacharach songs, but this is my favorite one...

Preamble: I think Karen Carpenter was my first crush. She had an amazing voice that caught my attention and my interest from the first time I heard her sing. That first song might've been 'They Long To Be (Close To You),' penned by Mr. Bacharach (and Hal David.)

The story: Many years later, not long after I'd moved to a new town, I was hanging out at a cookout with a long-time friend and one of her roommates. Their other roommate, a high school chemistry teacher, shows up and starts complaining that the guys who were interested in her were all nerds.

So I borrowed a line from the song and start singing 'Why do NERDS suddenly appear, every time you are near?' And her roommates join in and complete the verse with me, much to the chemistry teacher's chagrin.

Eventually, probably mostly not due to this choice, the chemistry teacher became my wife.

Thank you for the help Mr. Bacharach. RIP.

That's quite the story!

I can’t think of any other song writer who had so many hits that were so “of their time” across so many decades. When I think of 60’s music, his songs come to mind, 70’s music for sure, and a number of big hits in the 80’s. His songs were part of the soundtrack of those decades, all so different and performed by very different artists but all very much Bacharach songs.

Don't forget the 1990s and the album he collaborated with Elvis Costello on. Among the best work of both of them.

An absolute cracker. I don’t even know Bacharach‘s work well beyond some obvious hits, but “Painted from memory” is a very special album indeed.

If you start digging into how many artists owe their breakthrough hits to this man it is quite a journey. There are a few of those people who are mostly invisible in the music world but whose influence is massive.

There's a 3 CD "greatest hits" box set that covers some interesting ground.

There's a playlist on Spotify that recreates most of it though it appears to be missing his theme for the film "The Blob"

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2hHcMpLPZapS6EUBfNkwWu?si=...

His catchy theme from "The Blob", by "The Five Blobs" is here:

https://open.spotify.com/track/3UVxWDYfUSwtEfzN5QfE7Z?si=98-...

We used to listen to that 3 CD box set on family driving holidays when I was a child. We get the ferry from Dublin, drive through the UK, get the Eurotunnel to Calais and then head wherever, though usually, we end up in Italy. I remember in school, I was singing under my breath, "I just don't know what to do with myself", and a classmate demanded, "How do you know that song?". I just shrugged, and it was only a bit later that I became aware of The White Stripes cover of the Chuck Jackson original that had just come out.

Those songs, along with Sgt. Peppers, Abbey Road and the few other albums that fit in our CD case are ingrained in my memories from that time. We'd rotate stuff in and out from year to year, but Bacharach and The Beatles always stayed in.

> There are a few of those people who are mostly invisible in the music world but whose influence is massive.

I guess that being creative and being a stage performer requires different personalities, with exceptions of course.

"What the world needs now

is love, sweet love.

It's the only thing that there's just too little of

What the world needs now

is love, sweet love

No, not just for some,

but for everyone."

Beware of the blob, it creeps, and leaps,

and glides and slides across the floor

Right through the door and all around the wall

A splotch, a blotch, be careful of the blob

Bacharach always showed up in interesting places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo4V-8GlPpQ

I got such a kick out of this comment as a response to the parent. Very funny juxtaposition, thanks for the morning chuckle.

(tl;dr: lol)

That sax is awesome!

Yes, Hal David wrote great lyrics.

Like everyone always forgets Bernie Taupin.

Fans are remembering Burt Bacharach's cameos in the Austin Powers movies:

https://www.nme.com/news/music/fans-are-remembering-burt-bac...

https://youtu.be/cs8JWCY8k2U First thing I thought of!

I often get the blues from scanning the front page of Hacker news. Another day, another legend passing away. How could I forget when there is Always something there to remind me?

Thanks, this wasn’t on any of the retrospectives I saw!

Amazing talent, completely overlooked as "unserious" by academic composers even though he studied with Henry Cowell and Milhaud.

A rare blend of world class compositional skills and imagination producing accessible little gems.

Loved his cameo in Austin powers where he sang “what the world needs now”

I saw him at Glastonbury in 2015. Amazing, so many songs you hear every day were written by him.

Thoughts and prayers to his good friend Austin Powers

Reply on news.ycombinator.com