WASHINGTON: Burt Bacharach, an influential figure in American popular music for fifty years as a songwriter, composer, producer, and arranger, passed away on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 94. He died due to natural causes, according to Variety, a US-based media house.
Variety repored that on Thursday, Tina Brausam, a spokesman for Bacharach, made the announcement.
The unsurpassed melodist Bacharach achieved renown as a composer across all platforms. His compositions, many of which he co-wrote with lyricist Hal David, rose to the top of the charts, especially when vocalist Dionne Warwick performed them. Only Lennon-McCartney challenged Bacharach-David in terms of financial and aesthetic success among 1960s songwriting teams. Between 1967 and 2005, Bacharach won six Grammys for his work as a writer, arranger, and singer.
He received recognition from the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for his work on “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “Arthur,” two films that featured his music frequently on both large and small screens in the 1960s and 1970s (1981). He won an Emmy in 1971 for a TV performance of his work.
The 1968 Bacharach-David song “Promises, Promises” saw 1,281 performances on Broadway and received a Tony Award nomination for best musical.
After being released from the Army in 1952, Bacharach’s first noteworthy job in show business was as Vic Damone’s pianist. He then played behind the Ames Brothers, Imogene Coca, Polly Bergen, Georgia Gibbs, and Steve Lawrence. He supported Paula Stewart, a singer, as well. He was married to Stewart from 1953 to 1958.
Bacharach also made appearances in front of the camera in the 1990s and 2000s. He made cameos in the 1997 espionage comedy “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” and its two sequels, both directed by Mike Myers.
In the latter movies, Costello and Bacharach and Susannah Hoffs, wife of director Jay Roach, performed covers of Bacharach-“Never David’s I’ll Fall in Love Again” and “Alfie” as “Austin.” (ANI)