Ronald Isley (of The Isley Brothers) sings a batch Bacharach/David songs on this 2003 CD. His velvet voice fits these types of songs well. Isley includes a couple of obscure Bacharach/David songs like “Here I Am” and “In Between the Heartaches.” Burt Bacharach died last week at age 94, but twenty years ago he could still produce, arrange, and conduct on Isley Meets Bacharach as well as play the piano on all the songs on this album. The sound on this CD is great!
The Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection presents a cross-section of Bacharach/David songs sung by Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones, the Carpenters, Elvis Costello, B. J. Thomas, Gene Pitney, Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, The Drifters, The Shirelles, and many more artists. I listened to all of these songs growing up in the Sixties.
My favorite Bacharach/David song is “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” and my favorite version is on Disc 1 of this set sung by Tommy Hunt. Do you have a favorite Bacharach/David song? GRADE: A (for both CDs)
TRACK LIST:
| Alfie | 3:47 | ||
| Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head | 5:14 | ||
| In Between The Heartaches | 3:34 | ||
| Make It Easy On Yourself | 5:34 | ||
| A House Is Not A Home | 4:38 | ||
| The Look Of Love | 4:32 | ||
| Count On Me | 3:54 | ||
| This Guy’s In Love With You | 4:32 | ||
| Close To You | 3:44 | ||
| Anyone Who Had A Heart | 4:26 | ||
| Love’s (Still) The Answer | 4:04 | ||
| Here I Am | 4:19 | ||
| Windows Of The World | 4:18 |
TRACK LIST:
| Carpenters– | (They Long To Be) Close To You | 3:45 | |
| Dionne Warwick– | Do You Know The Way To San Jose? | 2:46 | |
| Perry Como– | Magic Moments | 2:42 | |
| Marty Robbins– | The Story Of My Life | 2:33 | |
| B.J. Thomas– | Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head | 3:00 | |
| Aretha Franklin– | I Say A Little Prayer | 3:33 | |
| The Shirelles– | Baby It’s You | 2:43 | |
| The Drifters– | Please Stay | 2:18 | |
| Tom Jones– | What’s New Pussycat? | 2:20 | |
| Gene McDaniels*– | Tower Of Strength | 2:17 | |
| Gene Pitney– | (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance | 3:01 | |
| Tommy Hunt– | I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself | 2:52 | |
| Dionne Warwick– | I’ll Never Fall In Love Again | 3:00 | |
| The Burt Bacharach Orchestra* & Chorus*– | Nikki | 2:23 | |
| The Drifters– | Mexican Divorce | 2:35 | |
| Jimmy Radcliff*– | (There Goes) The Forgotten Man | 2:49 | |
| Bobby Vinton– | Blue On Blue | 2:26 | |
| The Searchers– | This Empty Place | 2:09 | |
| The Drifters– | Let The Music Play | 2:39 | |
| Dionne Warwick– | Anyone Who Had A Heart | 3:13 | |
| Brook Benton– | A House Is Not A Home | 3:02 | |
| The Stylistics– | You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart) | 3:40 | |
| Gene Pitney– | Only Love Can Break A Heart | 2:50 | |
| Chuck Jackson– | Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird) | 3:23 | |
| Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass– | Casino Royale | 2:36 | |
| Dusty Springfield– | The Look Of Love | 4:11 | |
| Dionne Warwick– | Walk On By | 2:57 | |
| Burt Bacharach– | Don’t Go Breaking My Heart | 2:29 | |
| Sandie Shaw– | (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me | 2:41 | |
| Jackie DeShannon– | What The World Needs Now Is Love | 3:16 | |
| Nancy Wilson– | Reach Out For Me | 2:28 | |
| Jack Jones– | Wives And Lovers | 2:31 | |
| Gene Pitney– | Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa | 3:00 | |
| Jackie Trent– | Make It Easy On Yourself | 2:46 | |
| Dionne Warwick– | Don’t Make Me Over | 3:26 | |
| Anita Harris– | Trains And Boats And Planes | 2:51 | |
| Bobby Vee– | Be True To Yourself | 2:06 | |
| Trini Lopez– | Made In Paris | 2:23 | |
| Cilla Black– | Alfie | 2:40 | |
| Dusty Springfield– | Wishin’ And Hopin’ | 2:56 | |
| Petula Clark– | This (Girl’s) In Love With You | 3:32 | |
| The 5th Dimension*– | Living Together, Growing Together | 3:52 | |
| Dionne Warwick– | Odds And Ends | 3:28 | |
| Chuck Jackson– | I Wake Up Crying | 2:18 | |
| Tony Orlando– | To Wait For Love | 2:23 | |
| The Shirelles– | It’s Love That Really Counts (In The Long Run) | 2:17 | |
| Christopher Cross– | Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do) | 3:54 | |
| The Pretenders– | The Windows Of The World | 2:58 | |
| Dionne & Friends– | That’s What Friends Are For | 4:17 | |
| Burt Bacharach & Elvis Costello– | God Give Me Strength | 6:08 |
I like a lot of his stuff but he did a lot I didn’t like. My favs are I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself (preferably by Elvis Costello or The White Stripes), Walk On By, Only Love Can Break a Heart, Baby It’s You, I Say a Little Prayer, There’s Always Something There To Remind Me, 24 Hours to Tulsa.
Not familiar with a number of songs but one’s I don’t like The Look of Love, Close To You (not a Carpenters fan), Arthurs Theme (even less a Christopher Cross fan). Not a fan of Perry Como, Andy Williams (thanks a lot for exposing the world to The Osmonds ), Fifth Dimension, Truni Lopez, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Vee or Tony Orlando.
I would give it a C+. Would have to skip way to many songs. Cutting it in half would have made it a great CD. Never heard the other CD so I can’t rate it.
Steve, twenty years ago I used to make my own music CDs by eliminating songs from albums I didn’t want to hear. That seems to have gone the way of the dinosaurs.
PS. Where is My Little Red Book which was a big hit for the L. A. band Love? I know Bacharach hated it so maybe that’s why.
Steve, I was surprised by the lack of inclusion of “My Little Rea Book,” too. And, I was surprised to learn Bacharach’s favorite song was “Alfie.”
I remember most of these songs as a kind of “background music” which was played in shypermarkets or lifts.
Some I really like, difficult to choose no1 but it might be (drum roll):
wishin’ and hopin’
Wolf, “Within’ and Hopin'” by Dusty Springfield was a favorite song in my family’s household!
I never suspected or could even imagine that Bacharach wrote “liberty Valance!”
Dan, Hal David wrote the lyrics, Bacharach wrote the music.
“The Look of Love” (Dusty’s version, but I also like the version by Sergio Mendez & Brazil 66) and “Walk on By” (Dionne’s version), but there are so many others to choose from. I also like the soundtrack to “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid”, especially the background music to the sepia-toned montage with Butch, Sundance, and Etta preparing to go to South America. If you’re looking for something more off the beaten path, I strongly recommend Burt’s collaboration with Elvis Costello, “Painted from Memory”. I understand they were working on another CD together when Burt passed away—I’m hoping it was far enough along that it will get released.
The Songs of Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello releases March 3.
Steve, thanks for the heads up!
Deb, it looks like that Bacharach/Costello double CD will be out soon: https://www.amazon.com/Songs-Bacharach-Costello-CD/dp/B0BQQ764J2/ref=tmm_acd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1676555431&sr=1-1
Favorites? Just go down the Bacharach/David Dionne Warwick playlist from Don’t Make Me Over onward.(but particularly Walk on By and Anyone Who Had a Heart) Also Dusty Springfield’s “Wishin’ and Hopin'” and “The Look of Love,” and “What the World Needs Now is Love” (which Dionne also covered), “Baby It’s You” (written with Hal David’s older brother, I believe), “Only Love Can Break a Heart” (huge Gene Pitney fan). I agree on “I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself” (also Dionne Warwick version). I liked Gene McDaniels but didn’t realize Bacharach and David wrote “Tower of Strength.”
Jeff, I’m always amazed at the number of songs Bacharach and David wrote that became hits! No only did they write “Tower of Strength” they wrote some wonderful music for Broadway with PROMISES, PROMISES!
I just listened to four different versions – including Dusty Springfield, Linda Ronstadt and Elvis Costello – of “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” but my favorite remains Dionne Warwick’s.
Jeff, you might want to give Tommy Hunt’s version of “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” a listen on YouTube.
I like most of them but as Wolf said more as background music that music I really listened to. They were like the soundtrack of my early married years.
Patti, our local radio stations played Bacharach/David songs constantly. They were everywhere!