Burt Bacharach, one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century, has died aged 94.
The US musician composed more than 500 songs during his career and was behind hits such as I Say A Little Prayer, Walk On By, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, and Do You Know The Way To San Jose.
Bacharach had written for stars including Dionne Warwick, Cilla Black, Tom Jones and Dusty Springfield, and he provided a mellow alternative soundtrack to rock and roll in the 1960s and 1970s.
His music had quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies, and more than 1,200 artists performed his songs.
Bacharach won six Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award, and three Oscars during his seven-decade career.
He died of natural causes at his home in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday with his family by his side.
Earning comparisons with American greats George Gershwin and Cole Porter, Bacharach started his career as a songwriter in the early 1950s, working with Hollywood star Marlene Dietrich, before forging a professional relationship with lyricist Hal David in 1957.
But it was when Bacharach and David met Dionne Warwick in 1961 that their talents really took flight, with 39 of her chart hits written by the pair.
Singer Noel Gallagher was among the tributes, writing on Instagram: “RIP Maestro. It was a pleasure to have known you.”
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‘Innovative and original’
“I’m a person that always tries to deal with melody,” said Bacharach, speaking about his music talents.
David once told an interviewer: “He was just different. Innovative, original. His music spoke to me. I’d hear his melodies and I’d hear lyrics. I’d hear rhymes, I’d hear thoughts and I’d hear it almost immediately.”
Performing in concerts around the world late into his career, Bacharach had fans across the generations thanks to a resurgence of lounge music in the 1990s.
Remixes and samples of his work kept him in the public consciousness long after he stopped turning out the hits, as did Hollywood’s use of many of his tunes as soundtracks to their movies.
Despite being crowned the king of easy listening, his fans would argue his use of mixed meters and complex melodies made his compositions far from “easy”.
Later collaborations with stars as diverse as Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello and Dr Dre, plus a Pyramid Stage performance at Glastonbury Festival in 2015, proved the point that Bacharach never went out of fashion.
Bacharach tweeted his performance of Toledo with Costello three days before he passed.
On his Instagram page, a homage was paid to Bacharach as a “father, husband and friend”.
It continued: “He gave the world so much, and we are eternally grateful. The music is always there, so please keep listening.”
Bacharach would marry four times but tied the final knot in 1993 with his surviving wife Jane Hansen, and they would have two children together.
‘A great inspiration’
More tributes flooded in on social media, with the lead singer of the Charlatans, Tim Burgess, writing: “One of the greatest songwriting legacies in the history of ever. Farewell Burt Bacharach, you were a king.”
Journalist Tony Parsons tweeted: “If Elvis gave the music its body and Dylan gave the music its mind, then beautiful Burt Bacharach gave the music its grace, sophistication, and class.”
Dave Davies, guitarist for The Kinks wrote that it was a “very sad day”.
He added: “[Burt] was probably one of the most influential songwriters of our time. He was a great inspiration.”
BBC presenter Lauren Laverne has said she has been given the “all clear” after being diagnosed with cancer.
The 46-year-old said in a post on social media that she will return to work next week on The One Show and has been working on new episodes of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.
She said she is set to also return to her 6 Music show in the new year.
She has not specified what type of cancer she had.
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Thanking medical staff, friends and all those who sent her get well wishes, Laverne said on Sunday she would most like to thank her husband Graeme and her two children, who she said have been “absolutely extraordinary throughout”.
“It’s been a difficult time but one that has taught me so much about what really matters,” she wrote.
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“I can’t say I suddenly regretted never having hiked the Inca Trail, more that I now see more beauty in ordinary things than I could have imagined, and feel more than ever that the small things in life – the connections we make and care we take with each other – are the big things really.”
A new episode of Desert Island Discs is due to air on 1 December, and will be a pre-recorded interview with comedian Mark Steel that is believed to have been done by Laverne before she went on leave.
She will return to record more episodes as well as Christmas editions of the series over the next few weeks.
A BBC spokeswoman said: “We’re delighted to welcome Lauren back to the studio this month for The One Show and Desert Island Discs, with new episodes airing on Radio 4 from 1 December, and we look forward to welcoming Lauren back to BBC Radio 6 Music in the new year.”
Zayn Malik paid tribute to former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne as he kicked off his solo tour.
Payne died last month of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage” after falling from a third-floor balcony in Buenos Aires, according to a post-mortem.
Images from Leeds’s O2 Academy on Saturday showed Malik – who delayed his Stairway To The Sky tour due to Payne’s funeral on Wednesday – shared a tribute.
A message was displayed with a heart on a large blue screen behind the singer reading: “Liam Payne 1993-2024. Love you bro.”
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Rapper Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that alleges he strangled a model on the set of a music video.
Warning: This story contains details that readers may find distressing
The lawsuit alleges the musician shoved his fingers in the claimant’s mouth at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in 2010, in what it refers to as “pornographic gagging”, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported.
The model who brought the case – which was filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York – was a background actor for another musician’s music video that Ye was guest-starring in, NBC said, citing the lawsuit.
She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the 47-year-old.
A representative for Ye was approached for comment by NBC News on Saturday.
The New York City Police Department said it took “sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors”.
The lawsuit alleges that a few hours into the shoot, the rapper arrived on set, took over control and ordered “female background actors/models, including the claimant, to line up in the hallway”.
The rapper is then believed to have “evaluated their appearances, pointed to two of the women, and then commanded them to follow him”.
The lawsuit adds the claimant, who was said to be wearing “revealing lingerie”, was uncomfortable but went with Ye to a suite which had a sofa and a camera.
When in the room, Ye is said to have ordered the production team to start playing the music, to which he did not know his lyrics and instead rambled, “rawr, rawr, rawr”.
The lawsuit claims: “Defendant West then pulled two chairs near the camera, positioned them across from each other, and instructed the claimant to sit in the chair in front of the camera.”
While stood over the model, the lawsuit clams Ye strangled her with both hands, according to NBC.
It claims he went on to “emulate forced oral sex” with his hands, with the rapper allegedly screaming: “This is art. This is f****** art. I am like Picasso.”
Universal Music Group is also named in the lawsuit as a defendant and is accused of failing to investigate the incident.
The corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NBC.
Jesse S Weinstein, a lawyer representing the claimant, said the woman “displayed great courage to speak out against some of the most powerful men and entities within the entertainment industry”.