Burt Bacharach obituary: Composer worked with stars including Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones during seven-decade career

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3 years ago

February 9, 2023

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Composer Burt Bacharach – perhaps best known for his Oscar-winning song Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head – has died aged 94.

Hailed as one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century, he wrote more than 500 songs, which were performed by more than 1,200 different artists, across his seven-decade career.

Despite numerous collaborations, it was the songs he wrote in the 1960s and 1970s with lyricist Hal David and performed by singer Dionne Warwick that achieved the greatest recognition, establishing all three as musical stars in their own rights.

His music – which was often described as ‘easy listening’ or ‘elevator music’ thanks to its catchy melodies – was inspired by an early love of jazz.

But fans of his work would argue that although instantly memorable and addictively hummable, the mixed meters, complex melodies, unusual chord progression and asymmetrical rhythms mean his work was far from ‘easy’.

An accomplished pianist as well as a composer, Bacharach arranged, conducted, and produced the majority of his own songs.

A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, his composing skill earned him comparisons with American music greats including George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers.

Early collaborations included Perry Como and Jerry Butler, going on to work with stars including Frank Sinatra, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and the Carpenters.

Some of his biggest hits include the Oscar-winning Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, (They Long to Be) Close to You, Anyone Who Had A Heart, Always Something There To Remind Me, and What the World Needs Now Is Love.

Hollywood also played its part in amplifying his career, with many of his songs going on to become soundtracks to major films.

The Look of Love, which was used in the 1967 spy parody of a James Bond film, Casino Royale, became a gold record for Dusty Springfield and Brazilian musician Sergio Mendes, and was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Many years later, the spoof movie would lead to cameo roles for Bacharach in all three Austin Powers films, with Mike Myers calling him a “lucky charm” for the films.

What’s New Pussycat? – which featured in the 1965 Woody Allen film of the same name – gave Welsh singer Tom Jones his second top 40 US hit and was also nominated for an Oscar for best original song the following year. It went on to be sung by stars including Barbra Streisand, The Four Seasons and The Wailers.

His mention in Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life was proof of his rightful place in pop culture, as well as his reputation as a ladies man.

‘I did not want to disappoint my mother’

Born Burt Freeman Bacharach on 12 May 1928, in Kansas City, Missouri, his father was a newspaper columnist and his mother an amateur painter and pianist.

The family moved to New York when he was three. A Jewish family in a largely Catholic neighbourhood, Bacharach said in his 2013 autobiography, Anyone Who Had A Heart: My Life And Music, that he kept his faith to himself, and “didn’t want anybody to know about it”.

It was thanks to his mother’s love of music that Bacharach undertook piano lessons as a child. He hated them with a passion, but later told fans during gigs that he persevered as “I did not want to disappoint my mother”.

He went on to study music at Montreal’s McGill University, Quebec, Canada, before completing his training at Mannes School of Music, in New York, and at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California.

Not a fan of the classical music he would play in his classes, he would later sneak into jazz clubs as a teenager, with the style going on to influence his songwriting later in his career.

Drafted into the US army for two years in 1950 during the Korean War, and stationed in Germany, he got his first taste of working in music serving as a pianist at officer’s clubs and arranging music for dance bands.

Hitting it off with big band singer and actor Vic Damone during his time in the military, he went on to work with him as a pianist and conductor following his discharge.

Touring with Hollywood royalty

From there he began to play with other artists, including actress Marlene Dietrich who is said to have called working with him “seventh heaven,” according to the 1989 biography Marlene.

Looking back on his time with her in his autobiography, Bacharach wrote: “We went to Russia, Israel, the Middle East. Going with Marlene was like going in with a conquering army.”

As the Hollywood star’s musical director, arranging and conducting her nightclub shows, he gained greater public prominence, however their working relationship came to an end in the early 1960s, when Bacharach decided to devote himself to his own songwriting full time.

Looking back to the start of his career, Bacharach said he initially thought songwriting was “so startlingly simple, I thought I could write five or six a day”.

However, after a year or so of working, and “about a thousand” rejection letters, he concluded: “It’s hard to be simple.”

Without doubt, his most enduring and fruitful professional relationship was with lyricist Hal David, who he met in 1957. In the early and mid-sixties alone, the pair wrote over 100 songs together.

Work with Hal David and Dionne Warwick

But it was in 1961, when they discovered Dionne Warwick who was working as a session singer, that their partnership really took off.

During their time creating songs for Warwick, they wrote 39 of her chart hits including Don’t Make Me Over, I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, Walk On By and Do You Know The Way To San Jose.

In 1969, Bacharach and David ventured into theatre, writing hit musical Promises, Promises, based on the 1960 film The Apartment. Their first and only Broadway show, it won them a Grammy.

Less auspicious was their soundtrack for the 1973 movie Lost Horizon, a massive flop which led to lawsuits between the pair and their professional breakup.

In turn, their parting of ways led Warwick to sue them for failure to honour their contract working with her on her music. It was finally settled out of court in 1979 for $5m (£4.1m).

In 1975, Bacharach worked briefly with David again, producing a Motown album together.

And in 1985, Warwick and Bacharach were reunited too, when she sang his hit That’s What Friends Are For.

Co-written with his then-wife Carole Bayer Sager, the track featured Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and Gladys Knight and went on to win a Grammy for Song of the Year.

Warwick described her relationship with Bacharach at the time as: “Not just friends. We’re family.”

The three would work together once more in 2000, on songs for film Isn’t She Great, based on the life of Valley Of The Dolls novelist Jacqueline Susann.

In the 1980s, Bacharach’s music inspired many of the songs coming out of the post-punk era, and in the 1990s his work was introduced to a whole new generation of fans thanks to a lounge music resurgence, led by bands including Divine Comedy and The Mike Flowers Pops.

Named the “Sexiest Man Alive” by People Magazine in 2000, the noughties saw remixes and samples of his work high in the charts on numerous occasions.

An American Idol

A guest vocal coach on American Idol, an entire episode was also dedicated to his hits in 2006.

More modern collaborations include Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Noel Gallagher and hip-hop producer Dr Dre.

In June 2015, Bacharach played the main stage at Glastonbury Festival, 15 years after he had been forced to pull out of the event due to a shoulder injury.

Bacharach was awarded the Johnny Mercer Award, the highest honour in the Songwriters Hall of Fame In 1996.

Other honours include the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Musical Achievement from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Grammy lifetime achievement award, where he was proclaimed music’s greatest living composer, in 2006.

A performer as well as a composer, Bacharach played concerts all over the world throughout his career, often accompanied by large orchestras.

Not known for his political songs, he made an exception in 2018 with Live To See Another Day, dedicated to the survivors of gun violence and with proceeds going to a charity run by the families of some of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

In late 2022, a New York dance troop celebrated Bacharach’s music in an evening of dance titled The Look Of Love, named after one of his biggest hits.

Even his pastime of horseracing – he was an owner and breeder of thoroughbreds for over 30 years – was influenced by his love of music, naming one of his champion horses Heartlight No. One after his Neil Diamond collaboration, inspired by film E.T.

Bacharach was married four times, first to TV actress Paula Stuart between 1953 and 1958, then to actress Angie Dickinson between 1965 and 1980.

Bacharach and Dickinson had one daughter together, Nikki, who took her own life in 2007, aged 40, after battling with Asperger’s Syndrome from a young age.

His third marriage to lyricist Carole Bayer Sager lasted from 1982 to 1991, and they adopted a son, Christopher.

His fourth and final marriage was to former ski-instructor Jane Hanson, 32 years his junior, with whom he has a son and a daughter – Oliver and Raleigh.

Bacharach is survived by ex-wives Dickinson and Bayer Sager, his wife Jane, and children Christopher, Oliver and Raleigh.

Entertainment

Bob Geldof reveals why he won’t run for Irish presidency

Published

7 hours ago

September 17, 2025

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Bob Geldof reveals why he won't run for Irish presidency

Bob Geldof has confirmed he will not be running for the Irish presidency – and says it’s partly because he’d “miss London”.

Speaking to Sky News at the Sky Arts Awards on Tuesday night, the 73-year-old musician and aid campaigner said: “My kids are here, my missus is here, my homes are here.

“I’d miss London. The band is here, I wouldn’t be able to play.”

In Ireland, any Irish citizen over 35 can run for president – but to get on the ballot, a candidate must be nominated by 20 members of parliament or four local authorities.

Geldof said: “I simply wouldn’t have had time.”

He said he had considered it, thinking it could be something “new, interesting and useful”, 50 years after finding fame in The Boomtown Rats, and 40 years after launching Band Aid.

Geldof said he’d briefly spoken to Prime Minister Micheal Martin, asking him: “‘What would you think about Bob Geldof being the candidate for the Fianna Fail Party?’ He said, ‘I think it’d be great, but I’ve already chosen someone’.

“I said, ‘That’s the end of the conversation Taoiseach, thanks very much,’ and that was it.”

Former football manager Jim Gavin was later announced as Fianna Fail’s official candidate.

Conor McGregor pulls out

Geldof admitted he was relieved former mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor was no longer in the running.

McGregor, who had promised to curb immigration in order to protect “Irish culture” and to give power “back to the people,” announced he was withdrawing from the race earlier this week.

Ex-Riverdance performer Michael Flatley, 67, has also expressed an interest in running for office.

This year’s ballot deadline is midday on 24 September, a month ahead of the election on 24 October. A largely ceremonial role, representing Ireland at home and abroad, it runs for a seven-year term.

‘Please stop,’ Geldof tells Israel

Geldof, who has Jewish heritage and is the Founding Patron of the British Holocaust Museums Aegis Trust for Genocide Studies, also spoke passionately about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Following a UN Commission report which found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, Geldof said: “When you purposefully starve children as an instrument of war then you are a war criminal.”

He went on: “People simply don’t have the bandwidth to deal with the cost of living, the flag waving, the horror of Ukraine, the horrors of Gaza. They’re just tired, and they just want Israel to please stop it. And the UN has just confirmed that. Stop.”

The accusation of genocide has been made by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Israel’s foreign ministry said it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report” and called for the commission to be abolished.

Geldof was speaking at the prestigious Sky Arts event, where he was recognised for his influence as a musician and cultural figure over the last five decades with a lifetime achievement award.

Never afraid to be outspoken, he was one of the defining voices of the 1970s punk era before going on to co-create Band Aid and the historic Live Aid concerts, reshaping the relationship between music and global activism.

Geldof performed with his band, The Boomtown Rats, during the ceremony which took place at London’s Roundhouse, hosted by comedian Bill Bailey.

See all the Sky Arts Awards winners here.

Entertainment

Hollywood actor and director Robert Redford dies at 89

Published

22 hours ago

September 16, 2025

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Hollywood actor and director Robert Redford dies at 89

Hollywood actor and Oscar-winning director Robert Redford, known for films including Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, All The President’s Men and The Sting, has died at the age of 89.

Redford, who was also the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the US, died on Tuesday morning.

In a statement, his representative said he was “surrounded by those he loved”, at home in “the place he loved” in the mountains of Utah. “He will be missed greatly,” she added.

Born Charles Robert Redford Jr in Santa Monica, California, in 1936, he attended college on a baseball scholarship but later went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

He debuted on Broadway in the late 1950s before moving into television, in shows such as The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Untouchables.

Rising to stardom in the 1960s, Redford became a go-to leading man in Hollywood and a huge star of the following decade, leading films including The Candidate, All the President’s Men and The Way We Were.

He worked hard to transcend being typecast for his good looks, through his political advocacy and a willingness to take on unglamorous roles.

In the 1990s and 2000s, his film credits included Indecent Proposal, The Last Castle and Spy Game, and he also worked actively as a filmmaker – helming movies including A River Runs Through It and The Legend Of Bagger Vance. In 1998, he both starred in and directed The Horse Whisperer.

But he was best known for his role as wily outlaw the Sundance Kid, opposite Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy in the 1969 film. The pair became a famous screen partnership, starring opposite each other again in The Sting a few years later, and good friends.

As well as his starring roles, Redford was also an activist and an accomplished filmmaker – winning the Oscar for best director for Ordinary People in 1981. It was the second of his two Academy Awards – the first won for his acting performance in The Sting – as well as an honorary prize in 2002.

In a career spanning seven decades, he also received three Golden Globe Awards, including the Cecil B DeMille lifetime achievement honor in 1994.

In his later years, Redford took on a challenging role in All Is Lost, a 2013 survival story that featured virtually no other characters and barely any dialogue. His performance earned a standing ovation after the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2018, he received critical acclaim again in what he called his farewell movie, The Old Man And The Gun.

His legacy lives on in the Sundance Film Festival, which grew into a cornerstone of the film industry and provided a launching pad for filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Darren Aronofsky.

And in 2016, former President Barack Obama awarded him the presidential medal of freedom – considered the US government’s highest civilian honour – saying at the time that Americans “admire Bob not just for his remarkable acting, but for having figured out what to do next”.

Robert Redford leaves behind his wife Sibylle Szaggars and two daughters – Shauna, a painter, and Amy, an actress and director.

He was previously married to Lola Van Wagenen. One of their children, Scott, died at the age of two months from sudden infant death syndrome. Another, James, died of cancer in 2020.

‘One of the lions has passed’

Tributes have been shared across social media following the announcement of Redford’s death.

Meryl Streep, who starred in Out Of Africa and Lions For Lambs opposite Redford, said: “One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend.”

Filmmaker Ron Howard, known for Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, described Redford as “a tremendously influential cultural figure for the creative choices” he made as an actor, producer and director, and said Sundance had been a “gamechanger”.

Marlee Matlin, star of the Oscar-winning CODA, said the film “came to the attention of everyone” because of the Sundance Festival.

“Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed,” she said.

“He was part of a new and exciting Hollywood in the 70s and 80s,” wrote author Stephen King. “Hard to believe he was 89.”

Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah, wrote: “Decades ago, Robert Redford came to Utah and fell in love with this place.

“He cherished our landscapes and built a legacy that made Utah a home for storytelling and creativity.

“Through Sundance and his devotion to conservation, he shared Utah with the world. Today we honor his life, his vision, and his lasting contribution to our state.”

Entertainment

Spain votes to boycott Eurovision if Israel competes

Published

23 hours ago

September 16, 2025

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Spain votes to boycott Eurovision if Israel competes

Spain has become the latest country to threaten a boycott of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel competes.

It is now the fifth broadcaster to say it will pull out over Israel’s participation, following recent announcements by the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia and Iceland – but the first of the competition’s so-called “Big Five”, a group which also includes Britain, Germany, Italy and France.

These countries provide the biggest financial contributions to Eurovision, with participants automatically qualifying for the final round, and their withdrawal would increase the pressure on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises the event.

The Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group, the competition’s governing body, said a decision on Israel’s participation is pending and that it has “taken note of the concerns expressed by several broadcasters”.

RTVE, the Spanish state broadcaster, announced the decision following a board vote on Tuesday.

The measure, proposed by president Jose Pablo Lopez, garnered 10 votes in favour, four against, and one abstention in the 15-member board, the broadcaster said in a statement.

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez has previously called for Israel to be banned from the competition, highlighting how Russia was expelled following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

At the time, the EBU said the decision reflected “concern that, in light of the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine, the inclusion of a Russian entry in this year’s contest would bring the competition into disrepute”.

Recent editions of the contest, which has always expressed political neutrality, have involved demonstrations against Israel’s continued military action in Gaza – launched in response to the attack by Hamas militants on 7 October 2023, which left some 1,200 people dead.

Israeli contestant Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Hamas attack, finished second in this year’s competition, held in Basel, Switzerland, in May – but there were protests before and during her performance. Austrian singer JJ, who won, has also called for Israel’s exclusion in 2026.

Israel has denied accusations it is committing genocide and claimed its actions have been in self-defence against Hamas. More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military action.

In a statement following the vote in Spain, contest director Martin Green said he understood the “concerns and deeply held views around the ongoing conflict in the Middle East”, and that consultation with members is ongoing “to gather views on how we manage participation and geopolitical tensions”.

Broadcasters have until mid-December to conform if they want to take part.

What have others said?

Dutch broadcaster AvroTros said last week that it was taking a stance in response to the loss of life in Gaza, with the deaths of journalists there a factor in the decision.

Irish broadcaster RTE said the country was taking the same stance, saying it was “unconscionable” to take part given the “ongoing and appalling loss of lives in Gaza”.

Following his win in May, singer JJ said it was “disappointing to see Israel still participating”, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais. “I would like the next Eurovision to be held in Vienna and without Israel,” he added.

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The “potential impacts and consequences of either decision” are being assessed, the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group said in a statament.

Next year’s Eurovision will be the 70th anniversary of the event, and will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna on 16 May.