Burt Bacharach obituary: Composer worked with stars including Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones during seven-decade career
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.
Pic: Dezo Hoffman/Shutterstock
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.
Pic: AP
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.
Burt Bacharach pictured at a media event in Sydney in June 2007
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.
Bacharach performing with the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2008
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
‘Epstein is rolling in his grave laughing’: Artist reveals why he photographed convicted paedophile – and Donald Trump
Andres Serrano says he doesn’t set out to be a controversial artist – but he’s certainly proved to be one during his career.
The 75-year-old New Yorker first found fame (or infamy in the eyes of his critics) with one of the most notorious works of art in history – his 1987 photograph titled Piss Christ.
The depiction of a crucifix submerged in urine led to protests denouncing the image as blasphemous – and it was vandalised while on display in a French art museum in 2011.
“I don’t do work to be controversial,” he tells Sky News. “I do work that I feel like I need to do.
“For some reason, I’ve touched on many cultural things that have become cultural flashpoints.”
Andres Serrano spoke to Sky News
Now, two of Serrano’s most high-profile and controversial subjects for his artwork are dominating headlines around the world.
Serrano photographed Jeffrey Epstein for a portrait in 2019, four months before the paedophile financier was found dead in a prison cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. It is one of the last known images of Epstein, whose death was ruled to be suicide.
Years earlier, Serrano took a portrait photo of Donald Trump in 2004 – the same year the property tycoon began starring on The Apprentice TV series.
As Trump faces scrutiny over his past links to Epstein, and pressure to release all files in the sex offender’s case, Serrano offers a rare insight into the two men.
Photographing Epstein
Serrano’s portrait of Epstein was “23 years in the making”, he says, after he agreed to do it in exchange for a sculpture the wealthy collector owned that the artist had wanted since the mid-1990s.
Pic: Andres Serrano
At the time, Epstein was already a convicted sex offender who had served time in jail after pleading guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Despite this, Serrano says he didn’t have reservations about taking the photo because he “wanted the statue” that Epstein owned.
Serrano believed the 16th century statue of the Virgin Mary should be paired with one he owned of St John.
“Jeffrey Epstein is rolling in his grave laughing about how he is still talked about,” the artist says.
“He wasn’t an interesting guy. Except for being a paedophile, there was nothing about him that should have made him so interesting to so many people.”
Epstein ‘collected people’
Serrano – who was first introduced to Epstein in the mid-90s – says he and his wife had “a few meetings” with him and considered him to be a “strange guy”.
He says he has “shocked” when he learnt Epstein had been “exposed and indicted as a paedophile”.
“We never saw that side of Epstein,” he says.
“To me, he looked like a guy who didn’t have a job and was always on a vacation having fun.
“I never asked him about where his money came from. I knew he was very rich. I also knew he knew a lot of people.
“Jeffrey Epstein did not collect art but he collected people. He made it his business to know everybody, anybody who was a celebrity, famous, rich – anyone with a reputation.”
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Pic: NBC
Serrano says he doesn’t “judge” the subjects of his photography, who have also included members of the Ku Klux Klan, and he was “happy” with the outcome of the Epstein portrait.
But how does he think Epstein’s victims feel seeing the image?
“I don’t see how one thing has to do with the other,” he replies.
“Does that mean the victims would feel better looking at the portrait of him in the mugshot, which is a horrible picture?”
Jeffrey Epstein in 2017. File pic: New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP
He adds: “Their take on Jeffrey Epstein is very different from everyone else’s. So they see something that we can’t even imagine what they see.”
Photographing Trump
While Serrano believes Epstein was uninteresting, his opinion of Trump couldn’t be more different.
Pic: Andres Serrano
He describes the US president as “fascinating” – so much so that he collected more than 1,000 items linked to him for an art installation called The Game: All Things Trump.
The objects, products and items of merchandise had been created for Trump’s businesses and brands, including Trump Vodka, Trump University and even Trump Steaks.
An 11ft-tall sign spelling the word “Ego” from the Trump Taj Mahal resort in Atlantic City also featured in the display, along with Serrano’s own portrait of Trump.
An 11ft-tall sign spelling the word ‘Ego’ from the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. Pic: Andres Serrano
He calls the photograph “one of the best portraits I’ve ever seen of Donald Trump”, and reveals he had a particular way of working with him – staying quiet.
“I didn’t give him any reason to upset him,” Serrano says.
“He sizes you up very quickly. (I didn’t want to say) anything that would turn him off or that would bore him or that would make him in any way want to leave.”
‘Quiet’ Trump ‘tried to figure me out’
Serrano says he spent about half an hour with Trump, who he describes as being “quiet” throughout the process of having his portrait photo taken.
“I often like to leave people to their own thoughts when I’m taking a portrait,” the artist says.
“I like to make the kind of portraits where it feels like I’m not even there. It’s just you, the viewer and the sitter.
“I think he was just trying to figure me out. And so since we didn’t talk, you know it was just a silent conversation between us.”
Read more:
All we know about Trump and Epstein’s ‘friendship’
What’s in Epstein’s ‘birthday book’?
The artist won’t answer directly when asked if he is a Trump supporter but calls him “the epitome of the American dream”.
“I don’t think the art world has ever taken Donald Trump seriously except as a subject for ridicule,” he says.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘It’s a Democrat hoax’ – Trump on Epstein files
“My perception and my intent with Donald Trump was far from that, because I think that’s a very simplistic way of doing things.
“My view of him is that he’s a really smart guy.
“Whatever you think about him, you can’t argue with the fact that he often gets his way and I think that’s because Donald Trump is persistent. He doesn’t let go. He’s like a pitbull who doesn’t let go.”
‘Epstein story will be buried’
Serrano also took a portrait photograph of Trump’s former presidential election rival Kamala Harris for The New Yorker magazine but says the circumstances were very different.
“When I do portrait for a magazine… I’m happy to do for them but there’s no skin in the game for me,” he says.
👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈
Despite the pressure facing Trump to make public all files related to the Epstein case, Serrano believes “the story will die at some point”.
“It’s kind of like the Kennedy assassination. People have been obsessed with conspiracy theories, theories about John F Kennedy’s assassination for years,” he says.
“It’s a story that comes and goes, but I think this story will go.
“At some point, maybe some point soon, the Jeffrey Epstein story will be buried, along with Jeffrey Epstein.”
Actor Henry Cavill has suffered an injury during training ahead of filming for the remake of the Highlander film.
The British actor, best known for TV series The Witcher, playing Superman in Man Of Steel, and more recently Sherlock Holmes in the Enola Holmes film series, was hurt just days before the film was due to start production.
Filming for the reboot of the 1980s classic will now begin in 2026, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The cast includes Gladiator actor Russell Crowe, who worked with Cavill on Man Of Steel, as well as former Doctor Who star Karen Gillan, and Dave Bautista – known for roles in Dune and as Drax in the Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy.
Cavill, 42, was injured during pre-production of the Amazon MGM Studios’ United Artists (UA) film.
Highlander, which is being directed by Chad Stahelski, is based on the original 1986 film of the same name.
The film starred Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery and is about an ancient battle between immortal warriors.
The fantasy-action film was followed up with several sequels, including Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994), and Highlander: Endgame (2000).
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Read more from Sky News:
Mercury Prize nominees for 2025
Brosnan on ‘The Thursday Murder Club’
Stars boycott Israeli film companies
An alternate sequel to the original film was also produced as a TV spin-off series in 1992.
Speaking at CinemaCon in Las Vegas in April, Cavill told The Hollywood Reporter he was a “lover of the original movies, for better or worse” and was currently in training to play the immortal Scottish hero.
He added: “If you think you’ve seen me do sword work before, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
There has been no word on what type of injury Cavill suffered or how it occurred.
Ireland will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest next year if Israel is allowed to take part, RTE has announced.
The Irish broadcaster said in a statement that a number of European Broadcasting Union (EBU) members raised concerns over the participation of Israel in the competition at the union’s general assembly in July.
RTE added that its “position” is that Ireland will not take part in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if the participation of Israel goes ahead.
The broadcaster will make its “final decision regarding Ireland’s participation” once the EBU decides whether Israel will take part, the statement continues.
It adds: “RTE wishes to thank the EBU for the extensive consultation process that was initiated on foot of that meeting, and the extension of the option to withdraw from participation without penalty to December.”
The statement added: “RTE feels that Ireland’s participation would be unconscionable given the ongoing and appalling loss of lives in Gaza.
“RTE is also deeply concerned by the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza, and the denial of access to international journalists to the territory, and the plight of the remaining hostages.”
Ireland has won Eurovision seven times, the joint most of any country along with Sweden. Its last win was in 1996.
Read more:
Mandelson sacked as US ambassador
Chelsea hit with 74 charges by FA
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
From May 2025: Pro-Palestine activists protest during Israel’s Eurovision song
Eurovision Song Contest director Martin Green said: “We understand the concerns and deeply held views around the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. We are still consulting with all EBU Members to gather views on how we manage participation and geopolitical tensions around the Eurovision Song Contest.
“Broadcasters have until mid-December to confirm if they wish to take part in next year’s event in Vienna. It is up to each member to decide if they want to take part in the contest and we would respect any decision broadcasters make.”
The 70th anniversary edition of the contest is due to take place in Vienna, Austria, in May after Austrian entry JJ won with his song Wasted Love in Basel, Switzerland, earlier this year.
Ireland was represented by Emmy in Basel, with the song Laika Party, while Israel was represented by Yuval Raphael, with her song New Day Will Rise.
There has been growing controversy about Israel’s participation in Eurovision with protests in host cities in the last two years.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment11 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024