Just A Little Burt

I put together a custom music mix every month, & I will also produce a mix for special days & holidays. These mixes are quite the hot commodity in my circle. Independent of each other, I had a request from WCK3- “Stephen, I loved the April Mix. Thank you! But, you know… I am in the mood for a little Burt”, & the husband requested- “Steve, I would love to have just a little Burt to listen to when I have the house to myself. It would really help my mood.”  Even Little Jake wanted a little Burt. What a pleasure it was to listen to a big chunk of the Burt Bacharach/ Hal David catalogue, attempting to choose just 17 for the Just A Little Burt Mix.

Burt & I have quite the relationship. It started in 1959 with Heavenly, recorded by Johnny Mathis (there was a lot of Johnny Mathis in my parent’s album collection). A little 8 year old Stevie grooved around the house, dancing & singing to the Shirelles- Baby, It’s You. I would croon Don’t Make Me Over into my brass candlestick microphone, brushing my Beatle Haircut bangs out of my eyes, as I watched my uncannily mature performance in the bathroom mirror. As a youth, I couldn’t get enough of Dusty Springfield doing I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself & The Look Of Love (& the Sergio Mendes version!).

In my teen years I stayed with my Burt & Dusty, but Dionne Warwick joined my album collection. What song could be more perfect for 1967 than What The World Needs Now Is Love?


Burt Bacharach has never left my listening orbit in the past 50 years. In the 1980s, I took to singing- I Say A Little Prayer  at auditions for shows with rock or pop scores. I could sing the hell out of it, & Burt's songs are not easy to sing. I thought I was being so cutting edge & ironic to sing this great Bacharach song without changing the gender. I got me more attention than parts.

No other Bacharach work is more meaningful to me than his 1998 Grammy winning collaboration with Elvis Costello- Painted From Memory. It is just one of those albums that came out at a perfect time in my life, when I needed to hear it. The collaboration started with God Give Me Strength, a commission for the 1996 film Grace of My Heart, a terrific movie about the Brill Building songwriters. The 2 master craftsman of pop expanded the project to this full album, the first for Costello after an absence of 2 years, & for Bacharach after an absence of 21 years. Lyrics & music are credited to both Bacharach & Costello, but I can really feel, to some degree, the melodies are by Burt & the lyrics by Elvis.

God Give Me Strength (along with God Only Knows by the Beach Boys) is a song that holds real power for me. It was a time & place where the composition just spoke to me, as if the duo of Bacharach & Costello knew my life or had read my diary. I find the entire album enthralling, magnificent,& sweeping. It has all the usual Bacharch touches: unusual chord progressions, striking syncopated rhythmic patterns, irregular phrasing, frequent modulation, & odd, changing meters & great climactic effects.



Possibly inspired by his new partner, Costello's lyrics hit new highs on this album. He explores the familiar themes from interesting new perspectives. This House is Empty Now has the narrator walking round an empty home, left alone by his partner & looking to face life alone, remembering the times they shared in their now deserted home. This House Is Empty Now, with Burt on baton & piano, & Elvis on vocals is absolutely sublime, & a true high in the art of the song. The lyric- "Does the extinguished candle care about the darkness?" is almost tossed as an aside, yet it is absolutely heartbreaking. This song is the perfect bookend to Hal David & Burt Bacharach’s towering masterpiece- A House Is Not A Home.


The title track- Painted From Memory, suggests that eventually even the faces of those we loved will fade from memory. I Still Have That Other Girl is about an affair that is doomed before it starts, but I read it as about the Husband & my 1st dog- Baby, who died at the time that we were listening to Painted From Memory. I wanted her to know that I would never forget her, & that she could never be replaced in my heart. The Sweetest Punch.

Mr. Bacharach, looking good in his 80s.

We all can use a little Burt. To make us feel & to make us remember. It always helped that he was & is still, a real dreamboat. He turns an astonishing 82 today. Happy Birthday, Mr. Bacharach!