Say a little prayer for a music legend
LEGENDARY American pop composer Burt Bacharach, whose prolific output provided a chart- -topping playlist for the 1960s and 70s – including smash hits such as Dionne Warwick’s I Say a Little Prayer – has died at the age of 94.
Bacharach’s publicist confirmed the gifted composer died from natural causes at his Los Angeles home.
Bacharach composed more than 500 songs during his career. He also won six Grammy Awards and three Academy Awards.
He wrote the music for some 50 top 10 US hits, including six that reached No.1.
Among his most famous songs are Walk on By, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, What the World Needs Now Is Love, What’s New Pussycat?, (They Long to Be) Close to You, Alfie, This Guy’s in Love With You, and Do You Know the Way to San Jose?
His most famous collaboration was with Warwick who he teamed up with in 1961 when she was a back-up singer. With musical collaborator Hal David, he went on to write 39 of her chart hits including Do You Know the Way to San Jose?, Walk on By, I Say a Little Prayer, and That’s What Friends are For.
“Burt’s transition is like losing a family member,” the legendary 82-year-old Warwick said in a statement.
“These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my dear friend and my musical partner,” she said.
Aside from his longtime collaboration with Warwick, Bacharach worked with other stars such as Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, the Carpenters and Tom Jones. Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra were among the countless artists who covered his songs, with more recent performers who sung or sampled him including the White Stripes, Twista and Ashanti.
Walk On By alone was covered by everyone from Warwick and Isaac Hayes to the British punk band the Stranglers and Cyndi Lauper.
He was known for romantic and melancholic ballads crossing over between jazz and pop, and regularly topped the charts around the world.
Bacharach vowed never to retire, saying 2018: “Music softens the heart, makes you feel something if it’s good, brings in emotion that you might not have felt before.
“It’s a very powerful thing if you’re able to do it, if you have it in your heart to do something like that.” Bacharach was born on May 12, 1928, in Kansas City.He won two Academy Awards in 1970, for the score of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the song Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head. He won again in 1982 for the theme from Arthur, Best That You Can Do.