Burt Bacharach dead: What were his best known songs?
Composer and pianist Burt Bacharach, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, is responsible for hudreds of pop songs and dozens of hits from the 1950s through to the 1980s.
The easy listening icon also composed signature songs for many classic movies, and largely worked in collaboration with his long-standing lyricist Hal David, who died in 2012 aged 91.
Artists Bacharach wrote include Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Sir Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick and Elvis Costello, among more than 1,000 in total.
One of the most important composers in 20th-century popular music, he was nominated for 21 Grammy Awards, winning six, alongside a haul of three Academy Awards.
He also famously performed on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2015.
But what are his most well-known songs and greatest hits?
Born in 1928, Bacharach’s usic carer kicked off as an arranger and conductor for Hollywood legend Marlene Dietrich’s nightclub shows in 1956.
He composed alongside this part-time work and had his first hit song alongside David with country song The Story of My Life in 1957, sung by Marty Robbins, before Perry Como recorded Magic Moments shortly afterwards.
These songs were back-to-back number one songs in the UK, with Michael Holliday singing the British version of The Story of My Life, and Bacharach and David became the first songwriters to ever achieve consecutive top-selling UK singles.
Bacharach ‘discovered’ Dionne Warwick while she was a session singer in 1961, and she made her professional recording debut with Don’t Make Me Over in 1962.
Their enduring professional relationship lasted 20 years and sold over 12million recording copies, with other hits for Warwick including Walk On By, Anyone Who Had a Heart and I Say a Little Prayer.
Cilla Black also recorded Anyone Who Had a Heart in 1964, while I Say A Little Prayer was also famously tackled by Aretha Franklin in 1968.
Alfie, from the film of the same name starring Sir Michael Caine, was another hit recorded by both Warwick and Black in the 1960s.
What The World Needs Now Is Love was a 1965 song made popular by Jackie DeShannon after Warwick turned it down.
She later recorded it after all in the 1980s, and the song also had popularity through DJ Tom Clay’s medley in 1971.
For Dusty Springfield, I Just Don’t Know What To Do with Myself was a major hit in the UK, and other songs recorded by her included Wishin’ and Hopin’ as well as The Look of Love, which was originally written for 1967 film Casino Royale.
Bacharach’s songs written for movies with David were also particularly successful.
Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head was written for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, which starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford, and won the duo the Oscar for best song, as well as Bacharach a secong gong for best score.
They were also nominated for What’s New Pussycat?, which later became one of Sir Tom’s calling cards, The Look of Love and Alfie.
Bacharach and David later won best song again in 1982 for the theme song for Arthur, Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do).
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