(Paris) He made Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield or the Beatles sing: the American Burt Bacharach, who died at the age of 94 according to the American media on Thursday, created dozens of melodies that have become classics, in particular for his favorite interpreter Dionne Warwick.
What the world needs now is love, The look of love, Don’t go breaking my heart, A house is not a home… on the border between jazz and pop, his romantic and melancholic ballads have reached the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
The list of its interpreters – more than 1000 – is just as impressive: we find Tom Jones, Elvis Costello, the White Stripes, etc.
Stan Getz recorded an entire album of his compositions (What the world needs now: Stan Getz plays the Burt Bacharach songbook), while artists as diverse as Brian Wilson and Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher have proclaimed their admiration for his work.
Seemingly simple – “I have only one rule: don’t make it difficult for the listener”, he said – his compositions are in fact full of asymmetrical bars and complex chord progressions.
Ruptures of rhythms which subtly catch the ear of the listener, but constitute so many challenges for the performers of this demanding master.
Singer Cilla Black said that she had to record 32 takes ofAlfie in the London studios of Abbey Road before managing to satisfy him.
Hired by Marlene Dietrich
Pianist passionate about jazz, born May 12, 1928 in Kansas City, Burt Bacharach studied the art of composition at several American universities.
One of his teachers, the Frenchman Darius Milhaud, gave him advice that marked him for life: “never be afraid to be melodious”.
After his military service, he was hired by Marlène Dietrich as an arranger and musical director for her tours.
In 1957, he met the lyricist Hal David (died in 2012), with whom he would form one of the most successful tandems in the music industry.
Four years after the start of their partnership, they discovered during a recording session a young singer who was to become their “standard bearer”: Dionne Warwick.
PHOTO FREDERICK M. BROWN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick, in 2006
Between 1962 and 1968, they will classify together 15 titles in the top 40 American, including Walk on by, Anyone who had a heart Or Do you know the way to San Jose?.
The author duo is also acclaimed by Hollywood. In 1970, they gleaned two Oscars for the music of the film Butch Cassidy and the Kid and its original song Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head.
Burt Bacharach won another in 1982 with Arthur’s theme (Best that you can do)the original song from the film arthur. But, this time he goes on the stage of the Academy Awards without his sidekick.
Four weddings
In 1973, a financial dispute arose between the two men. For ten years, they only speak to each other through lawyers and will never work together again.
The end of the partnership with Hal David is synonymous with crossing the desert for Burt Bacharach, who does not return to success until the 1980s.
Nicknamed “the playboy of the western world” in the 1960s, the athletic-looking musician with a wide smile married four times, with Paula Stewart (1953-1958), Angie Dickinson (1965-1980), Carole Bayer Sager (1982-1991) and Jane Hansen (in 1993).
“I was in love with my music. And the passion to make it perfect is such that it drives you crazy, ”he said to explain his tumultuous love life.
Burt Bacharach’s life was also marked by a tragedy, the autism of the daughter born of his union with actress Angie Dickinson, Nikki. She committed suicide in 2007, at the age of 40. Burt Bacharach had three more children.