Burt Bacharach - Magic Moments Box Set 3 CD’s (@320)

 

Burt Bacharach - Magic Moments Box Set 3 CD’s

Burt Bacharach compilations have been done many times before, with one retail website currently offering more than 100 variations on the theme. But here's another, a 75-song collection that boasts a Who's Who of popular music from the last five decades and more, and showcases one of the truly great singer-songwriters of the past century.

It's difficult to think of anyone else who has delivered the goods as impeccably and consistently as Bacharach – who turned 80 earlier this year – or who merits or sustains such constant interest. Over three discs, Magic Moments memorably shows why. It also offers a fascinating opportunity to track how Bacharach, while remaining the subtlest and most sophisticated of tunesmiths, has fine-tuned his output to meet the needs of successive popular music fads and fashions while retaining his own uniquely cultured voice.

So, while the first disc opens with the anthemic What The World Needs Now Is Love (courtesy of Dionne Warwick whose heart-stopping, pulse-quickening take on Anyone Who Had A Heart is also here), boasts two Herb Alpert-fronted classics – the sultry This Guy's In Love With You and the magnificently nimble Bond theme Casino Royale – and offers up BJ Thomas's sunny Sixties cinema classic Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, you’ll also find less familiar but no less fabulous examples of Bacharach's inimitable art in the Nat King Cole-delivered cooler-than-a-snow-shower-in-October instrumental Once In A Blue Moon, the tongue-firmly-in-cheek novelty The Blob, Jimmy Radcliff's lonesome ballad The Forgotten Man and contributions from the likes of Dusty Springfield (the unbeatable, un-betterable The Look of Love), Frankie Avalon, Cliff Richard and Bacharach himself.

Which would have satisfied in itself, but disc two offers more of the same and then some. Perry Como's Magic Moments still blooms with adroitly laid-back sentiment, the Walker Brothers take pop music to operatically transcendental heights with Make It Easy On Yourself, Aretha Franklin hymns love to simply magical effect in I Say A Little Prayer, and Tom Jones bellows and booms his way through What’s New Pussycat? with an infectious sassy swagger. And that's not to mention Gene Pitney, Helen Shapiro, Marty Robbins as well as more from Warwick and Springfield.

Disc three brings things more up to date with two tracks from Bacharach's high-profile late-1990s partnership with Elvis Costello (who also contributes booklet notes for this release), and evidence of more recent collaborations with pop luminaries Neil Diamond, Rufus Wainwright and Will Young. But it also throws a more than useful glance back to curios such as Richard Chamberlain's Blue Guitar and BJ Thomas's now forgotten Everybody’s Out of Town from the mid- and late-1960s, and two very different but equally phenomenal talents Irma Thomas and Keely Smith.

The quickest way to appreciate just how good Bacharach is simply to listen to the man's music. This excellent, expansive and intelligently programmed collection offers ample opportunities to do explore and enjoy one of popular music's most accomplished talents.

Tracklist:

Disc 1:

 

1. Jackie Deshannon - What the world needs now is love

2. The Carpenters - Close to you

3. B.J. Thomas - Raindrops keep fallin on my head

4. Nancy Wilson - Reach out for me

5. The Shirelles - Baby it's you

6. Dionne Warwick - Walk on by

7. Dusty Springfield - The look of love

8. Tommy Hunt - I just don't know what to do with myself

9. Doris Day - Send me no flowers

10. Frankie Avalon - Gotta get a girl

11. Jack Jones - Wives and lovers

12. Cilla Black - Alfie

13. Herb Alpert - This guys in love with you

14. Tom Jones - Promise her anything

15. Cliff Richard - (It's) wonderful to be young (alternative take)

16. Gene Vincent - Crazy times

17. Charlie Gracie - I looked for you

18. The Five Blobs - The blob

19. Jackie Deshannon - So long Johnny

20. Shirley Bassey - A house is not a home

21. Burt Bacharach - Nikki (album version)

22. Andy Williams - Don't you believe it

23. Jimmy Radcliffe - (There goes) the forgotten man

24. Billy J Kramer - Trains and boats and planes

25. Alpert, Herb & Tijuana Brass, The - Casino Royale

26. Dionne Warwick - Anyone who had a heart

27. Bobbie Gentry - The windows of the world

28. Nat King Cole - Once in a blue moon (instrumental)

 

Disc 2:

 

1. Perry Como - Magic moments

2. Dionne Warwick - Do you know the way to San Jos?

3. Aretha Franklin - I say a little prayer

4. Dusty Springfield - Wishin' and hopin'

5. The Walker Brothers - Make it easy on yourself

6. Sandy Shaw - (There's) always something to remind me

7. Burt Bacharach - Don't go breaking my heard

8. Dionne Warwick - I'll never fall in love again

9. The Drifters - Please stay

10. Gene Mcdaniels - Tower of strength

11. Marty Robbins - The story of my life

12. Tom Jones - What's new pussycat

13. Vi Valesco - That's not the answer

14. Dionne Warwick - Don't make me over

15. Chuck Jackson - Any day now (my wild beautiful bird)

16. Gene Pitney - (The man who shot) Liberty Valance

17. The Drifters - Mexican Divorce

18. Dean Barlow - Third window from the right

19. Adam Wade - Rain from the skies

20. Della Reese - How about?

21. Helen Shapiro - Keep away from other girls

22. Trini Lopez - Made in Paris

23. The Merseybeats - It's love that really counts (in the long run)

24. Manfred Mann - My little red book

25. Burt Bacharach - Pacific Coast Highway

 

Disc 3:

 

1. Dionne & Friends - That's what friends are for (ft. John, Elton & Knight, Gladys & Wonder, Stevie)

2. Bacharach, Burt & Costello, Elvis - God give me strenght

3. Will Young - What's in goodbye

4. Christopher Cross - Arthur's theme (best that you can do)

5. Neil Diamond - Hearthlight

6. Bacharach, Burt & Wainwright, Rufus - Go ask Shakespeare

7. Bacharach, Burt & Costello, Elvis - Who are these people

8. Burt Bacharach - South American getaway (Cassidy, Butch soundtrack version)

9. Thomas, B, J - Everybody's out of town

10. Dionne Warwick - Odds and ends

11. The Hammond Brothers - Thirty miles of railroad track

12. Irma Thomas - Long after tonight is all over

13. The Drifters - Let the music play

14. Dionne Warwick - Paper mach?

15. Keely Smith - One less bell to answer

16. Anita Harris - London life

17. Richard Chamberlain - Blue guitar

18. The Drifters - In the land of make believe

19. The Stylistics - You'll never get to heaven (if you break my heart)

20. Carole Bayer Sager - Just friends

21. Burt Bacharach - Hasbrook heights (album version)

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