Let the Music Play: Black America Sings Bacharach & David

by N/A

Overview

The conceit behind Ace's 2014 compilation Let the Music Play: Black America Sings Bacharach & David isn't as idiosyncratic as it was for other similar Ace compilations covering the times when Black America sang the Beatles or Bob Dylan. Where Lennon & McCartney and Dylan performed their own songs, Burt Bacharach and Hal David were a songwriting team who existed behind the scenes, turning over tunes to singers who would turn them into hits. Often, those singers were African-American, including Dionne Warwick, whose elegance was an ideal match for the sophistication of Bacharach's melodies. Warwick opens this 24-track set with "Make It Easy on Yourself," an album track, not one of her big hits, which gives a good idea of the sensibility behind this compilation. There are plenty of standards here -- "My Little Red Book," "Always Something There to Remind Me," "Alfie," "The Look of Love," "Anyone Who Had a Heart," "Walk on By," "What the World Needs Now Is Love," "(They Long to Be) Close To You" -- but aside from Aretha Franklin's "I Say a Little Prayer," there isn't a hit version to be heard. This speaks to just how often Bacharach & David were covered in the '60s -- apart from Gloria Gaynor's disco-fied "Walk on By" from 1975, everything here was recorded between 1963 and 1971 -- and, indeed, there are several selections that were cut but sat in the vaults until some archival reissue in the '90s or 2000s. Far from scraping the bottom of the barrel, this emphasis on album tracks, unheard material, and semi-flop singles just reiterates both the depth of the Bacharach/David songbook and the strength of the '60s studio system. Most of these records sound like conceivable hits; certainly the songs often were hits, but the versions are rich, handsome, orchestrated pop-soul, the kind of thing that defined much of the sound of the '60s. For much of Let the Music Play, the compilation is devoted to this lush pop, the sound that's synonymous with Bacharach & David, but the last five cuts find some artists who brought the songwriters into the '70s; there's Gaynor's aforementioned disco single, Bobby Womack finding slow-burning funk in "(They Long to Be) Close to You," Gladys Knight & the Pips' smooth soul on "One Less Bell to Answer," and Isaac Hayes' melodramatic "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself." These are the selections that offer reinterpretations, but the rest of the set delivers what is expected from Bacharach & David, and is plenty satisfying for doing so. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	04/08/2014
Label:	Ace
UPC:	0029667059121
Rank:	108486

Tracks

1. Make It Easy on Yourself  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Dionne Warwick
2. My Little Red Book  - Burt Bacharach  -  Burt Bacharach Orchestra  - Hal David  - Tony Middleton
3. Long After Tonight Is All Over  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Nick DeCaro  - Irma Thomas
4. Another Tear Falls  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Marv Johnson  - Jerry Leiber  - Mike Stoller
5. I Say a Little Prayer  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Aretha Franklin  - Arif Mardin  - Jerry Wexler
6. Message to Martha  - Burt Bacharach  - Jerry Butler  - Hal David
7. This Empty Place  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Bob Finiz  - Cissy Houston  - Charles Koppelman  - Don Rubin
8. In the Land of Make Believe  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  -  Drifters  - Garry Sherman
9. I Cry Alone  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Alan Lorber  -  Ruby & the Romantics  - Allen Stanton
10. Let the Music Play  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Jim Foglesong  - Roy Hamilton
11. Always Something There to Remind Me  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Bob Finiz  -  Labelle  - Richard Rome
12. The Last One to Be Loved  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Lou Johnson
13. Reach Out for Me  - David Axelrod  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Willie Tee
14. Alfie  - Burt Bacharach  - Thom Bell  - Hal David  -  Delfonics
15. (There Goes) The Forgotten Man  - Burt Bacharach  - Perry Jr. Botkin  - Hal David  - Gene McDaniels  - Dave Pell
16. The Look of Love  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Danny Davis  - Sammy Lowe  - Nina Simone
17. Anyone Who Had a Heart  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  -  Orlons  - Richard Rome  - Jerry Jr. Williams
18. What the World Needs Now Is Love  - Burt Bacharach  - James Carr  - Quinton Claunch  - Hal David  - Rudolph Russell
19. Walk on By  - Burt Bacharach  - Tony Bongiovi  - Hal David  - Jay Ellis  - Gloria Gaynor  - Meco Monardo
20. (They Long to Be) Close to You  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Bobby Womack
21. One Less Bell to Answer  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  -  Knight  - Clay McMurray
22. I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself  - Burt Bacharach  - Hal David  - Isaac Hayes  - Dale Warren
23. Don't Make Me Over  - Burt Bacharach  -  Brenda & the Tabulations  - Hal David  - Van McCoy
24. A House Is Not a Home  - Burt Bacharach  - Steve Cropper  - Hal David  - Mavis Staples

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Irma Thomas   Primary Artist
Gladys Knight & the Pips   Primary Artist
Dionne Warwick   Primary Artist
Gene McDaniels   Primary Artist
Roy Hamilton   Primary Artist
Aretha Franklin   Primary Artist
Willie Tee   Primary Artist
The Burt Bacharach Orchestra   Primary Artist
The Delfonics   Primary Artist
Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles   Primary Artist
Bobby Womack   Primary Artist
Isaac Hayes   Primary Artist
James Carr   Primary Artist
Cissy Houston   Primary Artist
The Drifters   Primary Artist
Jerry Butler   Primary Artist
Ruby & the Romantics   Primary Artist
Marv Johnson   Primary Artist
Mavis Staples   Primary Artist
Nina Simone   Primary Artist
The Orlons   Primary Artist
Brenda & the Tabulations   Primary Artist
Gloria Gaynor   Primary Artist
Lou Johnson   Primary Artist
Garry Sherman   Conductor
Tony Middleton   Featured Artist
Alan Lorber   Conductor
Thom Bell   Conductor
Burt Bacharach   Conductor

Technical Credits

Hal David   Producer,Composer
Charles Koppelman   Producer
Clay McMurray   Producer
Tony Rounce   Liner Notes
Jim Foglesong   Producer
Sammy Lowe   Arranger
Richard Rome   Arranger,Producer
Jay Ellis   Producer
Danny Davis   Producer
Garry Sherman   Arranger
Don Rubin   Producer
Dale Warren   Arranger
Rudolph Russell   Producer
Tony Bongiovi   Producer
Allen Stanton   Producer
Bob Finiz   Producer
Bobby Womack   Producer
Isaac Hayes   Producer
Van McCoy   Arranger,Producer
Perry Botkin, Jr.   Arranger
Nick DeCaro   Producer
Jerry Leiber   Producer
Jerry Williams, Jr.   Producer
Jerry Wexler   Producer
Quinton Claunch   Producer
Meco Monardo   Arranger
Mike Stoller   Producer
Alan Lorber   Arranger
Arif Mardin   Arranger
David Axelrod   Producer
Thom Bell   Arranger
Burt Bacharach   Arranger,Composer,Producer
Dave Pell   Producer
Steve Cropper   Producer