The featured image is of the songwriters of this week’s tune with their Oscars for best song of 1969. It came from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; one of the biggest hits of the Sixties and one of my favorite movies as a kid. Who among us will ever forget this scene?
Ouch.
That Newmanic kick in the balls has nothing to do with the Friday Cocktail Hour but it always makes me laugh. We need all the laughs we can get right now.
Burt Bacharach and Hal David were on top of the world after winning for a song whose title I won’t mention here. Not because I dislike it but because using it would cause confusion and there’s enough of that in the world today. See, Chaos, Kaiser of.
Let’s get down to business, such as it is. This week’s tune Walk On By was one of the songs that launched composer Bacharach and lyricist David into the songwriting stratosphere. I hope Cole Porter was nice to them when they landed. He was bound to find Burt dishy…
Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote Walk On By in 1963 for Dionne Warwick. She had a monster hit with it the next year, so that’s where we begin.
Mel Tormé recorded an album of Top 40 radio hits in 1966. Walk On By was among the tunes he sounded most comfortable crooning.
Let’s walk forward in time to check out 21st Century versions of the Bacharach-David classic by two of my favorite singers, Cyndi Lauper and Paul Carrack.
I’ve built a duplex or what we call a double in New Orleans for the next two covers. Isaac Hayes put his unique spin on Walk On By in 1969. 45 years later, Paul Rodgers recorded a version inspired by Isaac. I don’t know about you, but I always find Isaac’s shiny head inspiring.
I love me some Paul Rodgers.
What would the Friday Cocktail Hour be without jazz instrumental versions of the week’s song? This time, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, George Benson, and Stan Getz.
That’s it for this week. It’s no big whoop for me but let’s toast Good Friday for those who celebrate. It’s what Burt Bacharach’s ex-wife Angie Dickinson and Francis Albert would want. Never argue with them.
