Song of the Day 2/9: Ronnie Milsap, “Any Day Now”
Burt Bacharach, the preeminent American tunesmith of the mid-20th century, died Wednesday at age 94. Though he’s best remembered as an easy-listening composer for his the songs he wrote with lyricist Hal David and produced with vocalist Dionne Warwick, he collaborated with several other lyricists over the years and scores of singers performed on the 84 Bacharach compositions that reached the Billboard Hot 100, six of them No. 1’s.
“Any Day Now” is a good example. It was first recorded by R&B singer Chuck Jackson in 1962 and by soul legend Percy Sledge a few years later, but it reached its highest position (No. 14) on the pop chart in 1982, when country singer Ronnie Milsap took it to No. 1 on the country chart.
Bacharach got his start as a pianist and band leader, touring the U.S. and Europe with German actress Marlene Dietrich for two years before settling down as a Brill Building composer. The list of singers who had hits with his songs stretches from Marty Robbins and Perry Como in the ’50s through the Shirelles, Gene Pitney and Bobby Vinton in the early ’60s. Even when his work with Warwick was filling the charts he found time to compose hits for Tom Jones (“What’s New Pussycat?”), Jackie DeShannon (“What the World Needs Now”), Dusty Springfield (“The Look of Love”) and Herb Alpert (“This Guy’s in Love With You”).
He branched into film with his soundtrack for “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” which produced another No. 1, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” for B.J. Thomas. The hits mostly stopped after the Bacharach-David partnership came to an end in the mid-’70s, when he started performing his songs himself. He had a strong run in the ’80s working with Carol Bayer Sager, whom he also married, and collaborated with Elvis Costellos in the late ’90s. They performed a couple of times, complete with string section, on David Letterman’s talk show; both are included in this video, which also includes a brief interview with Letterman at the end.
When the House began its session with Barely Speaker McCarthy, I kept thinking of an old earworm “Promises, Promises.” I had to look it up to find out it came from a Burt Bacharach Broadway score for a 1968 show of that name: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_676P9Ma3M
Law & Order’s Jerry Ohrbach, who also had quite a stage career, was in that show.
“Lennie” sang the title song in “Promises, Promises.” He was also the actor who sang the hit song “Try to Remember” in the long-running Broadway show “The Fantasticks.” Jerry Ohrbach became a cop after he lost his pretty-boy looks. Changed his name to Lennie.
As for Bacharach, one of the most important pop-music figures of the 20th century, imo.Top 5.
Orbach not Ohrbach. Must be accurate here on the blog of record.
Re: Bacharach in the Top 5 – that would be in non-rock pop music, with the likes of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Sondheim. So I guess I mean composers. Sorry to be obsessing about this, but I just don’t know what to do with myself. I guess I should walk on by, but there’s always something there to remind me. Don’t try to make me over.