Wishin' and Votin' - the BURT BACHARACH SONGBOOK Poll Results

also loving the vh1 behind the music bits, A+

It just seems like an exercise for Medeski to play with some keyboards, including a Mellotron, looking for interesting timbres; the song he uses for this workout is an afterthought. xp

Saw Burt B a couple of years ago at the Royal Festival Hall. He gave the perfectly competent guest vocalists a break at the end and did "Alfie" himself. Poor guy got croaky on first verse and started over. "This is too good a song to mess up." It was magnificent.

Nice. You and Morbs may be the only ilxors to see him live.

https://i.imgur.com/ZSbmdMQ.jpg

19. (There's) Always Something There To Remind Me — 385 Points, 12 Votes, 1 first-place vote
Lyric: Hal David
Wendell Stuart and the Downbeaters, s/t album (1969), 100 points — https://youtu.be/qxzvmw1iXug
Sandie Shaw, 1964 single, 96 points — https://youtu.be/hp-FnGb4wbY
Lou Johnson, 1964 single, 61 points — https://youtu.be/MOQ1NUdkg50
Naked Eyes, 1983 single, 53 points — https://youtu.be/lVrELhxOFnM
Dionne Warwick, 1968 b-side of "Who Is Gonna Love Me?", 32 points — https://youtu.be/ZamEcNgtw4o

Don't think I've ever heard 'One Less Bell to Answer', I see it was massive in the US but nowhere to be seen in the UK.

Never really been a Cilla fan and i think that influenced me not choosing Alfie or her other notable BB hit

Yeah, me neither so the same.

Yes but are you a “Where’s Cilla” fan?

^er you may have to be a Britisher to get that reference

I am not therefore I am not.

Wonder what, um, Alfred, thinks

wendell stuart was my #1

What put that version on your radar? I'd never heard of him before.

p sure i voted for the last seven

Cher's version of "Alfie" is good too (it was on US prints of the movie)

https://i.imgur.com/T1aecjz.jpg

18. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head — 394 Points, 12 Votes
Lyric: Hal David
B.J. Thomas, 1969 single, 318 points — https://youtu.be/hziG9Nr6KHU
Dionne Warwick, from I'll Never Fall in Love Again (1970), 52 points — https://youtu.be/mcmaqoCCxmI
Manic Street Preachers, bonus track on Everything Must Go reissue (recorded 1996?), 24 points — https://youtu.be/we1_bT2elEg

^ roy ayers version was on my ballot

to answer your question, i heard it through a friend of a friend, maybe at a record store ? it was very random and i wasn't expecting most people to be familiar

had always loved the song, wendell's vocal delivery really seals the deal imo

like many americans i was familiar with the naked eyes version via radio since childhood

^ roy ayers version was on my ballot

― budo jeru, Thursday, May 16, 2019 12:51 PM (four minutes ago)

Crap -- the total points are right but the version breakdown should include Ayers, sorry about that.

B.J. Thomas should be 292 points
Roy Ayers, from Ubiquity (1970), 26 points — https://youtu.be/8gHPNshin1g

similar to "Wives & Lovers," the megahits of the late '60s are so familiar to me, some I know as well as the Beatles' records. They were ubiquitous on TV variety as well as radio.

ubiquitous on TV variety

I don't think the Youth of Today realize how many hours of variety shows were on every week back then. The music clearances situation, I assume, makes it almost impossible to collect these on home video or streaming. I can't see a picture of Glen Campbell without thinking of him coming onstage in his series and doing the "HI! I'M GLEN CAMPBELL!" bit.

Some of those shows *have* gotten the boxed set treatment. Cash, Smothers Brothers, Sonny & Cher (I think)....

Speaking of which, recent Ben Monder album has versions of both “The Windows of the World” and “Galveston.” (He’s a big Jimmy Webb fan)

UK variety shows tended to be slightly different from what i remember - less of them based around a single personality, at least by the 70s, tho i'm sure Cilla and Lulu had shows. They were just as ubiquitous tho.

If anything these songs are so familiar to me because tapes of Dionne and Dusty were two of my dad's car favourites, and he didn't have many favourites.

not to mention the decades channel xp

https://i.imgur.com/wIwOUsb.jpg

17. Any Day Now — 403 Points, 8 Votes
Lyric: Bob Hilliard
Elvis Presley, 1969 b-side of "In the Ghetto," 249 points — https://youtu.be/bgM0yxh9Dlc
Chuck Jackson, 1962 Wand Records single, 154 points — https://youtu.be/RPgE991VDwM
really good Elvis alternate take minus the sweetening — https://youtu.be/xg0D_E1WLn8

omg yes to that elvis alt take, so good

First underdog in the top 20? Not sure I know it.

btw can you imagine trying to do the Vandross "House Is Not a Home" at karaoke?

I always find that kinda over-the-top streeeeetched-out R&B inescapably funny, not sexy

Thought awhile about which version to go with, ended up going with Elvis in my #7 spot. Hadn’t even heard the alternative take, thanks for that.
(xp)

the epistemology of the "House" lyrics is already borderline farcical

a chair is not a house

a room is not a house

what else ya got

Don’t ask me, that’s why I voted for as much Bob Hilliard as I could, although I overlooked one.

I think I overlooked all of em.

this goddamn ingrown toenail is not a house
my car keys -- nope, my car keys aren't a house either

I like this Burt "Alfie"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKt4IWKy1mU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ptOWuCZkk8

"Any Day Now" was a big Country hit for Ronnie Milsap in the 80s as well.

First underdog in the top 20? Not sure I know it.

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius),

just want to say this is very surprising -- in my memory it was big...I know I'd heard it many times before I got the Rhino box in 1998 but now I can't say where.

xp I remember that Milsap version! I should have thought of it when I was putting together the big spotify playlist.

I'd cut Hal David a break on those "Royale" end-credits lyrics... clearly meant to be a throwaway, and I'm sure most of the audience had long fled.

The Milsap one was on my ballot before I cut the song

I'd cut Hal David a break on those "Royale" end-credits lyrics... clearly meant to be a throwaway, and I'm sure most of the audience had long fled.

or The Odd Couple lyrics

OK, last one for today -- tomorrow the big finish, full orchestra, backup singers, everything.

https://i.imgur.com/UrjhRtj.jpg

16. Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa — 409 Points, 10 Votes
Lyric: Hal David
Gene Pitney, 1963 Musicor single, 250 points — https://youtu.be/jIjUaxP7PPE
Dusty Springfield, from A Girl Called Dusty (1964), 89 points — https://youtu.be/ne9UuzivW1A
Burt Bacharach, from Plays His Hits (1966), 70 points — https://youtu.be/5qaR6-iZe-Q

The graphic has Dusty's points wrong, it's 89 for her.

My number 4, a bit of an outlier for Bacharach i think but it's a classic for a reason. The lyric absolutely works.

I gave this one a lot of points, but settled on Burt's wordless version as I enjoyed pretending it was the score to a western or something.

The lyrics are good though. It's somewhat tangled up with "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" in my mind. No doubt due partly to the specific place names, but also the way travel, separation and guilt are handled in each. I seem to like the idea of the USA as a land of endless highways with people being sad, or at least contemplative, in distant hotel rooms, as "Check Out Time" involves something quite similar! :)

promise us anything