Remembering HAL DAVID the composer - 'What the World Needs Now...'

REMEMBERING HAL DAVID

‘Trains and Boats and Planes’ take us everywhere…but ‘What the World Needs Now ..is Love’

Burt Bacharach’s legendary songwriting partner passed away on Saturday September 1, 2012. The best eulogy for Hal David is this page from his own website – in his own words. It explains how ‘What the World Needs Now’ in its final version mustered such beautiful imagery in its lyrics, and some might say, even biblical…Read here: http://www.haldavid.com/words.htm  

Although Dionne Warwick is widely regarded as the definitive interpreter of Bacharach and David’s compositions here are two of my current favourite tributes to Hal David.

CHACKSFIELD PLAYS BACHARACH released on DECCA Records, Phase 4 series, as LP PFS 4230 (1971) in STEREO.

track listing:

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head
Alfie
I’ll Never Fall in Love Again
This Guy’s in Love With You
Paper Maché
Trains and Boats and Planes
(They Long to Be) Close to You
You’ll Never Get to Heaven
The Look of Love
To Wait for Love
The Green Grass Starts to Grow
Wives and Lovers

The renowned Frank Chacksfield and his Orchestra does a fine job balancing a big band rhythm, with Sixties glamour and luxurious strings in one fabulous concoction. Although this was released in 1971, the LP tended to capture the best of Bacharach-David from the 1960s. The swinging trumpets either in lead, or as support players, on ‘Raindrops’, ‘I’ll never Fall in Love’, ‘Close to You’, ‘Look of Love’ and ‘Wives and Lovers’ evoke the traditional Chacksfield sound from his mood music albums of the early 1960s while nodding subtly at the light jazz influences popularized by Stan Getz, Bobby Hackett and the Quincy Jones big band. Chacksfield had of course recorded with another British jazz trumpeter Kenny Baker on an album in the late 1950s and also inviting his guest solos on albums celebrating Gershwin and other musical giants. ‘Alfie’ is perhaps the neo-classical, Broadwayesque exception on this album leading with a solo violin through most of it – but the effect is stunningly memorable – almost evocative of an Audrey Hepburn moment on screen. The arrangements on ‘You’ll Never Get to Heaven’, ‘Paper Mache’, ‘Train and Boats’ and ‘Wives and Lovers’ will do more than get your feet tapping – you’ll be tempted to get up and sway to the music! This LP was first transferred to CD on DECCA Italy’s limited catalogue of re-releases and now remastered by Dutton Vocalion as a single CD combining CHACKSFIELD PLAYS BACHARACH  and THE NEW LIMELIGHT CDLK4380.

Traincha (the popular name for Dutch jazz-pop singer, Miss Trijntje Oosterhuis) has done two critically-acclaimed vocal tributes to Bacharach-David that feature a very unusual vocal styling – which in my opinion – combines the breezy soul of Dionne with the emotional crests of a Streisand. Her tender vocals on ‘That’s What Friends are For’, ‘Waiting for Charlie’, ‘Any Day Now’, ‘Close to you’ bring to life previously unheard dimensions to Hal David’s lyrics and Bacharach’s notes. It defines the songwriting duo as evergreen ballad composers in every way. And these songs do sound contemporary for the twenty-first century. And it’s a pity they don’t seem to cross over into the mainstream pop charts of 2012. My personal favourites are ‘Any Day Now’, ‘This Girl’s in Love’ (note how Bacharach and Traincha have amended the hum-along instrumental refrain of the Herb Alpert version – swell!) and ‘Love is Still the Answer’.

The Look of Love – an Album released in November 2006

Tracklist:

1. Do you know the way to San Jose?
2. The look of love
3. A house is not a home
4. I say a little prayer
5. Waiting for Charlie (to come home)
6. I’ll never fall in love again
7. Falling out of love
8. Walk on by
9. Alfie
10. Anyone who had a heart
11. This house is empty now
12. (they long to be) Close to you
13. The windows of the world
14. That’s what friends are for

Who'll Speak For Love – An Album released in November 2007

Tracklist:

1. Any Day Now
2. Love Is Still The Answer
3. What The World Needs Now
4. One Less Bell To Answer
5. In Between The Heartaches
6. This Girl’s In Love
7. God Give Me Strength
8. Who’ll Speak For Love
9. Stronger Than Before
10. I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself
11. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
12. Don’t Make Me Over
13. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
14. Painted From Memory
15. On My Own

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