Chords for BURT BACHARACH

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Ladies and gentlemen, Mr.
[Ebm] Bert Bacharach.
What [Bbm] the world _ needs [Ebm] now [Db] is love, _ [Ebm] sweet love.
All right, up [B] next, he's written more than 70 Top 40 hits for [Bbm] everyone.
From Cher to Neil Diamond, [Bbm] Grammy, Oscar and Emmy Award [Fm] winner Bert Bacharach
shares his incredible story when Morning Joe comes right back.
[Bbm] Sweet love, _ [Gb] _
_ just for some.
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_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Gb] And here with us [Fm] now, legendary [Bbm] Grammy, Oscar and Emmy Award winning [G] songwriter Bert [B] Bacharach
who's written more than 70 Top 40 hits.
He's the author of the new book, Anyone Who Had a Heart, My [N] Life and Music.
And it is an honor to have you here on the set.
It's a great honor to have you here.
There's so many questions I have about your music, your songs, your life.
I got to start though with the first question, the title, Anyone Who Had a Heart.
What's the significance?
Well, there is a song that we wrote called Anyone [Gb] Who Had a Heart, the big hit with Dion.
Yeah.
And I _ _ love the song.
_ And why did you choose that of all the songs as your title of the book?
I think because I'm trying to put my heart in the book.
Yeah.
And what this whole journey has meant for me.
And it's been quite a journey.
It's been an incredible journey.
Mike and I were just talking before you came on.
And, you know, I Googled you about six months ago when I was listening to XM.
And I said, these guys had so many hits.
And I went down the list.
Mike, the songs are incredible.
But the artists, [D] too, the people who we worked with.
The _ range of different artists.
I mean, you have provided many of us with a soundtrack for our lives.
Exactly.
[Bb] _
But the range of artists, from Gene Pitney to Dionne Warwick.
BJ Thomas. BJ Thomas.
_ Jackie Deshanin.
I'm wondering, one song in particular, do you know the way, 24 Hours from Tulsa.
Or do you know the way to San Jose.
Both those songs.
How do those come to you?
Are you driving in a car?
Do you pull over and write lyrics?
No, I think with 24 Hours from Tulsa, _ we wanted to write like a miniature movie.
_ Make the song a miniature movie.
_ And tell a whole story. _
_ How David wrote a great lyric and told a [Ab] story of what can happen.
The guy gets in the car.
24 [N] Hours from Tulsa.
_ You know, the songs, Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, I Say a Little Prayer, I'll Never Fall in Love Again.
Alfie, What the World Needs Now, That's What Friends Are For, The Story of My Life.
The Look of Love, Walk on By.
It's extraordinary.
You know them all.
It goes on and on and on.
I've got to say, though, you've got a hilarious story about raindrops keep falling on my head.
Which, of course, number one song, one of the top songs of the 1960s.
And Robert Redford was on a couple weeks ago.
And he said when he saw the final cut of the movie, he said, I don't get it.
Why do they have that song in there?
It's not even raining.
And then I'm reading that this song got no respect also from Ray Stevens, who was very hot at the time.
Very hot.
And he heard it and said what?
Studio brought him out to see the picture, hear the song. _ _
He didn't like the movie.
He didn't like the song.
Got on the plane and went back _ _ to Nashville.
So they get B.J. Thomas and it becomes, I think, if I remember the second or third biggest song of the 1960s.
Right behind Hey Jude.
Yeah.
But, you know, there was an interesting thing on _ George Roy Hill took a real shot.
I was scoring the movie [Gb] _
and he wanted something important there, music.
And I _ _ kept hearing _ raindrops keep falling on my head.
Tell me lyric.
Tell me lyric.
But I just kept looking at that bicycle sequence, looking at it.
Yeah.
And that's how it got written.
And George Roy Hill had the guts, you know, to take that chance.
We're talking about the 19th.
What is it?
Nineteenth century.
Yeah.
[Ab] _
_ In Bolivia.
And a song that sounds like it could work there with the ukulele and also for the bicycle and [Em] also be top 40 radio.
I mean, Dick Zanuck told me after the movie had opened, _ [N] a really great guy, Dick Zanuck, was running the board at 20th.
And he said half the board wanted that song out of the movie.
Yeah.
I mean, they didn't get it at all.
Nobody got it. It's unbelievable.
It reminds me the first time Frank Capra told Jimmy Stewart the story of It's a Wonderful Life.
Jimmy Stewart said, what?
Yeah.
And then, of course, it turns out to be huge and iconic.
Let me ask you a question about songwriting.
Paul McCartney, you know, people say Paul McCartney writes from the heart.
John Lennon would always write from the head.
_ Mike asked you the question, how did you come up with these songs?
Did it get to a point where you really didn't need _ outside stimulus, outside influence that you could go inside of your head and create a song?
I think my life has been sort of sponge-like, whatever I've picked up musically been influenced by.
_ _ And I think being in touch with your music is very important and not ever getting fat, fat in the sense of, you know.
Yeah.
I can't write a song like Don't Make Me Over that I did 35 years ago.
It's another language to me now.
Yeah.
And I move on now, you know.
[Gb] So I get excited about projects.
We're doing a musical on Painted From Memory with Elvis Costello.
Yeah.
Yeah, Chuck Lorre's going to do.
Oh, great.
[D] So who were [Ab] some of your first influences growing up in the 30s and 40s in Forest Hill?
In the 30s?
_ _ There were no influences.
My dad was an influence.
I want to be like my dad, be a football player, go to VMI until I found out it was a military school.
_ _ _ That's hard.
So much for that, but your influence, obviously, Dizzy Gillespie?
Dizzy Gillespie.
Once I heard Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker. Oh, yeah.
Tad Dameron's big band.
Yeah.
Got into _ 52nd Street on a phony ID card, heard those bands, heard the Basie [B] band.
_ Suddenly liked music.
[Gb] I mean, that made me like music.
I hated music, hated piano lessons.
Quick question.
Did you write or do you write for an artist, a specific artist, or do you write for yourself?
No.
I think when you have an artist like we had with Dionne, with Dionne Warwick, you kind
of _ write it like you're tailoring clothes.
And you see more what she can do, what she can wear, how she can, _ how flexible she is,
how wide the range is emotionally.
Get into her voice, yeah.
Yeah.
And then you can, that's a great way to go when you have an artist in mind.
And then writing for specifics.
I like that a lot.
Like when we did Promises Promises, we had to write that the songs would match what Neil
Simon's book said.
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And key.
We've got to go, but before we do, we're at the top of the hour.
Before we do, we've got to bring up Hal David, obviously.
[E] Sure.
I mean, an extraordinary partnership.
_ Yep.
A rough ending.
I talked about Lennon and McCartney.
It's hard being stuck in a room at a piano, I've seen it for a long time.
But obviously you guys together were an extraordinary partnership.
I feel very, very badly for Hal that the one thing, that one greatest goal he would
have [E] had [A] was to not be [Gb] able to get to [Ab] the White House and receive the [E] Gershwin Award
with me and him last May.
_ And he couldn't get out of the hospital.
[Gb]
And that's a heartbreak.
_ The book [E] is Anyone [Ab] Who Had a Heart.
My Life and Music.
Bert [C] Bacharach, thank you so much.
[Dbm] Thank you.
Such an honor to meet you.
More Morning Joe when we come back.
[Ab] Lovely. _ _ _ _
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