Bacharach was a multi-award winning composer
Burt Bacharach has died at the age of 94. His publicist confirms the composer passed away on Wednesday (Feb 8th) from natural causes at his home in Los Angeles.
Bacharach is survived by his fourth wife Jane Hansen along with his children Oliver, Raleigh and Cristopher.
The eight-time Grammy winner and three-time Oscar-winner was known for his songs “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” made famous by BJ Thomas and “I Say A Little Prayer” which Dionne Warwick recorded. He also wrote songs for Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones, just to name a few, with Elvis Presley covering his songs.
Bacharach’s songs written with his greatest lyricist, Hal David, were heard on English radio and television from his latter collaborator’s earliest memories. He also wrote with Bob Hilliard and Mack David. He even teamed with Dr. Dre a decade ago.
Bacharach was well-known for working with Elvis Costello for three decades. The pair are set to release a lavish 4 CD + 2 LP box set called The Songs of Bacharach & Costello on March 3rd via UMe. The comprehensive 45-song set includes a newly remastered version of Painted From Memory, a new collection called Taken From Life featuring unreleased songs from proposed Painted From Memory musical score and two newly recorded, orchestrally accompanied songs, plus live performances of Bacharach and Costello performing several of the songs from Painted From Memory, as well as other beloved Bacharach numbers, with orchestras in New York and London.
One of Bacharach’s most notable performances was in the first two Austin Powers films in 1997 and 1999, respectively. He made cameos to underscore the title character’s romantic endeavors, even appearing alongside Costello in the second Mike Myers film.
