BURT BACHARACH VS. JIMMY WEBB
pickwick33
8,946 Posts
Both classic songwriters of the sixties who made quirky albums of their own, and were covered by every lounge lizard from Maine to Mexico (plus a surprising amount of soul acts)...in one corner, Bacharach:"Close To You""This Guy's In Love With You""The Look Of Love""Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head""Funky Nassau""That's What Friends Are For"and in the other, Webb (who has claimed to be influenced by Bacharach):"Wichita Lineman""By The Time I Get To Phoenix""Whoomp! There It Is""MacArthur Park""Up, Up & Away""Worst That Could Happen"So, in the realm of songs that no performer could make it through the late sixties without covering, who is the better man?
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...and if you think about it, the plotline is rather weird: some guy standing on a Kansas telephone pole, stalking some girl by overhearing her phone conversations???
(at least thats what i think its about)
Sha la la la la la la la
Sha la la la la la la la
Sha la la la la la la la
Sha la la la la
It's not the way you smile that touched my heart
sha la la la la
It's not the way you kiss that tears me apart
Uh, oh, many, many, many nights go by,
I sit alone at home and I cry over you
What can I do
Can't help myself, 'cause baby, it's you
Baby, it's you
You should hear what they say about you,
Cheat, cheat
They say, they say you never never never
ever been true (cheat cheat)
Oh no,
It doesn't matter what they say,
I know I'm gonna love you any old way
What can I do, and it's true
Don't want nobody, nobody, 'cause
Baby, it's you.
sha la la la la la la
Baby, it's you
sha la la la la la la
Oh no,
It doesn't matter what they say,
I know I'm gonna love you any old way
What can I do, when it's true
Don't want nobody, nobody, 'cause
baby, it's you
sha la la la la la la
Baby, it's you
sha la la la la la la
Don't leave me all alone
Come on home
+ Little Red Book
One of my all-time fave songs. I have a cool version at home somewhere by Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello.
Totally! That's half the reason it's so great. Seriously, I love it. I'm always humming it and generally no one around me knows this classic and so my appreciation is tragically solitaire.
Favourite version? Sergio Mendes.
its a tie between glen campbell and sammy davis jr. for me
its a tie between glen campbell and sammy davis jr. for me
I'm down with the Tony Joe White version.
Also like the recent Johnny Cash one.
what album was that on?
Errr.. Burt has some better songs than what you listed. Walk On By for one.
I'll pass on both of them as solo artists.
I think it's kind of cool that Burt (And Hal David) found their voice through a single artist. I'm not a big Dionne fan, but I think that is cool.
I'll vote for Burt.
Who wrote the worse song? Raindrops vs MacArthur Park.
I know. I just thought I'd list the most dead-obvious songs so we'd all get a feel for who was who.
Yeah, Jimmy Webb's "voice" was Glen Campbell.
One thing I always thought was interesting was that both men were covered extensively by black artists (and to my knowledge, neither man was intentionally trying to lean that way, it just happened)...I don't mean some one-hit soul singer laming their way through "This Guy's In Love With You" or "Phoenix" for album filler, but even the lesser-known things were covered by soul singers. Bacharach and David had the Scepter-Wand stable on lockdown for a while there (Dionne, Chuck Jackson, Tommy Hunt, etc.), and I think (but I'm not sure) that early in his career, Jimmy Webb was under contract to Motown as a writer. (He did eventually produce one of the Supremes' post-Diana albums.)
Yeah, those tunes are goofy, but I kinda like 'em both in a K-Tel "guilty pleasure" way...
Don't forget his other voice(s)...
yeah, they kept both Webb AND Laura Nyro rollin in royalties for a while!
Next up Laura Nyro appreciation. Poverty Train is my cut.
It's on the the American Records "Vol. 4 - The Man Comes Around"
... but I just found out for the first time that it's only on
the vinyl version of this album, not the CD! I only ever had the
vinyl, so I didn't realize. Maybe they included it on that recent
CD box of "unreleased" American material?
Stoney End
... but what always bothers me about this argument is, isn't Jimmy Webb
a lyricist, while Bachrach is a composer? Wouldn't Hal David vs Jimmy Webb
make more sense?
One thing is for sure, both of their solo records almost all completely suck.
Jimmy Webb is usually the only writer listed on the songs he penned. I never knew him to work as part of a team, so evidently he was supplying the music along with the words.
Correct. Webb = music + lyrics
Sammy Davis Jr. - I must hear his take on it. The Glen Campbell one is etched deep into my mind as it was seemingly always on the cab radio at 4AM when I had a regular early morning taxi ride. Makes a good soundtrack for riding semi-awake through a deserted city.
It's pretty over-the-top, with the loudest horn section in the world and no humility at all. But then again, that's kinda why I like it - would you expect less from the man they called Mr. Entertainment? It's on his Something For Everybody album on Motown.