Burt Bacharach died earlier this month aged aged 94. His passing reminded music writer TONY MAGEE of the night at the Royal Theatre, on October 30, 2015, when the legendary American songwriter performed hit aft hit… 

BESIDES Burt Bacharach at the piano and doing some vocals, he had with him two talented female vocalists plus his backing band.

The evening had a shaky start, with the amplification of the concert grand piano failing during the opening piece. One could just hear it faintly, acoustically, but there was nothing coming through the audio system.

Burt rose and came centre stage to a microphone to say good evening while a technician rushed on to the stage and started adjusting various cabling to rectify the piano problem.

Bacharach played many of his hits from a 60-year career: “Anyone Who Had a Heart” (which was a huge hit for Dionne Warwick and Cilla Black in 1963), “Walk on By” ,“I Just Don’t Know What to do with Myself”, “Wishin’ and Hopin”, “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (if you Break my Heart)”— the list went on.

One particular highlight of the evening was when Burt performed “Alfie”. Choosing not to delegate it to either of the female singers, he sang it himself, in a moving, gentle and heartfelt rendition. His voice had aged, but it was beautifully done and the audience gave him a thunderous round of applause for this piece.

The original recording for  “Alfie” was performed by Dionne Warwick, but it was Cilla Black who sang it for the movie soundtrack of the same name in 1966, staring Michael Caine.

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Bacharach was present, playing piano, along with producer George Martin.

After the fourth take, Martin was happy and said: “That’s the one”, but Bacharach wasn’t happy and felt Black could get more out of the vocals. On the 29th take, he was happy. “Now, that’s the one”. He also said: “Cilla Black brought ‘Alfie’ alive with her incredible vocals… There are moments in that song where she really grabs your heart”.