 Various Artists The spate of CDs released to cash-in on the post-Austin Powers Bacharach revival has created a confused market for the consumer looking to pick up a definitive Bacharach collection. You can't go wrong with Rhino Record's 3-disc Bacharach box set, though if you're looking for a good single disc, you're gonna have to settle for some also-ran material. More From the Burt Bacharach Songbook is a sequel to Varese's Burt Bacharach Songbook disc, presenting some classics, some lesser known cuts, and some cover versions less familiar than the original hits. No Dionne Warwick to be found here, though the choices are pretty solid, and it's hard to fault any CD that has Jerry Orbach on it. Orbach weighs in with "Promises, Promises" from the original cast recording of the same name, not Bacharach's best song, but a decent enough Broadway tune. "Any Day Now" by Chuck Jackson and "Make it Easy on Yourself" by the Walker Brothers are the only choice original hit versions on the CD ("Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" by BJ Thomas opens the CD, but no amount of revisionism can convince me that the song is anything but the piece of crap it was when it first came out). Second-tier covers of "What's New Pussycat" (Bobby Darin, doing a crap song about as well as it can be done), "The Girl's in Love With You" (Brenda Lee) and "I Say a Little Prayer" (The Anita Kerr Singers) are fine enough, though you'd be best served as a serious Bacharach fan or, alternately, someone who just likes the songs and doesn't care who does them. I'm more of a Bacharach classicist, preferring Dionne Warwick whenever possible, or otherwise, whoever did the hit version of whichever song. A couple of cool covers are to be found: Nancy Sinatra's great "Wishin' and Hopin'" (right up there with Ani Difranco's version for pure coolness) and Isaac Hayes' awesome though somewhat ridiculous "Walk On By." Gene Pitney's "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa" surely deserves more recognition. There's a fair amount of lesser material ("Hot Spell," "Send Me No Flowers," "Blue on Blue"), and I don't generally care about Bacharach's own instrumentals ("Always Something to Remind Me" closes the disc), so overall, this is the loungey hodgepodge it was undeniably intended to be. Neither the best nor the worst Bacharach disc you could get, this one is very good but pretty slight. For anyone who gets tired of the "same old Bacharach," it's not bad, though anyone fitting that description is advised to immediately go buy some dub reggae or something before losing all sense of balance.
Review by Martha Your Dear |