Burt Bacharach
USA, 1952–2023
American composer (1928-2023) who brought irregular metre and jazz-derived harmony into 1960s pop. His songs with lyricist Hal David were largely recorded by Dionne Warwick.
MusicRoots documents 6 artists who influenced Burt Bacharach and 3 artists Burt Bacharach influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Burt Bacharach?
- Maurice Ravel — Ravel completes the trio of French and modernist composers Bacharach names behind his harmony, alongside Debussy and Stravinsky.
- Darius Milhaud — Milhaud was Bacharach's composition teacher and, by his own account, his greatest influence — the modernist who encouraged the tuneful, harmonically bold voice Bacharach became.
- Henry Cowell — Henry Cowell was among Bacharach's composition teachers — part of the modernist training behind his unconventional song structures.
- Charlie Parker — Bacharach's first musical infatuation was the modern jazz of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie — the harmonic daring he carried into pop.
- Claude Debussy — The French impressionists shaped Bacharach's harmony — Debussy's colour among the classical influences behind his lush, unexpected chords.
- Igor Stravinsky — Stravinsky's rhythmic irregularity is audible in Bacharach's famously shifting meters and bar lengths.
Which artists did Burt Bacharach influence?
- The Beach Boys — Bacharach's melancholy chord movement is part of the harmonic vocabulary behind Pet Sounds; Wilson thought he had unconsciously modelled 'Let's Go Away for Awhile' on him, and called him a hero and very influential on his work.
- Dionne Warwick — Bacharach discovered Warwick singing backup and built his sophisticated songbook around her — his harmonically adventurous compositions defined her sound.
- Prefab Sprout — The chord writing. Bacharach is why a Prefab Sprout song turns where a pop song is not supposed to.