Excerpts

EMail link to Burt Bacharach

Norman Gimble

A little background on the man you're going to read about. He's a lyricist born in New York who started out writing for Broadway. His credits on the stage include "Whoop-up" and "The Conquering Hero." His movie work boasts some thirty eight picture songs during his California residence including the Academy Award nomination for I Will Wait For You from "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," and song scores for "The Phantom Tollbooth," "Where's Poppa?" "The Star Spangled Girl" and "Pufnstuf." He also had another Academy Award nomination for Richard's Window from "The Other Side Of The Mountain." On television h-e has theme songs in three currently running shows, "Happy Days," "Laverne And Shirley" and "Wonder Woman." He has collaborated with Carlos Antonio Jobim, Burt Bacharach, Michel Legrand and Charles Fox, among others. He has eight BMI million performance awards which ties him with the Beatles in that respect. His Pop standards include such titles as Watch What Happens, Bluesette, Summer Samba (So Nice), Live For Life, Canadian Sunset and bossa nova classics such as The Girl From Ipanema, Meditation, How Insensitive, Aqua De Beber, and his most recent hits, I Got A Name and Killing Me Softly With His Song.

Bobby Goldsboro and Harry Warren

Bobby Goldsboro

“As far as being commercial is concerned, I’ll put it this way… to me, being commercial is appealing to masses. If you write a song that millions of people can relate to and enjoy, what in the hell is wrong with being commercial? For the guy who says he doesn’t write for the masses, but only for a small segment of the audience, or writes for himself and a few musicians friend, why go in an record it in the first place?

Harry Warren

“I also think that to successfully write songs, you have to think of a cadence where the rhymes are going to fall. When a composer collaborates with a lyricist, I think the composer is in control. The way I write, I know I’m in control. I would give the music to Al Dubin and he would put the lyrics to my melody. And good lyrics, too.”

Harry Warren Songs

Lullaby of Broadway
This Heart Of Mine
You Wonderful You
Jeepers Creepers
That’s Amore
Nagasaki
Carnival
At Last
We’re In The Money
You’ll Never Know
Forty Second Street
The More I See You
September In The Rain
I Only Have Eyes For You
Chattanooga Choo Choo
There Will Never Be Another You
On The Atcheson, Topeka and The Santa Fe
You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby

Sammy Cahn

“The producer of Three Coins In The Fountain asked Jule Styne and me if we could write a title song for that film and I told him we could write a song called Eh if we knew what the picture was about."

A few of Sammy's Songs:

Bei Mir Bist Du Schon (Means That You're Grand!)
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
"Papa. Won't You Dance With Me" (High Button Shoes)
Thre Coins In The Fountain
Love And Marriage
The Tender Trap
All The Way
Come Fly With Me
Pocketful Of Miracles
Call Me Iresponsible (Papa's Delicate Condition)
Thoroughly Modern Millie
The Odd Couple
My Kind of Town
The Second Time Around

Alan O'Day

We asked Alan if there was any discipline he followed to keep a steady flow of creativity going.

“That’s one of the things I’m least pleased with about myself. I will go for weeks sometimes without writing anything but when I do work, I work my ass off. I will be the first to say that I don’t write songs in any great degree by inspiration. I’ll get an idea for a title or a chorus line or a hook line that appeals to me, and I will... (more in the issue)

Burt Bacharach

“Taking my songs to my publisher who took them to a producer who says they suck… I don’t need that. That’s happened to me so many times in the past with absolute hit records! So I don’t need that now. The best success I’ve had is when I’ve had control, when I’ve made the record myself."

A few of Burt's songs:

"Make It Easy On Yourself"
"What the Word Needs Now"
"(I Long To Be) Close To You"
What's New Pussy Cat"
Casino Royal
Authur's Theme
The Look Of Love
One Less Bell To Answer
This Guy's In Love
Do You Know The Way To San Jose
Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
That's What Friends Are For
On My Own

Jim Weatherly

We were feeling quite proud of ourselves and, at the same time, very lucky. This was to be our premiere issue of SONGWRITER, and we wanted the first writer we interviewed to be representative of what we were aiming for in our magazine; articles and information that would have interest to those involved in, or, pursuing a career writing songs regard less of what musical classification they might fall into.

And, here we were on our way to talk to Jim Weatherly in the office of his publisher, Larry Gordon of Rip/Keca Music, Inc.