Benny Jay: Burt Bacharach’s Greatest Hits

A week or two ago, I buy a Burt Bacharach compilation CD at a used-book store in Evanston.

Cost me $4.99 –my best investment in years. I’ve been listening to it ever since.

It’s got all the great Bacharach songs by the singers who made them famous. Baby It’s You by the Shirelles. Dionne Warwick’s I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and my all-time, all-time: Walk on By.

Plus, it’s got Dusty Springfield’s The Look of Love. No offense to Adele, but Dusty’s been doing that blue-eyed British soul thing since like forever!

Whatever you do, please don’t tell Eric about any of this. He’s this press aide who can’t stand sappy pop music.

One time we got into a rip-roaring debate over Joe Strummer versus the Bee Gees. It went like this….

Eric: Joe Strummer’s a genius.

Me: Who’s Joe Strummer?

Eric loves Joe Strummer more than life itself….

 

Oh, don’t act like you’ve heard of him either, people.

He’s the singer/songwriter for the Clash, one of the bands that was popular back in the late 1970s when I was listening to the Bee Gees.

Thus, continued our great debate….

Eric: The Bee Gees are shit!

Me: People will be singing Bee Gee songs long after everyone’s forgotten Joe Strummer.

And to prove my point, I sang Night Fever. Only I got the words wrong. Damn!

Anyway, every now and then, just to really annoy him, I’ll send Eric an email along the lines of: “Barry Manilow’s way better than Joe Strummer.”

If you really want to get Eric going, extol the virtues of Barry Manilow.

Back to Burt….

But I’ll bet even Joe was a huge Bacharach fan.

 

At first my wife rolled her eyes at the CD. Like: Oh, my God — these songs are ancient.

Then I noticed the CD would be in the CD player after she left the car — as in, she’d been listening.

And then one day she broke down and texted me a confession: “I love the Burt Bacharach CD.”

Folks, there are few things in life better than receiving a you-are-right-and-I-am-wrong text from your wife.

At least at my age.

And, then – well, you had to see this to believe it.

We’re in the car. Me, my wife, our older daughter and a certain writer we’ll call No Blaise.

And I’ve got Burt Bacharach playing cause I’ve always got Burt Bacharach playing. And it’s on Jackie DeShannon’s What the World Needs Now.

Oh, don’t act like you don’t like it, too.

And they come to the part where Jackie goes:  “Lord, we don’t need another meadow — there are corn fields and wheat fields enough to grow.”

And then she sings: “There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine, oh, listen, lord, if you want to know.”

And as she builds to the crescendo, I crank up the volume and go: “Come on, everybody — sing with Jackie!”

And I’ll be damned — they’re all singing! Every single one. “What the world needs now — is love, sweet love, it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”

As a matter of fact, I’ll bet you’re singing it at this very moment.

So come on, everyone. All together now: “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love, no not just for some, but for everyone….”

Beautiful.

I think even Eric joined in.

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