Burt Bacharach box set due November 5th

[Harry]

The Hip-O select website now lists the Burt Bacharach A&M Years box set on their site. The release date is November 5th.

Full title: Something Big: The Complete A&M Years...And More

http://www.hip-oselect.com/catalogue_bacharach.asp

Track Listing

Disc 1

1. Reach Out For Me
2. Alfie
3. Bond Street
4. Are You There (With Another Girl)
5. What The World Needs Now Is Love
6. The Look Of Love
7. A House Is Not A Home
8. I Say A Little Prayer
9. The Windows Of The World
10. Lisa
11. Message To Michael
12. The Bell That Couldn't Jingle
13. Promises, Promises
14. I'll Never Fall In Love Again
15. Knowing When To Leave
16. Any Day Now
17. Wanting Things
18. Who Ever You Are I Love You
19. Make It Easy On Yourself
20. Do You Know The Way To San Jose
21. Pacific Coast Highway
22. She's Gone Away
23. This Guy's In Love With You
Disc 2

1. Mexican Divorce
2. (They Long To Be) Close To You
3. Nikki
4. Wives And Lovers
5. All Kinds Of People
6. And The People Were With Her (suite for orchestra)
7. April Fools
8. Hasbrook Heights
9. Freefall
10. One Less Bell To Answer
11. Something Big
12. Monterey Penninsila
13. I Come To You
14. Walk The Way You Talk
15. The Balance Of Nature
16. Living Together, Growing Together
17. Reflections
18. Lost Horizon
19. Lost Ago Tomorrow
20. I Might Frighten Her Away
21. I Took My Strength From You (I Had More)

Disc 3

1. Futures
2. Us
3. Where Are You?
4. We Should Have Met Sooner
5. No One Remembers My Name
6. TheYoung Grow Younger Every Day
7. Another Spring Will Rise
8. Seconds
9. When You Bring Your Sweet Love To Me
10. Time And Tenderness
11. Summer Of '77
12. Woman
13. Riverboat
14. Magdalena
15. New York Lady
16. There Is Time
17. The Dancing Fool
18. I Live In The Woods


Disc 4

1. The Sundance Kid
2. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
3. Not Going Home Anymore
4. South American Getaway
5. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
6. On A Bicycle Built For Joy
7. Come Touch The Sun
8. The Old Fun City (N.Y. Sequence)
9. Not Going Home Anymore (Reprise)
10. Etta's Theme
11. Alfie/Do You Know The Way To San Jose (Live)
12.Walk On By (Live)
13. Come Touch The Sun (Live)
14. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head (Live)
15. The Look Of Love (Live)
16. Medley: Don't Make Me Over/Anyone Who Had A Heart/What's New, Pussycat/Wives An Lovers/24 Hours From Tulsa (Live)
17. This Guy's In Love With You (Live)
18. I'll Never Fall In Love Again (Live)
19.(They Long To Be) Close To You (Live)
20. Bond Street (Live)
21. A House Is Not A Home (Live)
22. Alfie (Live)
23. What The World Needs Now Is Love (Live)
24. Promises, Promises (Live)
25. What The World Needs Now Is Love (Reprise) (Live)

Disc 5

1. Saturday Sunshine
2. And So Goodbye, My Love
3. Don't Make Me Over
4. Walk On By
5. Don't Go Breaking My Heart
6. Blue On Blue
7. The Last One To Be Loved
8. (There's) Always Something There To Remind Me
9. 24 Hours From Tulsa
10. Trains Boats and Planes
11. Wives And Lovers
12.Saturday Sunshine
13. A House Is Not A Home
14. Anyone Who Had A Heart
15. What's New Pussycat
16. My Little Red Book (All I Do Is Talk About You)
17. After The Fox
18. Nikki
19. Juanita's Place
20. Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)
21. That's What Friends Are For
22. Love Theme From Arthur

This would put REACH OUT and MAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF on Disc 1, BURT BACHARACH and LIVING TOGETHER on Disc 2, WOMAN and FUTURES on Disc 3, BUTCH CASSIDY and the live IN CONCERT album on Disc 4, and the Kapp album + bonus trackson Disc 5. Other bonus tracks look like they're scattered through the list, perhaps in chronological order.

Harry
...with the news, online...

 

[Rudy]

Here's what appear to be bonus tracks.

From Disc 1:

12. The Bell That Couldn't Jingle

From Disc 4:

10. Etta's Theme

It is sandwiched between the Butch Cassidy soundtrack and the live album. No idea what it is from, though!

From Disc 5:

17. After The Fox
18. Nikki
19. Juanita's Place
20. Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)
21. That's What Friends Are For
22. Love Theme From Arthur

I'm guessing that 18 (and maybe 19) are from one of those singles they were hunting down. I know "Nikki" was released on a Liberty single in 1966--I wonder if it's the same version on the Rhino box.

I guess they could not get the Burt & The Backbeats tracks...?

Nov. 5...seems like an unusual release date. (Not on a Tuesday, IOW.)

This is one for the Wish List, for sure!

 

[Harry]

The really good news for me is the inclusion of "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle" on the first disc between the two albums. Though it's been placed on a few compilation CDs over the years, the compilers seemed to have sourced it from rough vinyl. Hopefully Hip-O was able to secure a better master tape.

Harry
...already pre-ordered, online...

 

[Harry]

Nov. 5...seems like an unusual release date. (Not on a Tuesday, IOW.)

The DVD for SHREK 2 is also Friday, November 5th. I'm betting that they're trying to avoid the election day hoo-hah.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

The really good news for me is the inclusion of "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle" on the first disc between the two albums.

Wow, missed that one. Cool! I'll change my post above.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Too bad they had to split off track #1 from FUTURES onto the end of the preceding disk. That's a very small nitpick though. Awesome!

 

[Rudy]

I suppose "Futures" and "Woman" really are too long to fit on the same CD. But hey, with CD burners, we can always reconstruct the albums if we have to.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Yeah. I'm actually surprised they kept the albums together as well as they did. Lots of these compilations don't take that kind of care. (The Steely Dan box comes to mind.)

Nobody's mentioned the price yet....$89.95. Pretty spendy, but it's got a cloth booklike binding and apparently excellent liner notes. And, it's limited to 5000 copies!

 

[Rudy]

The Steely Dan kept things close to original album order, but they did tweak the set so the opening track would be better to lead off a disc with.

While Mosaic's jazz sets are thorough, they tend to sequence those discs by the date the track was recorded, not by album sequence at all. I think it's confusing for someone who collects these on an album basis...I could reconstruct albums from my Maynard Ferguson 10-CD box, but there's no real point. It's just that you get used to listening to the albums in a certain order...

Yes, the price is a bit spendy on the Bacharach box, but some of Rhino Handmade's individual titles are more than the average $18.99 this set charges. And given its limited run, not at all surprising. When i get it, first thing I do is run a copy of all five discs--I'm keeping the originals stashed away!

 

[Harry]

It works out to 17.99 per disc for each of the five discs, and while that might seem a little high, consider that you're really getting at least nine full albums plus all of the bonus tracks.

$89.95 divided by 9 = $9.99 per album - well worth it to my way of thinking.

Shipping and handling added an additional $8.00 to the order, but here in Pennsylvania I didn't get hit with any kind of tax.

Harry

 

[Mike]

Well, Christmas has just come early for me. My Hip-O-Select pre-order is completed, just have to sit back and wait for it to arrive in the mail. They’re only making 5000 of these, and now there are only 4998 left. Don’t wait to long, or they’ll all be gooooone!

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Would these tracks be sung by different artists? I see Close to You-Live is that sung by the Carpenters? Sorry if that sounds stupid but I don't own any Bacharach Cd's so I really don't know. I do know alot of artists have covered his songs though including Olivia's recent release.

 

[Harry]

These are for the most part recordings by Burt and his orchestra. Vocals, used sparingly, were handled by studio vocalists, not name-stars. Best example, Chris is one you DO know - the "Close To You" version that concludes the YESTERDAY ONCE MORE/GOLD video while the credits are rolling. That's Burt's own recording for A&M.

There is supposed to be something in the liner notes written by Richard Carpenter - I suspect it's the story we've heard a million times about the medley, Herb bringing "Close To You" to them, etc. I'll know better when I receive the set.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Well I just got my Gold Carpenters DVD out & played the closing segment again, so would this be the same segment on this box set? I hear a backing lady singing, I always thought this was Richard using the backing choir ok chorale? I just learned something new today.

It says Closing Segment
Arranged & Performed by Burt Bacharach
Produced by Phil Ramone & Burt Bacharach

Since when did Phil Ramone produce Burt? Wow some things come full circle. Phil Produced Karen's solo album & Olivia's recent CD. I didn't even notice Phil's name here on the closing credits of this song on the Gold DVD. Interesing.

 

[Harry]

Yes, Phil Ramone and Burt produced many of the tracks in this set. And yes, the track used on your DVD is the same track that was originally found on the self titled BURT BACHARACH album, to be housed on this set on disc two.

Harry

 

[Harry]

Oh - I forgot to mention that on the later albums, FUTURES and WOMAN (disc 3 of this set), Burt DID use some well-known vocalists in spots:

Carly Simon sings on "I Live In The Woods"
Libby Titus sings on "Riverboat"
Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) sings on "The Young Grow Younger Everyday"

I tend to forget about these as I've hardly listened to them at all. I only have the LPs, so perhaps when they're more accessible on CD, I'll listen more!

Harry

 

[Rudy]

Since when did Phil Ramone produce Burt? Wow some things come full circle. Phil Produced Karen's solo album & Olivia's recent CD. I didn't even notice Phil's name here on the closing credits of this song on the Gold DVD. Interesing.

Phil Ramone was engineering recordings in the 60s...in fact, he is the engineer of that classic Bossa Nova album on Verve: Getz/Gilberto (Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim). Also kn 1963, he worked on Lesley Gore's hit singles, such as "It's My Party". Ramone produced Bacharach in the early 70s, and of course, went on to produce some of the biggest names in the industry. Check out his site for a list of credits:

http://www.philramone.com

Finally, an appropriate recent photo for this thread...Elvis, Burt and Phil!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Harry - There's also Cissy Houston, who sang on BURT BACHARACH and on LIVING TOGETHER. She was mostly well-known for gospel singing, and also for giving birth to Whitney Houston.

The Cissy vocals are among the many high spots of the self-titled LP.

I ordered mine tonight, so now there are only 4997! Better hurry folks!

Chris - Even though these are not the "name vocalist" versions of the songs, it is still an eye-opener to listen to Bacharach interpret his own work. Sometimes he has a completely different take on a tune than you would expect...."Wives and Lovers" being a great example. Some people would call this elevator music but they're really off the mark. The arrangements ARE big-orchestra, but far from the blandness of elevator music. And just when you think you've settled into a groove, something comes along to knock you out, such as a Bacharach vocal or some sort of unusual instrumentation in the mix. Repeated listens are definitely rewarded!

 

[Rudy]

Burt Bacharach's recorded career is quite complex, actually. While his A&M recordings are his own interpretations, they are more like re-interpretations of his earlier recordings, which were the singles he recorded with singers like Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas and countless others. He was not only the composer (with Hal David as lyricist), he was also the conductor, arranger, and musical director for all of those sessions, nitpicking over individual vocal takes and musical notes, sweating it out to get the perfect take. With all that work on the original versions, it probably takes him some effort to make a new version for recordings under his own name. The Kapp recordings are actually closer to the "hit" versions, where on the A&Ms he does some new interpretations.

 

[Mr Bill]

Well, I gotta order this one ASAP!

--Mr Bill

 

[PJ]

Fascinating Box Set -will have to look out for this release ....ideally Universal will issue outside of USA at later date .....

Peter

 

[Harry]

Looking a little more closely at the track listing posted at the Hip-O site (and above), I was curious about the order of the tracks on disc 5. It doesn't follow the order on the Kapp LP that I have at all, nor does it exactly match the MCA CD release from 1997, though it comes closer to that. I have the Kapp album called BURT BACHARACH PLAYS HIS HITS, but if I'm correct, it had previously been issued as HITMAKER. Right? Does this track order match that one?

It also looks like there are two versions of "Saturday Sunshine". Hopefully these questions will be answered when the set arrives.

Harry
NP: BURT BACHARACH PLAYS HIS HITS

 

[Rudy]

I'm not quite sure how the Kapp albums were sequenced: the CD I have (with the "Hitmaker!" cover) seems to match the track listing starting with #3 on Disc 5. As for the original LPs, I am wondering if there was some overlap in the tracks, since IIRC, there was not enough there for two complete albums. I do have the "BB Plays His Hits" LP on Kapp with the red cover, but otherwise, all I have are the A&Ms.

So anyway, did a little digging online at the Burt Bacharach Online site and came up with this...

On Disc 5, the first two tracks are from a 1963 Kapp single:

Burt Bacharach, Saturday Sunshine (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) b/w And So Goodbye My Love (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) (Kapp single 532).

Next, two albums released a couple months apart in 1965:

Burt Bacharach, Hit Maker! Burt Bacharach Plays the Burt Bacharach Hits (LP Kapp KS-3428, 05/1965)
Don't Make Me Over (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Walk On By (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Wives and Lovers (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Anyone Who Had a Heart (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / The Last One to Be Loved (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / There's Always Something There to Remind Me (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / 24 Hours From Tulsa (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Trains and Boats and Planes (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Blue on Blue (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / A House Is Not a Home [first version] (Burt Bacharach & Hal David)
Orchestra and chorus directed by Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach, The Man! Burt Bacharach – His Songs (LP Kapp KS-3447, 10/1965)
Don't Make Me Over (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Walk on By (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Blue on blue (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / The Last One to Be Loved (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / There's Always Something There to Remind Me (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / What's New Pussycat? (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) Joel Grey / 24 hours from Tulsa (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / My Little Red Book (All I Do Is Talk About You) (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) Tony Middleton / Trains and Boats and Planes (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Wives and Lovers (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Anyone Who Had a Heart (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) Orchestra and chorus directed by Burt Bacharach

There are a few reissues of the Hitmaker! title, including one after Kapp was taken over by MCA.

Finally, here's the red covered "BB Plays His Hits" from 1966:

Burt Bacharach, Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits (LP Kapp KS 3577) [front cover: girl - back cover: Burt]: Trains and Boats and Planes (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / My Little Red Book (all I do is talk about you) (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) Tony Middleton / Anyone Who Had a Heart (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / There's Always Something There to Remind Me (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / 24 Hours from Tulsa (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Walk On By (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Wives and Lovers (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Don't Make Me Over (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Blue on Blue (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) / What's New Pussycat? (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) Joel Grey. Orchestra and chorus directed by Burt Bacharach

(More info here --> Burt Bacharach Online )

Seems like a reshuffling of various tracks he'd recorded, for all I know.

 

[Harry]

So, there in the mail on November 4th, one day before the official release date, was my copy of the new box set, BURT BACHARACH: SOMETHING BIG, THE COMPLETE A&M YEARS...AND MORE!

Packaging: Housed in a lovely, though somewhat awkwardly-sized, hardbound book-like case, the five disc set is pretty much all that could be hoped for, especially for those of us inclined toward the maestro's A&M output. Yes there are full A&M logos on the back and inside the liner notes, along with Hip-O Select's of course, and each time the title of the set is printed ("...THE COMPLETE A&M YEARS..."), the "A&M" part is printed in the logo style (minus the outline, trumpet, and "RECORDS").

The longest section of the lengthy liner notes were written by Lauren Oliver. I've not yet read through them in their entirety, but it seems like a more compact version of Burt's history - certainly more concise than the Rhino box set's epic notes. In addition to these, one page of notes each from Phil Ramone and Richard Carpenter are included, along with a two-page producers' notes from Mike Ragogna and Jim Pierson.

Next up are the track listings for the five discs, with pictures of the album covers heading up the appropriate pages. With each song, there's a credit for songwriters, producers, and the source album or single with catalog number.

Then there's an American discography of singles and albums, followed by some producers' notes about the inclusions in the set and the mastering problems encountered. That's all followed up with the box set's credits.

Next comes the actual discs, housed in thicker cardboard pages with slide-in pockets for each disc. Each set of pages (track list on left, disc on right) is themed to its own color, dark purple, green, brown, dark red, and an ochre-like color. (Ironically, the ochre-colored disc, #5, contains almost no A&M stuff, save for one track.)

How does it sound?: With my limited free-time lately, I haven't had much of a chance to listen to all of this material, but I sampled some of it. Initial comparisons are favorable with the older A&M discs, with these sounding at least as good if not better. Quite a few of Burt's recordings start with a solo instrument, allowing tape hiss to be clearly heard. It seems to me that no attempt to remove that hiss has been made here - a wise choice by masterer Erick Labson, ensuring a natural analog-sounding musical experience. The discs were 96k/24-bit mastered from the original master tapes.

Yes, the HAECO-CSG system is still there on the BUTCH CASSIDY tracks, as one would expect.

The live album sounds well-mastered to me and should be a treat for any who haven't heard that particular album.

If I have any criticisms at all it would be the lack of rear-cover artwork for the albums, and as mentioned earlier, the size of the set is awkward for storage. These are minor nit-picks though. All-in-all, it's a really classy set and well done. Kudos to Hip-O Select, Mike Ragogna, and Jim Pierson for their efforts in making this one a reality.

Harry
NP: BURT BACHARACH: SOMETHING BIG, THE COMPLETE A&M YEARS...AND MORE!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Harry - did you pay for super-fast shipping? I haven't gotten mine yet, although I'm a few thousand miles further away from the factory than you are, I guess!