John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr together (the Beatles), and Burt Bacharach, Hal David and Dionne Warwick together, are on a whole other level in our time unique to themselves as song writers and interpreters.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David

Burt is immortal forever even though he just left us.

Burt Bacharach

Our world would not be our world without the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David sung by Dionne Warwick.

Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach

I recently heard a similar story told differently, but Bob Longhi told me how he got Bacharach out of jail in Lahaina when he was busted for pot in the seventies. Burt was so mad he didn't even thank Bob, which is understandable. We sat next to Burt at Divino in Brentwood one night on 2001, and he was still angry recalling the incident, not being something one expects while vacationing.

While working part-time at an upscale clothing boutique at the Kapalua Bay Hotel around 1989 where I met Pattie Page, Charlie Colin, Oprah Winfrey and Gary Shandling, Burt appeared at the door one night, took a few covert glances around, but didn't enter. A shame because there was a lovely white Yamaha baby grand there it would have been fun to hear him play, the two of us being the only ones there at the time. The piano wasn't in view of where he stood regretfully for he may have been tempted.

- Michael Robinson, February 2023, Los Angeles

© 2023 Michael Robinson All rights reserved

Michael Robinson is a Los Angeles-based composer, programmer, pianist and musicologist. His 198 albums include 151 albums for meruvina and 47 albums of piano improvisations. Robinson has been a lecturer at UCLA, Bard College and California State University Long Beach and Dominguez Hills.