Burt Bacharach – and the hits just kept on coming

Burt Bacharach, the popular musical maestro, has died aged 94. He has been unfairly dubbed as an easy listening composer but leaves behind him an astonishing legacy of 50 Top 40 hits in the UK with more than 1,000 artists having covered his songs – Close To You, I Say A Little Prayer, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, Keep Fallin’ On My Head, The Look of Love, I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself, I Say a Little Prayer, (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me, Make It Easy on Yourself and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again – as well as songs and scores for movies like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Alfie, What’s New Pussycat? and Casino Royale.

  His partnership with lyricist Hal David put the pair up beside George and Ira Gershwin and his musical liaison with Dionne Warwick established her as a superstar. He was classically trained and effortlessly mixed opera and soul, the style of 20th century composers like Poulenc and Satie with jazz and bepop to wonderful effect.

He was born 12 May 1928 1.15 am Kansas City, Missouri with a fashion journalist father and a dominating, musical mother who forced him to learn the piano.  Married four times with four children, he had a racy romantic life, moving on from actress Angie Dickinson when she became successful and hooking up with Carole Bayer Sager when his career flagged. Not an easy personality he fell out with Hal David when the hits dried up as well as Dionne Warwick, with years of litigation following their parting.

  He had a Taurus Sun square a 7th house musical Neptune – Taurus ruling the throat and frequently being associated with singers. He had a disciplined, hard-working and well-organised 10th house Saturn in a hard-edged square to Mars in Pisces; and in an entrepreneurial Fire Grand Trine to Neptune and a lucky Jupiter in Aries in his financial 2nd house.

  Her emotional life would be adversely affected by a can’t-make-up-his-mind Sun square an Aquarius Moon and an uncommitted Neptune in his 7th.  He had two Yods – one of Saturn sextile Moon inconjunct Pluto which would give him a tendency to throw his weight around though would also bring him influence. And a wide yod of Pluto sextile Sun inconjunct Saturn which puts heavy demands on a life and requires real maturity to work well.  

  His relationships with Hal David and Dionne Warwick are a mystery since in both cases the relationship charts suggest major aggravation. With Hal David, a resentful Mars opposition Saturn; and with Dionne Warwick a hostile, power struggling Mars opposition Pluto.  But with Hal David there was a composite Neptune North Node conjunction bringing them together to make music for the masses. And with Dionne Warwick there was a musical composite Sun opposition Neptune and a lucky Uranus Jupiter. Music was what held them together. Though the bond only worked as long as the musical flow ran on successfully.

12 thoughts on “Burt Bacharach – and the hits just kept on coming”

  1. Marjorie, that evoked huge memories,,, What Do You Do When you Fall in Love,. The man was a genius, so out of public sight, so long…he had such stamina…. Taurus has built in music systems, they are wired….I know I’m old but can’t believe he was so aged and now gone. Bless, his talent was light and simple, God Bless….

  2. What a gift Burt Bacharach gave to the world. His wonderful music and talent will long be enjoyed and remembered. He was a perfectionist at his craft, and a genius composer who wrote music for the sake and love of music. My favourite of his songs is Alfie and my favourite artist Stevie Wonder played the most beautiful version of Alfie on his harmonica. I know Burt truly loved it so much, as he loved the covers of his music by so many artists.
    Stevie sang and played Alfie in tribute, when the Gershwin prize was given to Burt Bacharach and Hal David by President Obama, this praise for such musical greatness is well deserved.

    Rest in Peace Burt Bacharach, and thank you

  3. Ian: there is an error in this website: according to The American Atlas, which is much more reliable, there was no summer time in Missouri in 1928, only in 1918-1919 and then in 1942.

  4. Sorry to be a party pooper but.. The natal chart for Burt Bacharach has the wrong timezone. He was born in the summertime when daylight saving time was in force; the timezone should be CDT + 5:00, not CST + 6:00. This is a common error with lots of Astrology software and many charts on Astrodatabank.

    The Central Daylight Time chart gives him 29 Capricorn rising, 21 Scorpio on the MC, and Moon at 13 Aquarius.

    Here’s a link to the daylight savings date changes for Kansas City in 1928: http://www.world-timedate.com/dst/time_change_event.php?city_id=61&year=1928

  7. A brilliant man. He even genuinely loved the Stranglers superb cover of Walk on By…my contender for best cover version of all time….

  8. His hits gave a lot of people pleasure, as they were easy to sing along too and the tunes were quite jaunty. This is always a good sign for a hit, as people remember the whole package. His Sun/North Node midpoint is very close to Mercury – communication outside his home. Could a North Node in the fourth house make someone feel restricted/ or introverted?

  10. Burt Bacharach’s gifted legacy will be remembered and referenced through future generations of the musical cosmos.

    Rest In Peace

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