Burt Bacharach (born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer, pianist, and singer. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, he is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many with lyrics written by Hal David. Most of Bacharach & David hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick, but earlier associations (from 1957–63) saw the composing duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels, and Jerry Butler. As of 2014, Bacharach had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits. (More from Wikipedia)
In any case, there is so much to like about Dr. Crow: Can it really be as long ago as 2002 when this album came out? What is basically the title song is called “When Dr. Crow Turns on the Radio” – according to the lyrics, “you won’t hear nothing” when this happens – and it is a good old-fashioned stomping rock number. There is a cover of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song that is based on the Western film of the same name, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that came out in 1962 (but it was not used in the soundtrack). Gene Pitney had a Top 10 hit with “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, though he was asked not to record it before the movie came out. In their version, the Deviants include a clip of some dialogue from the movie – apparently Lee Marvin as the title character – and between the verses, Mick Farren talks about how rare it is for the villain’s name to appear in the title of a movie. One of their original songs on Dr. Crow, “The Murdering Officer” sounds ancient enough that pirates might have known about it; the lyrics talk about (among other things): “But snarling like dogs, we all went so willing / When the murdering officer paid us a shilling”.
(August 2013)
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Burt Bacharach wrote the music, and Hal David wrote the lyrics in their collaborations; they are best known for the numerous songs that were recorded by Dionne Warwick, though their first hit was “The Story of My Life”, a 1957 song by country and western musician Marty Robbins.
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I did not find anything else going on with Serge Kapustin of Black Russian until recent times, when he worked on several recordings with singer John Pagano. Pagano is from Rhode Island and combines R&B and easy-listening stylings; he is best known as the long-time lead vocalist in Burt Bacharach’s touring band. Three songs are available at several Internet sites by the pair: “Destiny”, “Hope”, and “A Time in Space”.
(April 2015/1)
