The Pop Corporation

There’s no question that Burt Bacharach is one of the greatest people who ever lived. His way with a song is rarely matched and, sadly, he’s passed away at the grand old age of 94.

With Hal David, all by himself, and with others, Bacharach has brought us a dizzying amount of classics. ‘Walk On By’, ‘I Say A Little Prayer’, ‘What The World Needs Now Is Love’, ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’, ‘Do You Know The Way To San Jose?’, ‘My Little Red Book’, ‘Arthur’s Theme’, ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’, ‘Alfie’, ‘The Look Of Love’, ‘Close To You’, ‘Magic Moments’, ‘Make It Easy On Yourself’, ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’, ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’, ‘On My Own’, ‘What’s New Pussycat?’, ‘A House Is Not A Home’… and we really could carry on. What an outrageous talent!

Anyone who is anyone has had a stab at a Bacharach song or shown huge admiration for him.

Of course, he won a clutch of awards – Grammys and Oscars – during a career that spanned seven-decades. Imagine how hard it is to have one solitary hit, and then think about how timeless the songs of Burt Bacharach are – it’s enough to make you dizzy.

A powerhouse of the Brill Building in New York, bringing music that touched on bossa nova, classical, jazz, pure pop, singer-songwriter earnestness… it seemed there was nothing his music could not lend itself to. And to sell records by the ferryload and sneak in unusual time-signatures and key changes – the man is a genius. Up there with Mozart, Cole Porter, Miles Davis, McCartney, and anyone else you can think of.

73 Top 40 hits in the US and 52 in the UK, working with artists including Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Barbara Streisand, Tom Jones, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and many more – a legacy that won’t ever be matched by many while there’s an earth to rotate on.

He died of natural causes at his home in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday with his family by his side. He will forever be the coolest person in any room.