BURT BACHARACH PASSES ON - RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING

I read, "Bacharach, master of pop songwriting, passes away at 94."

Immediate flashback to 1969 and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", the sympathetic movie about two bank robbers. and one of the greatest songs of all time, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" and its brilliant picturisation in the movie. Paul Newman in the role of Butch Cassidy takes the pretty and pert Katharine Ross acting as Etta Place, girl friend of Sundance (Robert Redford) Kid, on a bicycle ride with the beautiful, iconic song playing in the background. It is a fun trip in a farm with Etta first sharing an apple with Butch and then getting in a hut to watch Butch perform stunts on the bike till he tries to ride facing backwards and crashes through a fence. A bull and he exchange stares till he gets on the bike and picks up the shaken Etta with the bull charging at them.

What award did the song and the music for the movie not win for Burt Bacharach, the songwriter! He won two Oscars, Best Original Song and Best Original Music for the movie, British Academy Award for Best Original Music, Golden Globe for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, and a Grammy for Best Original Score in a Motion Picture or a Television Special. 

Burt won many more Grammys and another Oscar for Best Original Song, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)". Many more of his songs are unforgettable like another Grammy winner,"That's What Friends Are For" popularised by Dionne Warwick, his first Grammy winner "Alfie" for Best Instrumental Arrangement, Tom Jones' favourite "What's New Pussycat", "The Look Of Love" by Dusty Springfield featured in James Bond's "Casino Royale", Herb Alpert's mesmerising "This Guy's In Love With You", and "I Say A Little Prayer" by the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.

Burt's music is said to be 'easy listening' but as an NJ.com contributor, Mark Voger, wrote, "It may be easy on the ears but it's anything but easy. The precise arrangements, the on-a-dime shifts in meter, and the mouthfuls of lyrics required to service all those notes have, over the years, proven challenging to singers and musicians." "This Guy's In Love With You" is a brilliant example.

In 2008, he was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as music's "Greatest Living Composer", and in 2012, he along with his partner, lyricist Hal David, was awarded the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song by the Library of Congress, USA. As late as 2021, he with Hal wrote the music for the theatrical performance of "My Best Friend's Wedding."

Apart from his music, People's magazine in 2000 voted him as "Sexiest Man Alive" and one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" of 1999.

For me, "Raindrops" was enough for Burt Bacharach to find a permanent niche in my heart. He will live on as long as raindrops keep falling.