Burt Bacharach & Hal David: selected hit songs, 1964 +

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Bacharach & David: selected US hit songs, 1964 + “A House Is Not A Home,” “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,”* and “To Wait For Love”

Walk On By
Wishin’ and Hopin’
A House is Not a Home
You’ll Never Get to Heaven
(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me
Reach Out for Me
To Wait For Love

Songbook’s Burt Bacharach Index

All songs included on this page were written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David

Walk On By

See the separate feature page “Walk On By: selected recordings, arranged by genre”

From Wikipedia:

The original version of “Walk On By” was recorded at the same December 1963 session that yielded [Dionne Warwick’s] hit “Anyone Who Had a Heart”. “Walk On By” was the follow-up to that single, released in April 1964 and reaching #6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Cashbox’s R&B chart.^[1]

For this song and for others by Bacharach & David, I’ve made exceptions to my rule of placing a song in the year in which it was written, or the year in which it was first recorded if the date written is unknown. For convenience sake, in my Bacharach pages I’ve generally chosen to date Bacharach & David hit songs by the year in which the song first became a hit.

Dionne Warwick – b/w “Any Old Time of Day” (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) — produced by Burt Bacharach & Hal David, arranged by Burt Bacharach, Scepter single 1274, April 1964 (#6)

(below) music video from French TV, taped sur le toit de la Maison de la Radio à Paris (original broadcast: 12 October 1964)

Dionne Warwick — live at the Fox Theatre in Brooklyn, from the 1965 (US) television special It’s What’s Happening Baby!, hosted by Murray the “K”

Isaac Hayes — A twelve minute interpretation of “Walk On By” became the first track on Hayes’s 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul, released in September 1969. Preceding the LP by a couple of months, a 4:20 edit was issued in July 1969 on the single Enterprise Records ENA-9003 as the B-side of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” The single peaked at #30 on the Hot 100. About another minute was lopped off for the following television lip-synch performance.

Rhetta Hughes — from her 1969 album Re-Light My Fire, Tetragrammaton Records ‎ T – 111

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Wishin’ and Hopin’

The song was introduced by Dionne Warwick as the B-side of This Empty Place, Scepter single 1247, released March 1963. The track also appeared on her debut LP Presenting Dionne Warwick that year.

Dusty Springfield – recorded January 1964 at Olympic Studios, #6 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart

Wikipedia says,

The track was included on Springfield’s solo album debuts in the UK: A Girl Called Dusty, and the US: Stay Awhile/I Only Want to Be with You.^[2]

In February 1964, Springfield met with Burt Bacharach in New York City to listen to other songs to consider recording. Bacharach recalls at that time: “I [think] I tried to talk her into releasing ‘Wishin’ and Hopin” [as a single] because she had some ambivalence about it.”^[3]

A New York disc jockey, Joe Lacey, began to play “Wishin’ and Hopin'” following some encouragement from David and Bacharach, and Philips’ US label issued it^[4] as a single in May 1964; “Wishin’ and Hopin'” broke nationally that June entering the Top Ten in July to peak at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 (#4 in Cashbox).

The release of “Wishin’ and Hopin'” as a concurrent UK single release for Springfield was precluded by the presence on the UK charts of Springfield’s single “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself” – one of the songs Bacharach had pitched to her when they met in New York City in February 1964.

Ani DiFranco – recorded in 1995, but best known for being featured over the opening credits of the film, My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)

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A House is Not a Home

Brook Benton – produced by Shelby Singleton, arranged and conducted by Alan Lorber, Mercury single 7203, released July 1964. It climbed to #75 after debuting on the charts on 18 July ’64. Dionne Warwick’s recording made the charts a couple of weeks later, and performed only slightly better, peaking at #71.

Burt Bacharach — An “almost instrumental” recording of the song by Bacharach was released on his 1965 LP Hit Maker! album. The following recording, from his 1967 album Reach Out, features (according to Serene Dominic) the composer’s “first-ever lead vocal”.

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Burt Bacharach and Dusty Springfield on the 1970 television special Another Evening With Burt Bacharach

Luther Vandross recorded the song for his debut album Never Too Much, 1981. The following video contains a live performance at the 1988 NAACP Awards show.

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You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)

Dionne Warwick

b/w A House Is Not a Home, Scepter single 1282, July 1964

(below) live in France, 1966

The Stylistics – #23 hit in 1973 after debuting on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on 19 May 1973

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(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me

From the Wikipedia profile:

First recorded as a demo by Dionne Warwick in 1963, “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” first charted for Lou Johnson whose version reached #49 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1964.^[1]

British impresario Eve Taylor heard Johnson’s version while on a US visit scouting for material for her recent discovery Sandie Shaw who resultantly covered the song for the UK market in September 1964 that same month premiering the song with a performance on the Ready Steady Go! pop music TV program. Shaw’s “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” was rush released to reach #1 on the UK charts in three weeks, spending three weeks at #1 in November 1964 and that same month debuting on the Billboard Hot 100; however despite reaching the Top Ten in some markets including Detroit and Miami^[2] Shaw’s version of “…Always Something There to Remind Me” failed to best the national showing of the Lou Johnson original as the Hot 100 peak of Shaw’s version was #52.^[3]

A #1 hit in Canada and South Africa, Shaw’s “…Always Something There to Remind Me” was also a hit in Australia (#16), Ireland (#7) and the Netherlands (#10), the track’s success in the latter territory not precluding hit status for the Dutch rendering by Edwin Rutten entitled “Ik moet altijd weer opnieuw aan je denken” (#12). Shaw herself recorded “…Always Something There to Remind Me” with French lyrics (by Ralph Bernet) as “Toujours Un Coin Qui Me Rappelle” to reach #19 in France; a cover by Eddy Mitchell was more successful reaching #2 in France in April 1965 also hitting #3 in on Belgium’s French language chart. Shaw also made a bid for a German hit rendering “…Always Something There to Remind Me” as “Einmal glücklich sein wie die ander’n”; this was not a success.

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Lou Johnson — b/w Magic Potion (Instrumental) (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) — produced, arranged and conducted by Burt Bacharach, Big Hill single 552, July 1964 — chart debut: 22 August 1964; peak position: #49

Sandie Shaw

In the US, Shaw’s single entered the Billboard Hot 100 on 28 November 1964 and stalled before reaching “hit” status (top 40, by convention). However, it went to #1 in the UK, Canada, and South Africa (See details on its success elsewhere in the excerpt from the Wikipedia profile above).

Naked Eyes – #8 hit in 1983

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Reach Out for Me — Originally recorded by Lou Johnson in 1963

Lou Johnson — b/w Magic Potion (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) — produced and arranged by Burt Bacharach, Big Top single 3153, released July 1963 (#74)

(below) Magic Potion (Burt Bacharach & Hal David), B-side of Reach Out for Me, Big Top single 3153

Dionne Warwick — b/w How Many Days of Sadness (Burt Bacharach & Hal David) — Scepter single 1285, released October 1964 (#20)

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To Wait for Love (Burt Bacharach & Hal David)

First recorded by Jay and the Americans, in 1963. Covers include: Paul Anka (64), Tony Orlando (64), Tom Jones (65), Jackie DeShannon (66), Herb Alpert & the TJ Brass (69), Martin Eaton (2008)

Jay and The Americans — issued in February 1964 on the single United Artists UA 693, b/w “Friday”

Paul Anka — issued on 15 January 1965, under the title “To Wait for Love (Is to Waste Your Life Away),” on the single RCA Victor ‎RCA 1434, b/w “Behind My Smile” (Andrews, Black)

Tom Jones — issued on 22 January 1965 on the single (UK) Decca F 12062, as the B-side of “It’s Not Unusual,” which became a #1 hit in the UK and reached #10 in the US

Jackie DeShannon — from her 1966 album Are You Ready for This?

Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass — from the 1969 LP Warm

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* (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me: Sandie Shaw’s recording was a big hit in several countries, but not in the US, where it failed to reach the top forty (#51). It was #1 in the UK, Canada, and South Africa, and also did quite well in Australia (#16), Ireland (#7) and the Netherlands (#10).