Steve Tyrell - Back to Bacharach (Expanded Edition) (2018) [Hi-Res]

Having achieved great success over the course of four decades as a songwriter, producer, and performer, Steve Tyrell is the man behind suh pop hits like the chart-topping ‘How Do You Talk To An Angel’ and producer of Linda Rondstadt’s Grammy-winning Don’t Know. He was only 19 years old when he first began producing with music greats Burt Bacharach and Hal David. He worked on several Dionne Warwick hits such as ‘The Look of Love’, and ‘Alfie’. Together with B.J. Thomas, they made the Bacharach-David song, ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’ into a 1969 Oscar winner for Best Song From A Movie (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). He has lent his musical expertise to over 40 films and countless television projects.

Originally released in 2008, this year marks the 10th anniversary of Back To Bacharach, as well as Burt Bacharach’s 90th birthday. This anniversary edition includes seven bonus tracks.

Steve Tyrell says… “I have been asked many times ‘where did you go to college?’ and I always answer with the same response: ‘I’m a graduate of Bacharach University!’’’ To celebrate the tenth anniversary of this album, Steve went back into the vault and polished seven lost gems recorded during the Bacharach sessions. Among them, his version of “That’s What Friends Are For”, a song he has long regretted not including on the original album. His tribute to the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David now extends to additional collaborations with Carole Bayer-Sager, Mack David, and Bob Hilliard. By his own admission, this is one of Tyrell’s most personal albums with songs that have shaped him as much as they have shaped modern American Songbook.

"Nearly every jazz or pop singer who grew up between the '60s and the '80s has a Burt Bacharach songbook in them waiting to get out. If Steve Tyrell's Bacharach album was positively screaming to be released, it's understandable; few artists of his caliber were looking on while Bacharach, Hal David, and others created nearly all of the classics that fill the names Bacharach/David with such panache. (While still a teenager, Tyrell landed a job with Scepter Records, and witnessed much of Bacharach's best work.) The genesis of Tyrell's Back to Bacharach came during 2002, when he and Burt Bacharach himself began recording and planning for it, but the illness of his wife forced a temporary postponement. Two Bacharach tracks were included on his 2003 album, This Guy's in Love, and Tyrell later returned to complete the project, including five tracks with arrangements or piano (or both) by Bacharach. Classy and polished to a degree that Bacharach himself would appreciate, Back to Bacharach works well, the smooth arrangements and occasional synth work providing a fine complement to Tyrell's rough-hewn vocals. Granted, no one's going to confuse him with Dionne Warwick in her prime. He has to strain for some notes, but like his friend and fellow Bacharach associate Herb Alpert, he's able to turn those inconsistencies into strengths in the interpretations of each song. Aside from Bacharach, friends appear on several tracks, including the signature trumpet and hum vocal of Alpert on "This Guy's in Love with You" and Patti Austin as a duet partner on two songs, "I Say a Little Prayer for You" and "Don't Make Me Over." Best of all is "What the World Needs Now Is Love," featuring a parade of vocalists -- Dionne Warwick, Rod Stewart, James Taylor, Martina McBride -- with more combined star power than the performing world has seen since "That's What Friends Are For." (John Bush, AMG)