A few days ago, the world lost one of its most classic and distinctive songwriters. Burt Bacharach is someone for whom the hype and hyperbole is fully justified, and it seemed right to mark the occasion by adding to the small collection of Bacharach songs on this site.
I’ve written a little about the partnership of Burt Bacharach and Hal David elsewhere (see Walk On By and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head), so there’s no point in repeating any of that here. Suffice to say that between them – Bacharach for the music, David for the lyrics – they left a trail of lush pop classics during the 1960s that is unrivalled. Graduates of the Brill Building in New York, home to other classic pop writing combinations such as Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Bacharach and David’s rich, complex, but ultimately whistle-able tunes were (and are) a high-water mark in the art of sophisticated song-writing. Later collaborations with the likes of Carole Bayer Sager, Neil Diamond and Elvis Costello produced further hits (the likes of Arthur’s Theme, Heartlight, and That’s What Friends Are For) but it is that run of 60s and early 70s classics with David that are his real legacy.
This Guy’s In Love With You was given to Herb Alpert by Bacharach in response to a request for Alpert for “any old compositions lying around that you and Hal never recorded; maybe one I might be able to use”. Herb, head of A&M records at the time (he is the “A” in A&M, his partner being Jerry Moss) decided to record the song himself, being as it fitted his range, and allowed for a distinctive horn solo. A huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic (and, along with Rise, giving Alpert the distinction of being the only artist to top the US Chart with both a vocal and instrumental tune), the song established itself as a standard, including a number of gender-reversed versions by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield.
And so to the songsheet. First off, this is a Bacharach song, which means it is never going to be straightforward, although this one is relatively standard in terms of timings. I’ve deliberately kept it as close as I can make to the original, because I think that all those wonderfully nuanced chords really make the tune. So that means twenty (twenty!) chords, but none of them are – by themselves – that hard. It’s a real major 7th fest (which, as regular readers (!) will know, is the chord of the Gods!), and sounds delicious. Oh, and I’ve tabbed out the solo as well, if you feel so inclined. Certainly worth the effort. Enjoy!
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