Burt Bacharach & VARIOUS - The Look Of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection
(Rhino)

The year in which Burt Bacharach turned 70 saw his public stature and profile at an all-time high. In 1998, there was no swankier place for a pop music fan to be than the Burt bandwagon. Maybe you’re sick of seeing him on the awards shows, the barf-a-minute morning yapfests, the home shopping channels, Austin Powers, TNT, and wherever the hell else his face has been paraded around of late. But for the love of Lennon, think of it this way: in 1998, Burt Bacharach was merely getting his due.

One reason Bacharach’s genius went uncelebrated for so long was the lack of an easy, organized way to collect his music in the CD age. Throughout his entire career, he has been a consummate collaborator. For as much as the guy has a way with a tune like few others, he doesn’t write words, and his singing voice is rather strained. Most of the crucially important recordings of his songs are spread among a variety of artists and record labels. The performer most closely tied to his music, Dionne Warwick, has been more or less definitively documented on an indispensable single-disc Rhino compilation, The Collection: Her All-Time Greatest Hits, but, inexplicably, no record store ever seems to stock it. (It’s allegedly in print, or why else would it appear in this box’s "Also Available" listing? But walk up to the counter at any huge chain record store, give them the catalog number—71100—and just dare them to come up with a copy.) With only inferior Warwick collections widely available, anyone seeking out Bacharach’s songs by the most important of his interpreters has been S.O.L. for years.

So Rhino—big shocker—took up the task of righting this injustice. And yeah, wonder of fucking wonders, the 75 tracks they gathered on these three CDs just about tell the whole story, when complemented by the aforementioned Warwick disc (still necessary). This box really is a remarkable study in great pop songcraft and collaboration, rightfully leaning mostly on recordings produced or arranged by the man himself. Though it might have been interesting to include more cover versions done without Burt’s involvement, in the end Naked Eyes’ "(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me" wouldn’t have fit in, and there’s probably no way Capitol would have licensed The Beatles’ "Baby It’s You" anyway.

Hal David, who penned the lyrics for the lion’s share of the classics here, deserves to share in the spotlight, as do the singers and musicians, who by necessity must have skills to keep up with Burt’s always-challenging melodies and time signatures. When Warwick was at the peak of her game, an undeniable classic like "Walk On By" was putty in her hands, or at least in her throat. Not far behind her was Dusty Springfield, whose "Wishin’ And Hopin’" is fab, yet no match for the further Bacharachian glory she would hit with the All-World-Of-Cool chart topper "The Look Of Love" (which only made #22 on the pop chart, criminally).

The box’s cavalcade of coolness continues with the likes of The Shirelles, The Drifters, Tom Jones, Jackie DeShannon, Cilla Black, Herb Alpert, The Carpenters, and The 5th Dimension. It’s all rounded out by forgotten treasures like "Wives And Lovers"—a top 20 hit in 1963 for Jack Jones, who would later go on to fame for singing the "Love Boat" theme—and Manfred Mann’s version of "My Little Red Book," a song later covered by Love. Gorgeous, heartbreaking, yet uplifting stuff. The Look Of Love is perfect for those times when your world is full of strange arrangements and gravity won’t pull you through.

YEAH YEAH YEAH, 1999