This week, we saw Burt Bacharach perform with the Nashville Symphony. It was a great show filled with the numerous hits that he has written. Unfortunately, we did not get pictures that are good enough to put on the blog. Instead, I will use this picture.
That is the first picture that popped up when I Googled “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” my favorite Burt Bacharach song. It is the one I went to the concert to hear, and, luckily, he sang it. At 87 years old, he left most of the singing to a trio sitting by his piano. They were no Dionne Warwick, but they did a tremendous job.
As I said, he sang the song I wanted to hear. Most people know it as the song from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I know it as the song that, for some reasons, fascinated me when I was a kid. I have been told that I sang it all the time. That is strange considering that I still have not seen that movie in its entirety.
Speaking of Westerns, I learned something that the concert. Burt Bacharach wrote “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” which was not used in the movie of the same name. I need to look through the blog archives to see if I wrote an examination of that movie. If not, then I need to do that.
Before the show, a friend of mine kept kidding around and telling me that I should ask Burt about Angie Dickinson, his ex-wife. My friend is a big fan of Angie Dickinson. I did not get the chance to ask that question, but I once wrote a post about her and a few other actresses. My friend should read it.
In my mind, Burt Bacharach has always been the epitome of cool. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of the coolest cats around. After seeing him in concert, we realized that he is still one of the coolest cats around.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 
So. Bacharach wrote a song title “The man who shot Liberty Valance,” which was NOT used in the movie. Was it used somewhere else? Liberty Valance isn’t so much a good movie as a fun and kind of campy movie. It was Lee Marvin being very Lee Marvin and John Wayne being seriously The Duke … and of course Jimmy Stewart being a very good guy. And John Ford earning a paycheck. Garry loves that last line and uses it often. Almost as often as he uses his signature “Generosity. That was my first mistake.” Good post 🙂
Apparently, there was some dispute between the movie company and the record company. The song was recorded by Gene Pitney and released separately. It went pretty high up the charts.
Ah. This, I did not know. I will have to see if I can find the song somewhere. I don’t think Garry has heard of it either. We are terribly unhip.
Gene Pitney sang “The Man who shot Liberty Valance”- a good song
“Raindrop Keep falling on my Head” is great too – from a pretty damn good Western, Starring two of the most Charismatic Movie Stars ever, Newman and Redford – who both made Westerns Classics – Hombre and Jeremiah Johnson.
Yep. Great stuff.
Jeremiah Johnson is one of the greatest movies of all time.
Two of my favourite western movies – Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid and Man who shot Liberty Vallance!
They are hard to beat.