There are plenty of great hits written by Burt Bacharach not sung by Dionne Warwick, Jackie DeShannon, or Dusty Springfield. Here are six, and I’m not even including “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” by BJ Thomas or “They Long to Be Close to You” by the Carpenters.
These were all hits, and I guarantee you will start humming them all the time. There’s nothing like Marilyn McCoo singing “One Less Bell.” Nothing.
This weekend, starting tonight, we get “Magic Mike’s Last Dance.”
This is part three– and hopefully the end — of Channing Tatum’s “Magic Mike” movies about Chippendale’s like dancers.
Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 48%, meaning rotten, people didn’t like it. We get it.
But it’s Super Bowl weekend, this is counter programming to sports 24/7. The first two movies were hits, although the sequel did about 50% of the business of the first. “Magic Mike XXL” took in $66 million.
If “Last Dance” falls another 50%, then uh-oh. Warner Bros. is only releasing “Last Dance” to 1,500 theaters. The guess is that soon it will hit HBO Max, and that will be that. Stay tuned tomorrow for preview numbers.
PS Salma Hayek is in this film. She was nominated for an Oscar for “Frida.” She has enough money to start her own production firm and make a couple of movies for herself that are awards worthy. She can do it. She’s that good. These kinds of films are not up to her standards.
!Yes, for the third day in a row, “80 for Brady” was number 1 yesterday.
The combo all star ladies film and football anthem made $1.3 million. Total is now $17.7 million since last Friday.
Jane Fonda et al could throw a couple of touchdowns this weekend with the Super Bowl coming on Sunday afternoon (west coast) and night (east). Timed perfectly to the mega sports weekend, the film is likely to pull in big numbers with wives and girlfriends trading off dates to “80” for losing much of Sunday.
It could even be counter programming for Sunday for people who don’t watch the Super Bowl and are waiting for HBO’s “The Last of Us” at 9pm.
Mostly what this says is audiences want stars and some feel good movies. They also went for George Clooney and Julia Roberts in “Ticket to Paradise” and “A Man Called Otto” with Tom Hanks. These three movies also have very specific log lines that easily marketable. Watch for more of that in 2024 releases as studios may retreat to formulas that worked well in the past.
All of this, PS, is good news for Roadhouse Attractions. They’re releasing the Jane Fonda-Lily Tomlin comedy “Moving On” in March. It’s a little gem of a film. Let’s hope Roadhouse doesn’t live up to my old name for them!
Dionne Warwick has posted her thoughts on the passing of Burt Bacharach to Twitter:
“Burt’s transition is like losing a family member. These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner. On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run ins, but always found a way to let each other know our family, like roots, were the most important part of our relationship. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, letting them know he is now peacefully resting and I too will miss him.”
Dionne, Burt, and Hal David had an unprecedented collaboration, scoring dozens of hits like “I Say a Little Prayer” and “Walk on By.” She was their muse, and she had no other writers throughout the Sixties. Most artists wouldn’t even attempt a Bacharach- David song unless Warwick had done it first.
The cracks in their relationship only started to show in 1970, when the Carpenters released “Close to You” and BJ Thomas recorded “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.” By 1974 Warwick hit it big with The Spinners on “Then Came You.” She went through a dry spell until Clive Davis signed her to Arista in 1979 and a whole new chapter began.
But Bacharach also hit a dry spell. After the Fifth Dimension hit number 1 with “One Less Bell to Answer,” the team took a backseat to 70s classic rock and the advent of the singer songwriters like Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Carole King.
There was also a lawsuit filed by Warwick against the pair of songwriters. She’d signed a deal at Warner Bros. Records that was contingent upon them writing for her. But the team suffered a setback after working on a movie bomb, “Lost Horizon.” They stopped working for a while and reneged on their promise to Warwick. Somehow it was all settled out of court.
Meantime, the Warwick era needed time to settle in and become classic. It happened pretty fast, as the records never went out of style all that time. They never have, to this day, and never will.
Burt Bacharach won only one Grammy Award for Song of the Year. That was “That’s What Friends Are For,” in 1987. And that’s based a lot on the deep sentiment over the AIDS crisis.
But for everyone who complains about the Grammys now, think of this: Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote dozens of hits, all classics we hear on the radio day and night, and never got a Grammy.
“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and “Arthur’s Theme” each on Oscars, but no Grammys. Ditto everything from “I Say a Little Prayer” to “Close to You” to “Walk on By,” “Always Something There to Remind Me,” “What the World Needs Now,” “A House is Not a Home,” “This Guy’s in Love with You,” “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” and so on.
How is that possible?
In 2008, after having lived through this embarrassment, Burt was awarded “Greatest Living Composer” by the Grammys, which couldn’t have been so nice for Stephen Sondheim, Paul McCartney, or a dozen other people. But it was a sop to Burt who was already in his 80s.
As for his personal life, Bacharach had four wives including actress Angie Dickinson and famed songwriter Carole Bayer Sager. He has two living children with his fourth wife, Jane. An older daughter, who was autistic, committed suicide.
But what amazing life. There was never a decade when he wasn’t popular, and his music will last well beyond the half century or more when it originated.
Burt Bacharach has died at 94. The towering composer of pop classics like “Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head,” “Close to You,” and dozens of Dionne Warwick sung hits wrote his songs with lyricist Hal David. They are truly part of the American culture.
Bacharach and David won an Oscar for “Raindrops” and dozens of other awards. And Burt was no wallflower. He saw himself as a bit of a Hollywood swinger and a raconteur. He sang — even with his froggy intonations — on variety shows all the time. He even appeared in the “Austin Powers” movies as himself. He was the epitome of 60s cool with his marriage to Angie Dickinson. Later he was married to songwriter Carole Bayer Sager and they wrote a bunch of hits together including “That’s What Friends Are For.”
Bacharach’s death comes just before the issue of a box set detailing his long collaboration with rocker Elvis Costello.
Burt dies with a lot of awards, and a massive legacy, but no award from the Kennedy Center Honors. They just didn’t get it. But the world did, and mourns a superstar of music.
On Sunday, Harry Styles won Album of the Year at the Grammys for his “Harry’s House.”
It had nothing to do with being a guy or being white. “Harry’s House” is an album of all original songs. You may not like them, but they are not sampled. They may sound like old songs, but they stand on their own.
Beyonce once again did not win Album of the Year. Everyone has a theory, but mine is this: her album, “Renaissance,” is full of samples of other music. That’s right. About 20 samples are spread over a dozen songs.
One more thing: the songs on “Renaissance” are full of expletives. The F word is dropped liberally. It’s crude and coarse.
And that’s it. Beyonce has an exceptional voice. I love hearing it. She’s got an ego, but she also has a nice smile. Yes, she shows up late for everything, even the live Grammys, but you’re happy to see her when she arrives. She now has the record for most Grammy Awards, so it’s not like she’s unloved by the Recording Academy.
No, the issue is with her albums’ lack of originality. “Harry’s House,” like Adele’s “30,” is all original material. Even Mary J Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous” album is almost sample-free. The rest of the Grammy nominees were largely without samples.
So really, “Renaissance” is lucky to be in the category at all. I know people will tell me that samples are the foundation for hip hop. That’s fine. But to make that final cut for Album of the Year there is a higher standard.
Last year’s winner of Album of the Year was Jon Batiste. A lot of people were surprised. But Batiste combined all new songs with clever covers. He didn’t create Frankensteins.
Add to this the story I wrote at the end of last week. Beyonce’s “Break My Soul” was nominated for Song of the Year. But it was basically a sample of a 1993 disco hit called “Show Me Love.” Beyonce and her producers added some frills and their names to the credits. But the Grammys wouldn’t nominate the original writer, Allen George, because it was a sampled work. Sampling is never going to win the main awards.
Beyonce’s best bet: make an all original record, even if it’s covers of old songs. They can be existing songs. But they can’t be songs made up of particles of other songs. Natalie Cole won for an entire album of covers with her “Unforgettable.” Beyonce can do it. It’s in her power. Everything is, according to her fans. Convene a meeting of the best songwriters and ask for their newest material. Then you’ll have Album of the Year.
So yes, Deadline broke the news that Kevin Costner will not make it past part of “Yellowstone,” season 5, which we should see this summer.
I’m told that there is no love lost between “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan and Costner.
“The people there hate him,” my source says. “They hate each other. He’s very demanding. He’s impossible.”
The big stumbling points aren’t just time, as described in Deadline. “It’s all about money,” my source says. “Kevin wants more of it, he’s very bad with money.”
Indeed, a posting went up in the last two weeks that Costner is renting his sprawling Aspen, Colorado ranch for — drum roll, please — $36,000 a night. Even though he’s made a lot of money from “Yellowstone,” let’s not forget Costner has seven children and who knows how many people on his payroll.
None of this, as a friend of mine used to say, makes him a bad person. But I’m told Paramount is over the whole thing. This makes sense, too, because when Costner first announced his “Horizon” project, I wrote here that Paramount would scoop it up in order to stay in business with their “Yellowstone” star.
And then, surprise! Costner made his deal with New Line/Warner Bros. “Horizon” has turned into an 11 hour massive project for him, too, ballooning in cost and scope. Sound familiar? That was the same thing with “Waterworld” and “The Postman,” which were notorious bombs.
It would be easy to write Costner aka John Dutton out of “Yellowstone” and introduce Matthew McConaughey as a new central character. There have also been clues dropped in the press that Dutton’s days are numbered. If his character met a demise, it would not affect any of the prequels about the Dutton family, either.
Meantime, Costner gave an eloquent, beautiful speech this past Saturday night honoring Clive Davis and remembering Whitney Houston at Davis’s pre-Grammy gala. As time goes by, Costner’s devotion to Houston, his “Bodyguard” co-star, has grown and grown.
First came “Otto.” Not it’s time for Brady.
The number 1 movie Monday and Tuesday was “80 for Brady,” starring a quartet of lively, sexy older movie stars including Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, and Rita Moreno. Just retired NFL superstar Tom Brady lends his name to the title, his likeness to some scenes, and a cameo at the end.
Yesterday, “80 for Brady” made $2.5 million, bringing its total since last Friday to $16.4 million. The mildly raunchy comedy — with PG-13 jokes — is a hit. In theaters, of all places.
“80 for Brady,” released by Paramount, is proving a point. Audiences will come to theaters and see movies for adults if they look like they’re fun and they’re well marketed. This film offers four big name stars with many Oscars and other awards among them. It also has the hook of lots of football footage interspersed with the ladies’ antics. For a studio, it’s a perfect juxtaposition.
The “80 for Brady” success comes on the heels of another movie for adults with a big star pulling audiences to theaters. That’s Tom Hanks as “A Man Called Otto,” the surprise hit of dreary January, now up to $54 million. Genial is the word here. “Otto” is about a likeable curmudgeon who despite his griping has a heart of gold. Hanks has two Oscars, which doesn’t hurt. I ran into him a lot over Grammy weekend, and he’s as surprised as anyone else. He told me, “We just have people something they wanted.”
Indeed.
I read the story in The Cut (New York Magazine) about how everyone’s having sex at ABC. This comes from the scandal surrounding TJ Holmes and Amy Robach at “Good Morning America 3” or whatever it’s called.
The Cut is just scandalized. Like this has never happened before!
Well, it has. ABC has been a Wolf’s Dean as far back as anyone can remember.
Back in 1997, ABC News was “rocked” when it was revealed that news chief David Westin was sleeping with his executive vice president of communications, Sherrie Rollins. They were each married to other people.
Everything seems new to every generation, but it’s not. The Westin-Rollins thing went on in the gossip columns for weeks, both in New York and Washington. Here’s a link to just one story from the Washington Post. Please, kids, New York columnists Liz Smith and Cindy Adams were on it every day. Here’s a feature story in New York Magazine back when they immediately covered New York media scandals.
David Westin kept his job until 2010. Sherrie left the network. They married, and had a son.
Even before the Westin-Rollins soap opera, ABC was famous as a hotbed media Plato’s Retreat. There were constant stories in the 80s about monkey business all over the studios, even in the elevators. ABC Evening News anchor Peter Jennings, who was respected and erudite, was pretty much a well known hounddog (although his reported affairs were outside the office).
Watch the movie “Broadcast News” or even the recent TV series, “The Morning Show.” These people who work at network news — see Jeff Daniels and co in HBO’s “Newsroom” — are locked inside all day and night or traveling together 24/7. Just recently, CNN’s Jeff Zucker was taken down in a similar situation when his relationship with his PR person at the network, Alison Gollust, was revealed. And I could tell you stories about Walter Cronkite. That’s the way it is.