Burt Bacharach, Legendary Pop Maestro, Dies at 94

Burt Bacharach, the composer and producer of some of the 20th century's biggest pop hits, died at his L.A. home Wednesday. He was 94.

His publicist Tina Brausam confirmed his death to The New York Times, but did not provide a cause.

Bacharach was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 12, 1928, and grew up in NYC. Even as a child, he later said, he was addicted to jazz music, fueling his pursuit of a musical education at McGill University in Montréal, the Mannes School of Music in New York, and the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California.

Serving in the U.S. Army, where he was known to play piano for fellow service members, he met singing star Vic Damone, with whom he would work for the next three years. He also worked for Steve Lawrence, the Ames Brothers and Polly Bergen.

Working for Paula Stewart led to their five-year marriage.

His first song, "Once in a Blue Moon," was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1952, but Bacharach's career really took off in 1956, when the rising-star 28-year-old met 55-year-old icon Marlene Dietrich, who was in the process of putting together a comeback cabaret act. He became her arranger, conductor, and lover. Dietrich later called him the love of her life.

In the meantime, Bacharach had begun working diligently at crafting popular music full-time, which he would quit Dietrich for in the '60s.

He met his most important collaborator, Hal David, in 1957, and the two wrote "The Story of My Life" for Marty Robbins, a no. 1 country smash in the U.S. and a no. 1 pop hit in the U.K. They followed with Perry Como's "Magic Moments," which was a U.S. Top 4 and went to no. 1 in the U.K., making Bacharach and David the first songwriters to achieve pole position with two songs in a row.

Non-David compositions of this period included "Please Stay" for the Drifters (1961), "Tower of Strength" for Gene McDaniels (1961), "Three Wheels on My Wagon" for Dick Van Dyke (1961), "Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)" for Chuck Jackson (1962), and "Mexican Divorce" for the Drifters (1962), all with Bob Hilliard.

By 1963, Bacharach and David were formally working as partners, and it came at a time when Bacharach had "discovered" Dionne Warwick, then a backup singer.

Bacharach and David provided a string of hits for Warwick, whose out-of-this-world vocal stylings combined with their romanticism achieved for the work a signature airy, upscale, modern-woman vibe that made Warwick one of the most successful female solo acts of all time on the Billboard charts.

She had 38 charted hits with the songwriters, among them "Don't Make Me Over" (1962), "Walk on By" (1964), "Anyone Who Had a Heart" (1964), "Alfie" (1966), "I Say a Little Prayer" (1967), and perhaps her signature song "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" (1969).

His first marriage over, Bacharach in 1965 wed movie star Angie Dickinson, elevating them to power-couple status. He remained with her for 15 years, all through her "Police Woman" (1974-1978) superstardom. The couple welcomed a daughter, Nikki, who had undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome. She took her own life at 40.

In the '60s and early '70s, suave and telegenic Bacharach released albums and hosted TV specials under his own name, was a success on Broadway with "Promises, Promises" (1968), and his work was recorded by many other artists, notably Dusty Springfield's "The Look of Love" (1967) for the spy parody "Casino Royale" and the Carpenters' cover of "(They Long to Be) Close to You" (1970), which had been a 1963 recording by Richard Chamberlain.

Another major movie success came via "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," the Oscar-winning theme of the Paul Newman-Robert Redford film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969). It is considered one of the most famous and beloved movie songs of all time.

By 1973, the Bacharach-David partnership dissolved bitterly in the wake of the failure of the 1973 movie musical "Lost Horizon." They did reunite to produce the album "For the First Time" for Stephanie Mills in 1975.

Bacharach experienced a career rejuvenation in the '80s while working with — and getting married to — Carole Bayer Sager, with whom he wrote "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)," one of the biggest hits of 1981, and another Oscar winner. They also wrote "Heartlight," a big pop hit for Neil Diamond in 1982, and the no. 1 pop hit "On My Own" (1986), a duet by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald.

A reunion with Warwick — from whom Bacharach had been estranged for a dozen years — arrived in the form of another chart-topping hit, "That's What Friends Are For." The 1985 anthem was written to address the AIDS epidemic, and featured vocals by Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder.

Bacharach's later work included co-writing Elvis Costello's "Painted from Memory" (1998) and working with him on his 2018 album "Look Now." A box set of "Painted from Memory" is set for release this year.

He continued performing live into his 90s, published the warts-and-all memoir "Anyone Who Had a Heart" with Robert Greenfield in 2014, and released with Daniel Tashian the EP "Blue Umbrella" in 2020.

Divorcing Bayer Sager in 1991 — though they remained friends for the rest of his life — Bacharach married for a fourth time in 1993. His wife Jane and their two children survive him, as does his son with Bayer Sager.