Feted jazz singer Cleo Laine also died this week. I have never been much into jazz and as a consequence never really paid much attention to her career beyond being aware of her from TV appearances and the like but I knew she was a big influence on the jazz world.

However, I always liked the description of jazz in the TV series The Beiderbecke Affair as falling into three kinds: “cool”; “hot”; or “when does the tune start.”

As far as I can see Laine only had two singles which could be described as UK hits, both from 1960.

The first was co-written by David Dearlove and Laine’s second husband and longtime musical collaborator Johnny Dankworth.

Cleo Laine: Let’s Slip Away

The second is more “pop”py, perhaps unsurprisingly as it was written by Hal David (more famous for his work with Burt Bacharach) along with Sherman Edwards.

Cleo Laine: You’ll Answer To Me

Clementine Dinah Bullock (Cleo Laine): 27/10/1927 – 24/7/2025. So it goes.

I got home late last night just after hearing of the death of Burt Bacharach on the radio in the car.

Burt Bacharach’s roster of hit songs is just superb. Far too many to list here.

I noted his collaboration with lyricist Hal David in 2012.

It is fair to say that the 1960s would not have been the 1960s without their songs to help soundtrack the decade. Most of their songs have become standards.

In memoriam I present perhaps one of their lesser known compositions. Like many of theirs it was a hit in the US for Dionne Warwick (albeit with a slightly altered title) but in the UK it became Adam Faith’s last top twenty success.

Adam Faith: Message to Martha

Scottish band Deacon Blue covered it – along with three other Bacharach/David compositions – in 1990.

Deacon Blue: Message to Michael

Burt Freeman Bacharach: 12/5/1928 – 8/2/2023. So it goes.

Hal David’s death was reported last weekend.
For sure he was not at the cutting edge of rock and roll but Hal David was simply one of the best lyricists of the 60s and 70s. In collaboration with Burt Bacharach he wrote so many memorable songs for so many performers. Many 60s artists might not have had a career without their songs and well after it was written their (They Long to Be) Close to You provided The Carpenters with a first hit in 1970.
With Bobbie Gentry’s 1969 no. 1 I’ll Never Fall in Love Again David’s inventive rhyming of pneumonia with phone ya, certainly stuck in the ear. I Say A Little Prayer made Aretha Franklin in the UK.

Bobbie Gentry: I’ll Never Fall in Love Again

Aretha Franklin: I Say A Little Prayer

Harold Lane “Hal” David, 25/4/1921 – 1/9/2012. So it goes.