Bacharach's one big failure

 Fifty years ago, Burt Bacharach had a successful partnership with lyricist Hal David, a productive working relationship with Dionne Warwick and marriage to the lovely Angie Dickinson. But he had an ambition to emulate the great American song-writers of the past with a successful musical. The attempt was Lost Horizon, a spectacular failure. 

[It was] a musical take on Frank Capra's 1937 film about a group of plane crash survivors who discover a utopian city. Bacharach and David, who started their fruitful partnership in the late '50s writing hits for Gene Pitney and Perry Como, wrote the songs together, including the title track. While "Lost Horizon" the song was a minor hit (#63), sung by Shawn Phillips, Lost Horizon the movie was a disaster. The kindest review came from The New York Times, which called the film "a big, stale marshmallow." 

 Bacharach kind of saw it coming, at least from a musical standpoint. He disapproved of how the music was being handled and let everyone know it, causing him to be banned from the dubbing studios. The composer turned his ire on his songwriting partner, who wasn't as vocal about the situation and left Bacharach feeling unsupported. Bacharach, who arranged and produced all of the music, demanded he get a bigger share of the royalties; David refused, and their professional relationship ended on the spot. To make matters worse, Bacharach reneged on a deal to produce a new album for Dionne Warwick, inciting a lawsuit with both the singer and the lyricist. Bacharach, who already had troubles at home with his marriage to Angie Dickinson, nearly left music behind for good. [more here]

It says a lot for his personality that he managed to patch things up with David and Warwick, and that (from my recollection of a 1990s TV documentary) Dickinson lent him support even after the divorce.

Before all that, in 1956 a big break was being signed up by Marlene Dietrich as her musical director. Noël Coward planned on Bacharach directing the music for his one-man show, which had been a great success in Las Vegas, for later tours. It seems that Dietrich asked for an introduction and then snaffled Bacharach from the Master. 

With Bacharach's passing, one more link between the worlds of classical music and pop has been broken. One wonders when there will be another composer who brings a distinct melodic gift to bear on popular music.