Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits
Back before one is a genius, one is a hustling schlub whothinkshe's a genius, and Bacharach never completely left the Brill Building, even in the '70s when he turned up his collar and started writing symphonies about what women are allegedly about. This oft-reissued 1965 date for Kapp (augmented by a touch of earlier material) is the pop calm before the full-blown storm of his post-"What's New Pussycat?" career onA&M.; There's an orchestra and white bread chorus, all right, but the results are relatively unpretentious, and you might be surprised by the endless number of hits he'd written before the peak: "Walk On By", "A House is Not a Home", "Wives and Lovers", etc. No Dionne, but Bacharach makes his Muzak count in a manner that Neil Diamond, after much effort, never has. There's still time, though.--D. Strauss