Dionne Warwick: Bacharach and David Were Family

Composer Burt Bacharach's death "is like losing a family member," Dionne Warwick told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday. She's used that term before in analyzing her hit-making partnership with Bacharach and lyricist Hal David, which began in 1962. The ups were well-known, but there also were downs, the singer said. "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," she said. Or, as she put it in 2021, "We fell out, we fell back in."

"Burt, Hal, and I grew into what came to be known throughout the industry as the triangle marriage that worked," Warwick told Vulture in December. "We each felt that we had something to offer and made it all work together." She calls Bacharach's musicianship unparalleled. And David transcends the role of lyricist, she said. "I consider him a poet." Then came Warwick's job: "I was the interpreter of both." As Bacharach told it, he realized when he met Warwick, then a backup singer, at a recording session that he'd found a lead singer with the technical skill to handle his songs' difficult melodies and time signatures, as well as tricky asymmetrical phrasing, per the New York Times.

Other artists honored Bacharach as well on Thursday, per People. Brian Wilson wrote that "Burt was a hero of mine and very influential on my work," adding that his songs "will live forever." Paul Stanley posted that the songs Bacharach produced with David and others "share an effortless combination of simplicity & sophistication." Kristin Chenoweth said: "What do you get when you fall in love? Burt Bacharach." (More Burt Bacharach stories.)