The Sky’s in Love with You

In 1968, Herb Alpert had his first number one hit with “This Guy’s in Love with You.”

I was 11 years old at the time and, according to my auntie, I was convinced the song was actually call “The Sky’s in Love with You.”

“You were disappointed when you found out the real title,” she said.

For the record, I have no memory of this, and while I may have been disappointed, I was surprised when my aunt told me on Friday that the song had been written by Burt Bacharach, who had just died at 94 years old.

Bacharach, along with Hal David, wrote the soundtrack for a generation and since his death I keep discovering more of his songs.

When I was growing up it seemed like every other week Dionne Warwick was climbing the charts with on their hits, like “Walk on By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”

Dionne Warwick also recorded a song from the show Promises, Promises, “I'll Never Fall in Love Again”, which Bacharach and David wrote when the producer realized the play urgently needed another number before its opening the next evening.

Bacharach, who had just been released from the hospital after contracting pneumonia, was still sick, but worked with David's lyrics to write the song.

And. of course, there’s also “Rain Drops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”, “Alfie,” and “The Look of Love.”

Tulsa Blues

The morning after he died, I was at my gym, wheezing away on the Stairmaster while looking at a muted rerun of Charmed at one of the widescreen TVs when an old song popped into my head.

I remember it had something to do with a guy heading to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but he doesn’t make it. I recalled there was a number in the title....”23 Miles from Tulsa?”

Well, the song was called “24 Hours from Tulsa” that Gene Pitney recorded in 1964.

It’s a kind of “Dear Jane” story where our tells his true love he won’t be coming home because he met somebody new at a motel while he was only a day away from T-Town.

The song is a bit overwrought, to be honest, but the strange thing is that I hadn’t thought about it in years, nor had I heard it on the radio; it just came to me in the middle of a workout.

And I then found out it had been written by Burt Bacharach.

Pitney recorded other Bacharach songs, including “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” which may or may not had been intended for the film of the same name starring John Wayne, James Stewart and Lee Marvin.

I know I went to the old Carnegie Hall Cinema to see the movie on a double bill with Shane and I was rather disappointed when I didn’t hear Gene Pitney sing.

Bacharach also wrote “On My Own” by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, which was released in 1986, and “I Still I Have that Other Girl,” which I’d never heard of before and which won a Grammy for Bacharach and Elvis Costello in 1999.

The song was a part of a collaborative album between the two of them, titled “Painted from Memory” and was included on the soundtrack for Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

I know 94 years is a long time, but it just doesn’t seem long enough for someone like Burt Bacharach.

I tip my hat to the man who made the sky fall in love.