‘Walk On By’: The Burt Bacharach song that transformed Dionne Warwick’s career
One of the most prolific and accomplished popular composers of the late 20th century, Burt Bacharach, was a force of nature. Unflinchingly motivated and uniquely talented, he racked up a dizzying 52 top 40 hits over the course of his career, sliding between genes and blending styles as he went. His compositions were as daring as they were popular, frequently combining elements of jazz, bossa nova and rock with protean time signatures and unusual chords. Much like his contemporary Lee Hazelwood, he was a trojan horse in the world of pop music, never once sacrificing originality for commercial viability.
After studying music theory and composition at the Mannes School of Music in New York City and absorbing the teachings of Bohuslav Martinu, Henry Cowell and Darius Milhaud, Bacharach joined forced with lyricist Hal David in 1957, to whom he’d been introduced while working at the Paramount Music Company in New York. It wasn’t long before the pair struck gold with the Marty Robbins hit ‘The Story Of My Life’, which reached number 15 in 1957. The following year, they did it again with Perry Como’s ‘Magic Moments’, which soared to number eight.
By start of the 1960s, Bacharach was one of the most revered songwriters in America and had written nearly 100 songs with David, many of them highly successful. In 1961, he was fortunate enough to sit in on a recording session where a young session accompanist called Dionne Warwick was also present. That same year, Warwick and Bacharach released ‘Move it on the Backbeat’ under the name Burt and The Backbeats. The following year, Dionne made her own professional recording debut with ‘Don’t Make Me Over’, convincing Bacharach to write more songs for the emerging vocalist.
In 1964, David and Bacharach sat down to pen ‘Walk On By’. Remembering how the hit came together, Burt told Record Collector: “‘Walk On By’ was the first time that I tried putting two grand pianos on a record in the studio. I can’t remember if I played and Artie Butler played or if Paul Griffin and Artie Butler played but here were two grand pianos going on. I knew the song had something. It was a great date. I walked out of that studio and we had done two tunes in a three-hour session, ‘Walk On By’ and ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart.’ I felt very good leaving knowing that I had two monster hits on my hands. You never know for sure but you feel a great satisfaction.”
Of those two songs, ‘Any Old Time of The Day’ was, rather strangely, selected as the A-side. In the eyes of Warwick’s label, the single was the singer’s last shot at making the top 40. Murray the K’s decision not to play it on his WINS radio station, therefore, confused and aggravated the label no end. It wasn’t even that he didn’t like the A-side; he just thought ‘Walk On By’ was better. And no matter how many people called and pleaded with him, Murray, knowing that the B-side was a better song, refused to do as he was told. He was right to put this faith in the track. Today, it remains one of the most evocative songs of the 1960s. A testament to the late composer’s era-defining talent, you can hear Burt play ‘Walk On By’ below.
