Hal David Lives On

Hal David was a lyricist extraordinaire.  A. Goldstein of the Spectacle mentions a few of his works.

...But he really came into his own in the 1960s with his collaboration with Burt Bacharach.

Bacharach-David were responsible for turning Dionne Warwick into a star. They composed hits such as "Do You Know The Way to San Jose?", "Message to Michael", "Walk on By", and "I Say a Little Prayer".

Consider this list of Bacharach-David compositions which became part of the Great American Songbook:

"Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" - B.J. Thomas
"This Guy's In Love With You" - Herb Alpert
"What The World Needs Now is Love" - Jackie DeShannon
"One Less Bell to Answer" - Fifth Dimension
"Look of Love" - Dusty Springfield
"Only Love Can Break a Heart" - Gene Pitney
"What's New Pussycat" - Tom Jones
"(They Long to Be) Close to You" - The Carpenters

That's an album unto itself.

It is not unreasonable to propose that Bacharach/David was a landmark in pop song, developing and perfecting a style which succeeded the  "Sinatra/Crosby/Martin" style, and far more sophisticated than that of 'rock', using elegant but not-hackneyed harmony. It did, however, have a certain same-ness (as did the work of Mahler, e.g.)

R. I. P.