Burt Bacharach - Burt Bacharach's Greatest Misses (1962)

While Burt Bacharach did score some early hits in the 1950's, and wrote songs recorded by some of the biggest stars of the day, as well as some of the more obscure ones, it wasn’t until Dionne Warwick's slew of hits with his and Hal David's tunes that he became a ubiquitous name in pop music. His early attempts at song-writing were recorded by a variety of artists, including Connie Stevens, Jack Jones, The Wanderers, The Exotics, Jane Morgan, and Vic Dana, but simply put, these are songs that didn’t make it; none of them charted at all. The vast majority of these tracks were written by the Bacharach/David team, but there are some exceptions, with 'Dreamin' All the Time', for example, being written by Bacharach and Bob Hilliard. Although these are early examples of Bacharach's work, they are still lushly orchestrated, dreamy pop songs with traces of his melodic trademark, as well as his sweeping harmonies. One interesting cut is the Shepherd Sisters' 'Deeply', written with Norman Gimble, which was an early girl group rock tune that featured the marimba sound from 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose'. There were a few duds along the way, of course, proving that Bacharach is human after all, but they tended to be songs from the late 50's and very early 60's, and by 1962 he and David had started to produce music that would point the way to their biggest hits, such as 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' and 'Walk On By', just a year later.

Track listing

01 And This Is Mine (Connie Francis 1961)
02 Don't Envy Me (Joey Powers 1962)
03 Dreamin' All The Time (Jack Jones 1962)
04 Manpower (The Exotics 1962)
05 Forever My Love (Jane Morgan 1962)
06 Sinner's Devotion (Tina Robin 1961)
07 The Answer To Everything (Sam Fletcher 1962)
08 Joanie's Forever (Buddy Clinton 1960)
09 Waitin' For Charlie To Come Home (Jane Morgan 1962)
10 You're Following Me (Jimmy Breedlove 1962)
11 I Could Make You Mine (The Wanderers 1960)
12 Call Off The Wedding (Babs Tino 1962)
13 Deeply (The Shepherd Sisters 1961)
14 For All Time (The Russells 1962)
15 The Story Behind My Tears (Vic Dana 1961)
16 Somebody Else's Sweetheart (The Wanderers 1961)
17 Come Completely To Me (Steve Rossi 1960)