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Authors: Burt Bacharach
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given credit for it, I wrote the instrumental theme for The Blob , a Paramount picture starring Steve McQueen. I got five hundred dollars for the song. Mack David put words to it and the song was recorded as “Beware of the Blob,” by the Five Blobs. Bernie Knee, a demo singer and musician at Associated Recording Studios in Times Square, where everyone cut their demos back then, sang all five parts on the song and it became a moderate hit.
During the next four years I wrote eighty songs with Hal, Wilson Stone, Syd Shaw, and Bob Hilliard, including one called “Happy and His One Man Band.” None of them were hits, and most were never even recorded. Even though it bothered me a lot that my songwriting career was going nowhere, I kept myself busy by touring the world with Marlene Dietrich.
Chapter
5
The Blue Angel
I was about to go to Los Angeles to learn something about scoring films at Paramount Pictures and see this actress named Norma Crane, whom I had met in New York, when I heard myself being paged at the airport. I went to the front desk of the TWA terminal to take the call, and it was Peter Matz, a brilliant conductor, arranger, and classically trained pianist who had worked with Harold Arlen on Broadway. After Arlen had recommended Peter to Marlene Dietrich, he had started working as her accompanist before she loaned him to Noël Coward for an engagement in Las Vegas.
I always liked Peter because we had so much in common, and when I picked up the phone, he said, “Look, I’m in a real jam here. Dietrich is playing in Vegas at the same time as Noël Coward and he wants me to work with him, so do you think you could fill in for me and do the date with her?” Although I was definitely interested, the idea of meeting Marlene Dietrich seemed really intimidating to me. I had no idea if I could even pass the audition, but Peter said he would let Dietrich know I would be calling her at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
After I had put my stuff away in Norma Crane’s apartment on Sweetzer Avenue in West Hollywood, I called Marlene Dietrich and went over to see her in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Marlene was fifty-six years old at the time but she was still beautiful and as famous as ever. We talked a little and she was very nice and got me something to eat, but I was still really nervous because she was a very powerful presence and had the aura of a huge star.
When we started to work together at the piano, she said, “Do you write?” I said, “Yeah, I’m trying to be a songwriter.” She asked to hear something I had written so I played her “Warm and Tender.” Marlene had never heard the song before but when I finished, she told me how much she loved it. Marlene wasn’t going to sing the song herself but she wanted Frank Sinatra to hear it. I gave her the demo I had brought with me and she got it to Frank. When he turned the song down, Marlene got really angry with him and told him he was making a big mistake because I was going to become a really well-known songwriter. “One day you’ll see!” she told him. “You’ll see!”
I asked her what song she wanted to open her show with and Marlene handed me the sheet music for a song Mitch Miller had written for her, called “Look Me Over Closely.” I looked at it and said, “You don’t want to open with this kind of arrangement, do you?” When she asked me how I pictured the song, I began playing it at a different tempo. I got her to try it that way and told her to let herself get carried away by the feeling. I also convinced her to open with “My Blue Heaven.” Then she had me play one song after another.
I began coaching her a little bit because Marlene had a tendency to rush and get ahead of the beat. “Sit back,” I told her. “Just sit back.” I was still a little tentative because Marlene could have just told me to get the fuck out of there, but she soon became very comfortable with me and began getting a strong hold on how to sing
During the next four years I wrote eighty songs with Hal, Wilson Stone, Syd Shaw, and Bob Hilliard, including one called “Happy and His One Man Band.” None of them were hits, and most were never even recorded. Even though it bothered me a lot that my songwriting career was going nowhere, I kept myself busy by touring the world with Marlene Dietrich.
Chapter
5
The Blue Angel
I was about to go to Los Angeles to learn something about scoring films at Paramount Pictures and see this actress named Norma Crane, whom I had met in New York, when I heard myself being paged at the airport. I went to the front desk of the TWA terminal to take the call, and it was Peter Matz, a brilliant conductor, arranger, and classically trained pianist who had worked with Harold Arlen on Broadway. After Arlen had recommended Peter to Marlene Dietrich, he had started working as her accompanist before she loaned him to Noël Coward for an engagement in Las Vegas.
I always liked Peter because we had so much in common, and when I picked up the phone, he said, “Look, I’m in a real jam here. Dietrich is playing in Vegas at the same time as Noël Coward and he wants me to work with him, so do you think you could fill in for me and do the date with her?” Although I was definitely interested, the idea of meeting Marlene Dietrich seemed really intimidating to me. I had no idea if I could even pass the audition, but Peter said he would let Dietrich know I would be calling her at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
After I had put my stuff away in Norma Crane’s apartment on Sweetzer Avenue in West Hollywood, I called Marlene Dietrich and went over to see her in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Marlene was fifty-six years old at the time but she was still beautiful and as famous as ever. We talked a little and she was very nice and got me something to eat, but I was still really nervous because she was a very powerful presence and had the aura of a huge star.
When we started to work together at the piano, she said, “Do you write?” I said, “Yeah, I’m trying to be a songwriter.” She asked to hear something I had written so I played her “Warm and Tender.” Marlene had never heard the song before but when I finished, she told me how much she loved it. Marlene wasn’t going to sing the song herself but she wanted Frank Sinatra to hear it. I gave her the demo I had brought with me and she got it to Frank. When he turned the song down, Marlene got really angry with him and told him he was making a big mistake because I was going to become a really well-known songwriter. “One day you’ll see!” she told him. “You’ll see!”
I asked her what song she wanted to open her show with and Marlene handed me the sheet music for a song Mitch Miller had written for her, called “Look Me Over Closely.” I looked at it and said, “You don’t want to open with this kind of arrangement, do you?” When she asked me how I pictured the song, I began playing it at a different tempo. I got her to try it that way and told her to let herself get carried away by the feeling. I also convinced her to open with “My Blue Heaven.” Then she had me play one song after another.
I began coaching her a little bit because Marlene had a tendency to rush and get ahead of the beat. “Sit back,” I told her. “Just sit back.” I was still a little tentative because Marlene could have just told me to get the fuck out of there, but she soon became very comfortable with me and began getting a strong hold on how to sing
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