Read Online Anyone Who Had a Heart by Burt Bacharach - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Burt Bacharach
Ads: Link
these songs. When I was done writing corrections on the lead sheets and orchestrations, we agreed I would come back to see her at ten the next morning. and we spent the next two weeks rehearsing together in Los Angeles.
As a singer, Marlene had a vocal range of not much more than an octave and a note or two. Since I knew we were going to be working with a pretty large orchestra, with what I hoped would be a tight rhythm section, bass, drums, and guitar, with me playing piano, I thought I could get her to swing a little. I kept some songs she had been doing forever, like “Lola,” “Lili Marlene,” and “The Boys in the Back Room,” but added standards like “You’re the Cream in My Coffee,” “My Blue Heaven,” “One for My Baby,” “Makin’ Whoopee,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” and of course, “Falling in Love Again,” which Marlene had first sung in Josef von Sternberg’s classic film The Blue Angel in 1930.
We opened in Las Vegas at the Sahara Hotel and the show went really well. Marlene was a smash. It was a wonderful time for me because Marlene always insisted that I go out with her after the show. One night we would have dinner with Judy Garland and the next it would be Maureen Stapleton. I didn’t really like the music I was playing for Marlene all that much but it seemed like a terrific life to me, because I was conducting, getting paid, and meeting all these really famous stars.
After the fifth or sixth night, I realized I was kind of trapped in a web with Marlene. I was single and every casino had great-looking girls in the chorus line and I wanted to hang out, but I couldn’t do that if I was having dinner with Marlene. Don Rickles was playing the lounge at the Sahara and whenever I would go in there with Marlene, he would lay all this stuff on her about me like “There he goes, looking for broads. Any broad will do. Look out for him, girls. He’s heading to the front door.” I loved Rickles and thought he was hysterical, but Marlene took it seriously and would get really angry at him.
The first time Marlene and I worked together in Vegas, I didn’t stay at the Sahara. I was at the Bali Hai Motel, and one day while I was playing tennis there, I saw Marlene walking by with a big bag of groceries. I hadn’t known her very long at this point but she got the key from the front desk and let herself into my apartment. When I came off the court, she had had the juice from six steaks condensed for me to drink.
It was summertime and I was sweating like crazy, so I threw my tennis clothes on the floor and went to take a shower. When I came back out, she was washing my clothes for me. The amazing thing about Marlene was that despite all the fame and stardom, she was still a German hausfrau at heart and always did everything she could to take care of me.
Marlene and I got a little drunk together one night in Vegas and as I was taking her back to her room, she tried to kiss me and said, “Let’s go inside.” But I just didn’t want to go there with her. Maybe I was smart enough by then to know I couldn’t conduct the orchestra every night behind a woman I was sleeping with, even if I had wanted to sleep with her, which I didn’t. It would have been like falling in love with fire.
After we finished the engagement in Vegas, I stayed on at the Bali Hai so I could get a divorce from Paula. Back then, you could only get a divorce in Nevada if you were there for six weeks but it was a fun city to be in. There were showgirls in every hotel, and a lot of them were real beauties.
Marlene and I then went on tour to South America. In Rio de Janeiro, the two of us would walk in the hills at night and listen to the drumbeats coming up from the city. That was the first time I heard the baion beat, where the one is followed by a one-beat pause and then two half beats. Phil Spector used it in “Be My Baby,” and it’s in Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s “There Goes My Baby” by the
As a singer, Marlene had a vocal range of not much more than an octave and a note or two. Since I knew we were going to be working with a pretty large orchestra, with what I hoped would be a tight rhythm section, bass, drums, and guitar, with me playing piano, I thought I could get her to swing a little. I kept some songs she had been doing forever, like “Lola,” “Lili Marlene,” and “The Boys in the Back Room,” but added standards like “You’re the Cream in My Coffee,” “My Blue Heaven,” “One for My Baby,” “Makin’ Whoopee,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” and of course, “Falling in Love Again,” which Marlene had first sung in Josef von Sternberg’s classic film The Blue Angel in 1930.
We opened in Las Vegas at the Sahara Hotel and the show went really well. Marlene was a smash. It was a wonderful time for me because Marlene always insisted that I go out with her after the show. One night we would have dinner with Judy Garland and the next it would be Maureen Stapleton. I didn’t really like the music I was playing for Marlene all that much but it seemed like a terrific life to me, because I was conducting, getting paid, and meeting all these really famous stars.
After the fifth or sixth night, I realized I was kind of trapped in a web with Marlene. I was single and every casino had great-looking girls in the chorus line and I wanted to hang out, but I couldn’t do that if I was having dinner with Marlene. Don Rickles was playing the lounge at the Sahara and whenever I would go in there with Marlene, he would lay all this stuff on her about me like “There he goes, looking for broads. Any broad will do. Look out for him, girls. He’s heading to the front door.” I loved Rickles and thought he was hysterical, but Marlene took it seriously and would get really angry at him.
The first time Marlene and I worked together in Vegas, I didn’t stay at the Sahara. I was at the Bali Hai Motel, and one day while I was playing tennis there, I saw Marlene walking by with a big bag of groceries. I hadn’t known her very long at this point but she got the key from the front desk and let herself into my apartment. When I came off the court, she had had the juice from six steaks condensed for me to drink.
It was summertime and I was sweating like crazy, so I threw my tennis clothes on the floor and went to take a shower. When I came back out, she was washing my clothes for me. The amazing thing about Marlene was that despite all the fame and stardom, she was still a German hausfrau at heart and always did everything she could to take care of me.
Marlene and I got a little drunk together one night in Vegas and as I was taking her back to her room, she tried to kiss me and said, “Let’s go inside.” But I just didn’t want to go there with her. Maybe I was smart enough by then to know I couldn’t conduct the orchestra every night behind a woman I was sleeping with, even if I had wanted to sleep with her, which I didn’t. It would have been like falling in love with fire.
After we finished the engagement in Vegas, I stayed on at the Bali Hai so I could get a divorce from Paula. Back then, you could only get a divorce in Nevada if you were there for six weeks but it was a fun city to be in. There were showgirls in every hotel, and a lot of them were real beauties.
Marlene and I then went on tour to South America. In Rio de Janeiro, the two of us would walk in the hills at night and listen to the drumbeats coming up from the city. That was the first time I heard the baion beat, where the one is followed by a one-beat pause and then two half beats. Phil Spector used it in “Be My Baby,” and it’s in Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s “There Goes My Baby” by the
Similar Books
