Hal-elujah!

Steyn On-line ^ | May 23, 2021 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

The Look Of Love
Is in your eyes
The look your smile can't disguise
The Look Of Love
Is saying so much more...

A couple of decades back, "The Look of Love" was indeed saying so much more: George Will cited the presence on the hit parade of Diana Krall's CD of the same name as one of the hopeful cultural trends of America post-9/11. In The Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout agreed. He'd been sitting in a New York McDonald's whose radio had been tuned to some young persons' station - and, instead of the usual ghastly caterwauling, "The Look of Love" had drifted over the McMuffins and hash browns...

"Is Diana Krall's current popularity a fluke?" mused Mr Teachout. "I've been thinking that it might have a little something to do with September 11th... Unless I miss my guess, beauty is becoming fashionable again." It's safe to say he missed his guess. Nineteen years on, the Top 40 is more vulgar, more witless, more pneumatic than ever - and a return to standards, either in the George Will or George Gershwin sense, is further off than ever.

Nevertheless, the song endures, as do many others by a man who was born one hundred years ago, May 25th 1921. As you can calculate from that date, Hal David belongs to the pre-rock generation. Yet he had his greatest run of success in the 1960s, when the likes of "The Look of Love" and "I Say a Little Prayer" and "Make It Easy on Yourself" were competing on the charts with Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones and sundry lesser rockers.

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[skr]

Catchy melody, catchy and clean lyrics—how a good popular song is made. Oh, and at least two verses. Kenny Loggins’ one-verse songs get old fast.

[HKMk23]

“Women, in particular, grew very flugelhorny in his presence.”

ROFLOL!

[cuban leaf]

I always thought it was, “The look of lust...”.

[cuban leaf]

Diana Krall is simply amazing.

BTW, here’s the best version I’ve ever heard of a similarly themed song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZQYV9njOu4

[Fiji Hill]

But then it took Bacharach & David a few years to become Bacharach & David. Their first hits - "The Story of My Life" for Michael Holliday in 1957, "Magic Moments" for Perry Como in 1958 - sound closer to "American Beauty Rose" than to "I Say A Little Prayer" or "A House Is Not a Home".

He left one out--The Blob by the Five Blobs (1958).

[Fiji Hill]

“The Look of Love” is from the movie “Casino Royale.” At the time, when I saw it in a theater, I considered it to be far and away the worst movie I had ever seen.

[Fiji Hill]

But in 1962 they asked a jobbing vocalist called Dionne Warwick to come in and sing "Make It Easy on Yourself". She thought she was making a single. In fact, Burt and Hal just needed someone to do a demo they could pass to Jerry Butler, the guy they had in mind to record it. Dionne was not happy when she found out, and yelled at them, "Don't make me over, man!" - ie, "Don't screw me over." Hal liked the phrase, and, modifying its meaning to "Take me as I am", wrote it up for Dionne.

In my opinion, that is her best song.

Don't Make Me Over--Dionne Warwick (1962)

[GOPJ]

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

[jocon307]

Dionne Warwick rules! That’s a great story about how a song came to be.

[smalltownslick]

Who in the world is Michael Holliday???? That song was a hit by Marty Robbins!!

[John Milner]

Favorite Bacharach song/performance is (There’s) Always Something There to Remind me by Sandie Shaw.

Song was a #1 hit in the UK (and Canada) but only got to number 52 on Billboard.

Dionne Warwick, I love you, but Sandie’s is perfection.

[Fiji Hill]

Who in the world is Michael Holliday???? That song was a hit by Marty Robbins!!

His version of The Story of My Life was a hit in England.

[smalltownslick]

So what? Not here.

[Fiji Hill]

So what? Not here.

Mark probably heard that one when he was in England--and missed hearing Marty's version.