Other artists continued to revive Bacharach's earlier hits in the 1980s and 1990s. Examples included Luther Vandross's recording of "A House Is Not a Home", Naked Eyes' 1983 pop hit version of "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me", and Ronnie Milsap's 1982 country version of "Any Day Now". Bacharach continued a concert career, appearing at auditoriums throughout the world, often with large orchestras. He occasionally joined Warwick for sold-out concerts in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York City, where they performed at the Rainbow Room in 1996.

1990s and beyond

thumb|left|Bacharach performing in 2013

Bacharach's visibility increased in the second half of the 1990s due to his appearances as himself in the Austin Powers films, a U.S. box set release of his music and a new songwriting partnership that produced a Grammy-winning album. Bacharach formed his songwriting partnership with Elvis Costello initially to write one song, "God Give Me Strength", for the 1996 film Grace of My Heart. The film told the story of a fictional 1960s female Brill Building songwriter and was inspired by songwriters like Carole King and Bacharach.

In 1998, Bacharach and Costello released the album Painted from Memory, on which the pair continued to work in the 1960s and 1970s pop style that they used for their initial collaboration. The album's song "I Still Have That Other Girl" won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. The duo would later reunite for Costello's 2018 album, Look Now, working on several tracks together. Also in 1998, Rhino Records released a 3-CD box set, The Look of Love, that licensed the original recordings of most of his best-known songs. Music writer Richie Unterberger called the set "the best representation of [Bacharach's] music likely to ever be assembled."

In 2003, he arranged and produced Ronald Isley's album Here I Am, on which Isley sang a program of Bacharach songs mostly drawn from Bacharach's 1960s-era hits. Bacharach's 2005 solo album At This Time was a departure from past works in that Bacharach penned his own lyrics, some of which dealt with political themes.

In 2008, Bacharach opened the BBC Electric Proms at The Roundhouse in London, performing with the BBC Concert Orchestra accompanied by guest vocalists Adele, Beth Rowley, and Jamie Cullum. The concert was a retrospective look back at his six-decade career. In early 2009, Bacharach worked with Italian soul singer Karima Ammar and produced her debut single "Come In Ogni Ora".

Bacharach's autobiography, Anyone Who Had a Heart, was ghostwritten by Robert Greenfield and published in 2013. It incorporated the (not always positive) recollections of many of his close friends, colleagues and relatives.

In June 2015, Bacharach performed in the UK at the Glastonbury Festival, and a few weeks later appeared on stage at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark, South London, to launch What's It All About? Bacharach Reimagined, a 90-minute live arrangement of his hits.

In 2016, Bacharach, at 88 years old, composed and arranged his first original score in 16 years for the film A Boy Called Po (along with composer Joseph Bauer). The score was released on September 1, 2017. The entire 30-minute score was recorded in just two days at Capitol Studios. The theme song, "Dancing with Your Shadow", was composed by Bacharach, with lyrics by Billy Mann, and performed by Sheryl Crow. After seeing the film, a true story about a child with autism, Bacharach decided he wanted to write a score for it, as well as a theme song, in tribute to his daughter Nikki—who had gone undiagnosed with Asperger syndrome, and who died by suicide because of depression at the age of 40. "It touched me very much", the composer said. "I had gone through this with Nikki. Sometimes you do things that make you feel. It's not about money or rewards."

In July 2020, Bacharach collaborated with songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Tashian on the EP Blue Umbrella, Bacharach's first new material in 15 years. It earned Bacharach and Tashian a Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

In March 2023, a collection of Bacharach's collaborations with Elvis Costello, The Songs of Bacharach & Costello, was released. The collection includes 16 tracks from the proposed stage musical Taken From Life.

Film and television

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Bacharach was featured in a dozen television musical and variety specials videotaped in the UK for ITC; several were nominated for Emmy Awards for direction (by Dwight Hemion). The guests included artists such as Joel Grey, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, and Barbra Streisand.

In 1969, Harry Betts arranged Bacharach's instrumental composition "Nikki" (named for Bacharach's daughter) into a new theme for the ABC Movie of the Week, a television series that ran on the U.S. network until 1976.

During the 1970s, Bacharach and then-wife Angie Dickinson appeared in several television commercials for Martini & Rossi beverages, and Bacharach even penned a short jingle ("Say Yes") for the spots. He also occasionally appeared on television/variety shows such as The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and others.

In the 1990s and 2000s Bacharach had cameo roles in Hollywood movies, including all three Austin Powers movies, inspired by his score for the 1967 James Bond parody film Casino Royale. Mike Myers said the first film in the series, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), was partially inspired by the song "The Look of Love". After hearing the song on the radio, Myers began reminiscing about the 1960s, which helped him conceive the film. In 2008, Bacharach was featured in the BBC Electric Proms at The Roundhouse with the BBC Concert Orchestra. He performed similar shows the same year at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and with the Sydney Symphony.

Musical style

Bacharach's music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by jazz harmony, with striking syncopated rhythmic patterns, irregular phrasing, frequent modulation, and odd, changing meters. Though his style is sometimes called easy listening, he expressed apprehension regarding that label, as some of his frequent collaborators did. Bacharach's selection of instruments included flugelhorns, bossa nova sidesticks, breezy flutes, tack piano, molto fortissimo strings, and cooing female voices. as he did during a televised performance on The Hollywood Palace.

Bacharach wrote fifty-two US Top 40 hits.

Other business interests

Bacharach once owned the Dover House restaurant, which was located across the street from Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury, New York. It was the site of a press conference in which the New York Islanders unveiled their name and logo and introduced Bill Torrey as their first general manager.

Personal life

thumb|240px|With his second wife, actress [[Angie Dickinson, in 1965]]

Bacharach married four times.

  • to Paula Stewart for 5 years (1953–1958).
  • to actress Angie Dickinson, for 16 years (1965–1981), though they were separated the last five. Dickinson believed Bacharach had affairs. They had one daughter, Lea Nikki Bacharach, who was born prematurely in 1966, weighing 1 lb 10 oz, and then being isolated from human touch for 3 months. She had eyesight problems
  • to lyricist Carole Bayer Sager for 9 years (1982–1991).
  • to Jane Hansen, in 1993. They had two children, son Oliver, born the year before their marriage, and daughter Raleigh, born in 1995.

Awards and nominations

Television and film appearances

  • An Evening with Marlene Dietrich
  • Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
  • Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
  • Nip/Tuck
  • The Nanny
  • Jake in Progress

|-

|1965

|Hit Maker!: Burt Bacharach Plays the Burt Bacharach Hits

| —

|Director (orchestra and chorus), arrangement, producer, aongwriter

|—

|-

|1967

|Reach Out

| 96

|Producer, composer, arrangement, conductor, co-writer (Hal David)

|Gold (solo, standard), July 21, 1971

|-

|1969

|Make it Easy on Yourself

| 51

|Arrangement, producer

|Gold (solo, standard), November 13, 1970

|Gold (solo, standard), May 22, 1970

|Gold (solo, standard), July 21, 1971

|—

|-

|1977

|Futures

| —

|Producer, keyboard, arrangement

|—

|-

|1979

|Woman

| —

|Composed, arrangement, conductor

|—

|-

|2005

|At This Time

| —

|Producer, arrangement, conductor, lyrics, music

|—

|}

Collaboration projects

With Elvis Costello

  • Painted from Memory (1998)
  • Marlene Dietrich with the Burt Bacharach Orchestra (2007)
  • Burt Bacharach: Live at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (2008)

Soundtracks

Films

  • What's New Pussycat? (1965)
  • After the Fox (1966)
  • Alfie
  • Casino Royale (1967)
  • Together? (1979)
  • Arthur (1981)
  • Night Shift (1982)
  • André DeShield's Haarlem Nocturne (1984): revue – featured songwriter
  • The Look of Love (2003): revue – composer
  • The Boy from Oz (2003): musical – additional composer
  • Some Lovers (2011) – composer with Steven Sater
  • My Best Friend's Wedding (2021) – composer with Hal David

Compilations

  • Portrait in Music (1971)
  • Portrait in Music Vol. II (1973)
  • Burt Bacharach's Greatest Hits (1973)
  • The Best of Burt Bacharach (1999)
  • The Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection (U.S. edition 1998)
  • Wiedersehen mit Marlene (1960)
  • Dietrich in London (1964)
  • Мари = Marie–Marie (1964)

For Neil Diamond

  • Heartlight (1982)
  • Primitive (1984)
  • Headed for the Future (1986)

For Dionne Warwick

  • Reservations for Two (1987)
  • Friends Can Be Lovers (1993)

For others

  • Carole Bayer Sager – Sometimes Late at Night (1981)
  • Roberta Flack – I'm the One (1982)
  • Aretha Franklin – What You See Is What You Sweat (1991)
  • Carly Simon – Christmas Is Almost Here (2002)
  • Ronan Keating – When Ronan Met Burt (2011)
  • Elvis Costello – Look Now (2018)