Back to Bacharach

A must for all Bacharach fans. Tyrell's voice is made for these songs -- and, Bacharach's signature arrangements complete the magic.

This simply sounds like an lounge lizard with an average voice making a home recording on his computer. That being said, Tyrell's real talent lies back when he kept quiet and let his production talents show. For the real thing, get Dionne's, the Carpenters, and B.J.'s definitive recordings. Most of Dionne's original Scepter albums have now been released on CD, 2 albums per CD. I'd tell you where, but Amazon might not allow me to post that info. Those were great recordings of great songs, many produced by Tyrell, but sung by a world-class vocalist for the same price or less as this stuff, and you get two entire albums! I don't understand why so many people who grew up with these tremendous songs feel like they have to buy something newly recorded, regardless of quality, when the original recordings are still the best and need to be celebrated with your purchase, lest they go back out of print, which Scepter recordings are notorious for. And if I had met the guy in person, I'd truly feel that I met a great man, just like I felt when I met Herb Alpert after an intimate small club performance ten years ago. That is great that Tyrell is a nice guy, but he could be my father or brother, and I'd still like the original recordings better, because they are, and Tyrell's production expertise is obviously one of the reasons why, and also why this CD is so disappointing. One thing I have to admit is that he's making a killing doing what he loves, so I celebrate him for that, and for the fact that this CD contains great songs written by possibly the best writing team of the 1960's next to Lennon-McCartney. Also, I'm sure he appreciates passive rather than active listeners with good taste in performance, as they are the ones who buy CDs of similar people, lounge types they met in a third-tier Vegas venue or some hotel lounge somewhere. Again, he's a lucky man to have such marginal vocal talent and still be able to sell enough to get into the Amazon Top 100, but it doesn't change the fact that this CD only proves what anyone with connections can get away with.

THIS IS STEVE TYRELL'S BEST WORK YET. IT IS MAGICAL AND TIMELESS. HIS UNIQUE VOICE JUST BRINGS ALL OF THESE SONGS ALIVE. I LOVE IT.

love this CD.......am a huge steve tyrell fan and this is another great cd .. you need to add this one to your collection

With so many covers of Bacharach/David songs having been done it's a real challenge to top previous efforts. Steve isn't really a singer. He makes up for that with comfortable arrangements. However each cut has a similar feel, meaning if you want generic music to play in the background uwhile people are over, this is it. "What the World Needs Now" proves interesting because valid singers are on the session. "Raindrops" is a copy of the interp Burt did with Ron Isley. It may seem like he's venturing into new territory but he knows he has a limited range for a singer and while sounding tired on many cuts he's doing a similar thing that worked on previous albums: doing this limited grove and playing off a theme, in this case riding the success of proven hits by 2 loved composers. Other artists run circles around the cuts. The original sessions had spectacular effort while I'm sure it's not the intention Steve sounds a guy putting about as much effort into being good as the hotel bars bands you hear but never remember their names. He might have done his part all in the same day for all I know.

One historical inaccuracy being touted is a claim that Steve was producing Burt's sessions at the age of 19. Burt and Phil Ramone produced the sessions, Steve may have been hanging around as an excited wannabe star, but he was a promotion man at Scepter Records trying to get airplay. This was a small label and while many wore several hats claims of his "helping bacharach/david" in the studio lean to hyperbole.
I can't locate names of significant hit songs written or groups produced. His ability to do small talk made him somewhat effective and I can understand why someone would instantly like him after meeting him whether he can sing or not. I didn't know anybody took him seriously as a singer, especially Tyrell himself. He's just having fun and being a former promotion man he knows how to generate word of mouth even if he can't generate airplay for this one. Very odd he didn't credit Mr David who own's half these songs. Surprised this deal was ever made.