Legendary songwriter Hal David dies at 91
Updated: 2012-09-02 09:54
(Agencies)
|
||||||||
LOS ANGELES - Hal David, a lyricist who along with composer Burt Bacharach took the pop world by storm in the 1960s with hits such as "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" and "Walk on By," died in Los Angeles on Saturday at age 91, a representative said.
David died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of complications from a stroke, said Jim Steinblatt, spokesman for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, or ASCAP.
Earlier this year, David and Bacharach received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from the Library of Congress, during a White House musical tribute.
David, a native of Brooklyn, New York, began his songwriting career in the late 1940s by collaborating with writers he had met at Manhattan's famed Brill Building, which at the time was the center of the pop industry.
He started working with Bacharach in the late 1950s and their songs were recorded by such artists as Frank Sinatra, Marty Robbins, Tom Jones and Barbra Streisand.
The singer most associated with the songwriting duo is Dionne Warwick, who rose to fame by scoring a number of Top 10 hits in the 1960s with material from David and Bacharach.
Bacharach's and David's song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" was written for the 1969 movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and won the Academy Award for Best Song.
They also won a Grammy in 1969 for best score from an original cast show album for their Broadway musical "Promises, Promises," which included the song "I'll Never Fall In Love Again." The play returned to Broadway in 2010 starring Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes.
The songwriting duo's other hits included "What the World Needs Now Is Love," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Do You Know the Way to San Jose," and "(They Long to Be) Close to You," which is best known from a version by the Carpenters.
David and Bacharach parted ways in the early 1970s. David went on to work with other composers. With Albert Hammond, he wrote the hit "To All the Girls I've Loved Before."
Eunice David, the songwriter's widow, who married him in 1988, said she used to watch him sit in an old rocking chair and write on a legal pad.
"All of a sudden, I'd look up and there it was filled with lyrics," she told Reuters. "It never ceased to amaze me how that happened."
Songwriter Paul Williams, president and chairman of ASCAP, said in a statement that David was "simple, concise and poetic."
"It is no wonder that so many of his lyrics have become part of our everyday vocabulary and his songs ... the backdrop of our lives," Williams said.
David served as president of ASCAP from 1980 to 1986.
His parents were immigrants from Austria. His older brother, Mack David also achieved success by composing or co-writing a number of songs, including the 1944 "Candy" and the English version of Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose."
David is survived by his wife, sons Jim and Craig, three grandchildren and two stepsons.
- 'Taken 2' grabs movie box office crown
- Rihanna's 'Diamonds' tops UK pop chart
- Fans get look at vintage Rolling Stones
- Celebrities attend Power of Women event
- Ang Lee breaks 'every rule' to make unlikely new Life of Pi film
- Rihanna almost thrown out of nightclub
- 'Dark Knight' wins weekend box office
- 'Total Recall' stars gather in Beverly Hills
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
Supplies pour into isolated villages |
All-out efforts to save lives |
American abroad |
Industry savior: Big boys' toys |
New commissioner
|
Liaoning: China's oceangoing giant |
Today's Top News
Health new priority for quake zone
Xi meets US top military officer
Japan's boats driven out of Diaoyu
China mulls online shopping legislation
Bird flu death toll rises to 22
Putin appoints new ambassador to China
Japanese ships blocked from Diaoyu Islands
Inspired by Guan, more Chinese pick up golf
US Weekly
Beyond Yao
|
Money power |