Burt Bacharach, the Academy Award and Grammy winning composer of more than 70 hit songs has died at age 94. The former Malibu resident was known for his long and tricky melodic lines, unusual time signatures, and effortless California cool. He found fame in collaboration with his longtime lyricist Hal David, composing countless hits for Dionne Warwick, as well as The Carpenters breakthrough single, “Close to You,” and longtime Malibu resident Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s In Love With You.”
Bacharach found later fame in his collaborations with then-wife Carole Bayer Sager, including the Oscar winning “Arthur’s Theme” and “That’s what Friends Are For,” released as a charity single for AIDS research and prevention. Later generations knew him for his appearance in the first “Austin Powers” movie and his collaboration with Elvis Costello, which will be celebrated in a comprehensive set to be released March 3, “The Songs of Bacharach & Costello.” He also penned the hit instrumental “Pacific Coast Highway” in 1969. He once said, “That one, that whole song was the sound of driving up the coast, up PCH to Malibu…I had a Corvette convertible then.”