American song legend Burt Bacharach dies at 94

Burt Bacharach, the American musician and song legend, has died this Thursday at the age of 94.

One of his representatives confirmed to

that the singer died at his Los Angeles home of natural causes.

hits in the

US and 52 in the UK.

More information

A Little Prayer from Burt Bacharach

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1928 and raised in New York, Bacharach would sneak into jazz clubs as a minor to hear artists like Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie, while also immersing himself in the work of composers like Stravinsky and Ravel.

He received classical training at schools in Montreal, New York and California and, after a stint in the US Army, became an accompanist pianist for musicians such as Vic Damone, the Ames Brothers and his first wife, Paula Stewart.

He also worked as an arranger and bandleader for Marlene Dietrich when she toured Europe in the late '50s and early '60s.

Bacharach made the leap into composition in 1957, when he met lyricist Hal David at the Brill Building in New York.

They achieved two consecutive number ones in the UK with two of their first songs,

by Marty Robbins (

in the UK version) and

by Perry Como.

In addition to David's lyrics, Bacharach created arrangements featuring vocal harmonies, string sections, jazzy piano, and distinctive details such as scintillating percussion and whistled melodies.

Bacharach's classical training also helped him use characterful and unusual time signatures.

Together, he and David created a series of all-time classics:

, sung by Aretha Franklin,

Tom Jones

Dusty Springfield 's

of the Walker Brothers, and many others.

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

, performed by BJ Thomas and featured in the film

, won a Grammy and Oscar in 1969, while Bacharach's music for the film won the Oscar for Best Original Score.

Dionne Warwick became one of Bacharach's longest-lasting and most fruitful collaborators.

Their hits together include

,

,

,

(later a hit for Luther Vandross), and his own original version of

.

Warwick successfully sued Bacharach after he and David stopped working together, leaving her without material.

It was a “very expensive and unfortunate” dispute, Bacharach told

in 2019. He and Warwick reconciled for the 1985 AIDS charity single

.

After he and Stewart divorced in 1958, Bacharach married three more times, to Angie Dickinson in 1965, Carole Bayer Sager in 1982, and Jane Hansen in 1993. He and Hansen, who remained married until his death, had two children, Oliver and Raleigh.

Nikki Bacharach, his daughter with Dickinson, committed suicide in 2007, at age 40, after a history of mental health problems.

Bayer Sager became his musical collaborator in the 1980s, writing lyrics for new Bacharach songs performed by Neil Diamond, Roberta Flack and Christopher Cross, whose theme for the 1981 film

earned Bacharach his second Oscar for best original song.

His hits waned in the mid-'80s, but he continued to collaborate with Ronald Isley, Dr. Dre, and Sheryl Crow, among others.

She did a couple of albums with Elvis Costello, plus a cover of

for the 1997 film

.