Elvis Costello paid tribute to Burt Bacharach at the opening night of his ten-night residency at The Gramercy Theatre earlier this week – check out footage below.
The legendary composer passed away of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday (February 8). He was 94 years old.
During the first show of Costello’s 100 Songs And More residency at New York’s Gramercy Theatre on Thursday (February 9), he performed Bacharach’s ‘Baby, It’s You’.
Bacharach co-wrote the song with Luther Dixon and Mack David, with the Shirelles releasing it as a single in 1961. It was later covered by The Beatles for their 1963 debut album ‘Please Please Me’.
“A really great man left us yesterday,” Costello said before performing ‘Baby, It’s You’. “People say when somebody reaches a great age, ‘Well, it was a good inning.’ [But] it’s never time to say goodbye to somebody if you love them. I’m not ashamed to say I did love this man for everything he gave, Mr. Burt Bacharach.”
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Later in the set, Costello covered ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’, which was co-written by Bacharach and Hal David, before it was released by Dionne Warwick in 1963.
Elvis Costello confirmed the residency last year while on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. At the time, he explained that fans will “never hear the same song twice” over the course of the ten-nights and that the setlists would add up to “200 songs [played] over 10 nights.”
Following Bacharach’s death, fans have been celebrating his life by reminiscing on his cameos in Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery.
Footage of Noel Gallagher‘s duet with Burt Bacharach has also been shared across social media.
In 1996, Gallagher and Bacharach shared the stage at the Royal Festival Hall in London where they performed a joint rendition of ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’, the 1968 Herb Alpert track that was co-written by Bacharach.
“RIP Maestro”, Gallagher wrote on social media. “It was a pleasure to have known you. NGX.”
Other acts to have paid their respects include Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, Brian Wilson, Tim Burgess, Liam Gallagher and The Bangles‘ Susanna Hoffs.