Tim Rice and Bernie Taupin excepted, we don’t tend to hear about lyricists; it’s the tunesmiths we’re interested in. So the death, announced today, of American lyricist Hal David would not normally be something this blogger would necessarily pick up on. But, then, when I started to look at his career I realised that his words, mostly together with Burt Bacharach’s music (what a partnership!) have been running through my head for years: “Three Wheels on my Wagon”, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”, “This Guy’s in Love with You”, “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”, “Walk On By”, “What the World Needs Now Is Love”, “I Say a Little Prayer”,”(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me”, “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, “What’s New Pussycat?”, “Alfie”, “The Look of Love”, “(They Long to Be) Close to You”, and “Walk On By”, to name just the most obvious. It’s an extraordinary record, and made all the more impressive by the fact that, as with Rice, David had mostly to write for a melody and structure that had already been established. So here’s to Hal David! He certainly deserved that star!