Wednesday, September 21, 2016

The 2015/1967 Countdown - 09/21/2016 Update

Today we return once again to our 1967's Super Spectacular Singles Superstars mix, and touch on one Grammy Hall Of Fame song's highly unlikely origins.

Though it may seem like the most romantic song on the entire 1967 collection, those old enough to remember know that Dusty Springfield's version (the first of many) of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's The Look Of Love was originally written and conceived by Bacharach for purely comedic purposes, as the hyper-sexualized score to the over-the-top seduction scene between Ursala Andress and Peter Sellers in the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale (a scene Mike Myers would steal from liberally decades later for his Austin Powers movies). In truth, Bacharach didn't even come up with the lyrics for the song until after seeing Ursala's performance in an early rough cut of the film.

But despite the song's comic origins, that didn't stop near every balladeer in existence from wanting to record their version of it, and it would go on to become one of the most covered songs of the era.

In just the next three years alone, alternate versions were recorded and released by the likes of Andy Williams, Lanie Kazan, Morgana King, Sergio Mendes, The Four Tops, Dorthy Ashby, Son Tres, Issac Hayes, and Nina Simone.

So in honor of the song's origins, here's the track set to some snippets of the film.


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