This is NOT an April Fools prank. On Tuesday, April 1, WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW: The Bacharach Songbook Live will stop at the Akron Civic Theatre!
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS Now is a show dedicated to honoring the award-winning music of songwriting icon Burt Bacharach. With a catalog that spans seventy-three U.S. and fifty-two UK Top 40 hits, six Top 40 No. 1 songs, six Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards and an Emmy, there is no shortage of songs known all around the world.
The show is anchored by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Todd Rundgren (who is, indeed, a wizard, a true start) and longtime Burt Bacharach music director Rob Shirakbari.
Also featured in the show are Rundgren’s longtime bass player, Kasim Sulton, Wendy Moten from the smash television show, The Voice, and an incredible cast of musicians to accompany them.
And, how could any show with this caliber of performers performing the timeless music of Bacharach be anything but stellar?
Bacharach wrote fifty-two US Top 40 hits. Those that topped the Billboard Hot 100 include “This Guy’s in Love with You” (Herb Alpert, 1968), “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (Thomas, 1969), “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (the Carpenters, 1970), “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (Christopher Cross, 1981), “That’s What Friends Are For” (Warwick, 1986), and “On My Own” (Carole Bayer Sager, 1986). His accolades include six Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards, and one Emmy Award.
This show is literally…What the world needs now.
Shirakbari, who traveled the world many times over as keyboardist and arranger for both Bacharach and Dionne Warwick, checked in with CleveRock to discuss the upcoming tour!
CleveRock:
This is an exciting tour! There are very few artists with a larger catalog of recognizable songs than Burt Bacharach. The tour starts in a few short days. Can you provide some insight on what preparations go into making a production like this work?
Rob Shirakbari:
It’s been months of preparation, going through finding the songs. We started with 60 songs in a big Spotify playlist to kind of whittle down to build into a show. The background catalog is so big that we had 60 songs that people know, that were hits, or that were in TV shows, or were in movies. Once we cast the band and the singers, then we could start curating who would sing what and what songs suited Todd [Rundgren], or what suited Wendy [Moten] or Tori [Holub], and then we went from there. Then, it was weeks and weeks of me writing new arrangements and charts. Sometimes, we were going back to the original versions of songs, and then sometimes we’re going to maybe bigger hit versions of songs. I had to make a background vocal rehearsal There was a lot of prep work and you get all that to everyone and then you pile everybody into a room and this is what happened yesterday. You kind of just trip and step on your tail through it and try to get through all the material at least once and then start marking up. It’s a huge endeavor.
CleveRock:
Burt Bacharach has a massive catalog of hits. As the music director, how did you go about narrowing down the song selection and deciding what would be performed in this show?
Shirakbari:
It’s not easy, but I have been through this a few times before. I’ve done it with Burt when we were building his versions of his shows where you go through the catalog. I’ve done it with Dionne [Warwick] over the years, as I’ve been running arrangements for her and revamping her shows. I have a good working knowledge of the material, but for me, what was exciting was I got to throw all that out and kind of start from scratch, and not be governed to how Burt wanted his shows to be, or how Dionne wanted her shows to be. And, of course, Dionne’s shows always had a lot of material that wasn’t related because they had a career that’s beyond just the Bacharach catalog. This was a great chance for me to go through it all.
We started with Todd, so we go, ‘Todd, which songs do you gravitate towards?’ And then the same each of the singers, we started with him, and then we started with plugging in some songs for him, and then we would do the same with Wendy, we’d do the same with Tori. We kind of knew which ones they would gravitate towards. The three singers cover sort of different aspects of the Bacharach catalog. That was really good. And then, everyone in the band sings, and so we’ve got some really great lead singers in the band as well that will all have features as well.
CleveRock:
Todd Rundgren has done tribute shows such as this before, including The Beatles, and he publicly stated that he was not doing these types of shows anymore. I’m not asking you to speak on behalf of Todd, but can you discuss what makes this gig so appealing to a performer like Todd, or anyone else for that matter?
Shirakbari:
I mean, I certainly wouldn’t speak for Todd, but I can tell you what he has said, and that the opportunity to do this catalog is kind of a special thing. He had kind of sworn them off. Todd is a songwriter, and a great songwriter, and a great producer. He understands the depth of the catalog. And Todd is a great appreciator of songwriters. It’s interesting, because now you get that sort of little bit of creative crash there where interesting things can happen. The idea behind this show is this tour with Todd, this tour, I’ll go on and do this tour in multiple iterations, and we’ll take it to Europe, we’ll take it to the UK, we’ll take it around the world. But this tour with Todd is unique because this is a moment we’re doing it with Todd as the featured artist, but every time we do this tour, I’ll be able to revisit it and bring in different guest artists.
CleveRock:
You worked closely with Burt over the years and were responsible for writing arrangements for him and the rest of the band. Did you feel you had less artistic license when working for Burt, because he obviously wanted songs to sound a certain way? Do you feel you have more freedom to put our own stamp on these arrangements for this tour?
Shirakbari:
I can, but I’m not really interested in doing that. I’m not really interested to put my fingerprint on it. I think anybody who wants to do Bacharach songs, they kind of do that already. They put their own thing on it. And I would say largely, a lot of times, it’s not that successful. I think the more someone else tries to put their fingerprint on it, it kind of loses something. I think what I am bringing to this, while on the one hand, I’m certainly not doing a pale imitation of Burt; I’m not doing that at all. But all the time of working with him and having the insight of how he thinks and how he approaches it, watching how he led the orchestra, how he conducted the things that were important to him, how he heard things, and then having that same experience all the years as Dionne Warwick’s music director, when I’m then sitting in that piano chair with her, sitting in the Burt role with her, and getting her interpretation of these same songs.
I’ve got just this unique insight into sort of source with this, the core, how he felt about it as the composer, how she felt about it as the primary interpreter of the songs, having that unique insight, and then having worked on doing the arrangements with them. It’s just a unique insight of instinctually knowing my tastes were formed under both of them. In this show, it’s a beautiful balance of going to the heart of the songs with each of these songs, but we’re doing enough that sounds like the familiar records that people are going to go way satisfied.
We’re also digging deep into the catalog. If you’re a true Bacharach fan that knows those records beyond just the whatever, 30, 40, 50 hit songs, which is crazy on its own, but if you really are a fan and the instrumentals and some of the deeper cuts, you’re going to be happy as well because we’re going deep into the catalog. All the things you expect to hear, you’re going to hear, you’re going to hear all those hits, but the true fans are going to be really happy because they’re going to hear things, things that Burt stopped doing in his show long ago,
CleveRock:
You started working with Burt at a very young age and held the job for many years. How did you first link up with him. What did you have that made Burt want to work with you, and on the flip side, what made the job appealing to you?
Shirakbari:
I was working with Dionne first and joined with her in the mid-eighties. And that was when ‘That’s What Friends Are For,” had blown up really big. I met Burt around that time. They decided to go on tour together and then built a show, and that ended up being part of Dionne’s band and part of Burt’s Band; built to do a hybrid band. He still had his own thing going at that time. She had her own thing going. And then this was together. So I was doing Dionne’s thing, and then Dionne an Burt together. When we started actually touring together, he and I just clicked immediately. I think he got a sense that I heard things the way he did.
We just sort of developed that a comradery that he knew he had someone that he could rely on.
CleveRock:
Rob, give me your best sales pitch! Why should Northeast Ohio music fans come out and see the show at Akron Civic Theatre on April 1st?
Shirakbari:
This is a trip down memory lane for anyone who has even remotely been on Planet Earth and knows these songs. And as we get older with all this music that we love, we are losing these people. Burt is now gone, and this is as close to the source as you’re going to be able to get if you love it. If you’re a fan of modern music that is about self-involved lyrics with mediocre melodies and autotune that all kind of sounds the same, then this is not the show for you. This show is about great melodies mixed with great, meaningful lyrics that touch the heart, and that also has songs that are about the meaning of life. There’s no autotune; there’s no click tracks. These are grown-up adults on stage playing and singing great songs and doing music the way it’s meant to be done. And it’s a beautiful night down memory lane, and you’re going to walk away with a smile on your face!
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