The musical team-up of Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello

The hit songs that they created were so big and so many. What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love, A House is Not a Home, I Say a Little Prayer for You, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and others.

Because of this, even his biggest fans often forget or are unaware that Burt Bacharach had other songwriting partners besides Hal David. Not that they are to blame. The team-up after all is considered one of the greatest in the history of popular music.

But then, there was Carole Bayer Sager. After his marriage to the legendary beauty and actress Angie Dickinson ended, Bacharach met Sager, herself a well-known lyricist. She wrote Don’t Cry Out Loud, A Groovy Kind of Love, Looking Through the Eyes of Love, Midnight Blue and many others.

Soon Sager became the next Mrs. Bacharach and also his collaborator. Among their works were Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do) with Christopher Cross and Peter Allen, Making Love for Roberta Flack, Heartlight for Neil Diamond and That’s What Friends are For for Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight.

And there was also the British singer, songwriter and producer Elvis Costello. Surely, the greatest punk musician of all time, Costello rose from his Sex Pistols inspired roots to become one of the greatest pop artists of all time.

I so love how he went from his big hit Oliver’s Army to sing that emotional take on She for the soundtrack of the romantic comedy Notting Hill. For a closer look or I should say listen to his music, do check out his critically-acclaimed albums with his backing band The Attractions, My Aim is True, This Year’s Model and Armed Forces, plus his solo efforts like Trust and King of America.

While you are at it, it would also be a good time to listen to the Grammy-winning album Painted from Memory from 1998, which is made up of songs composed by Bacharach and Costello. They are both credited for the words and music of the entire album, no dividing the job here.

They seemed like an unlikely pairing back then, but Bacharach harked back to his pop sound of the early years, so elegant, for the album. On the other hand, Costello rose up to meet the demands of the classics, so powerful. The result is that they transcended all expectations and also preconceived trepidations and came up with a masterpiece.

Painted from Memory looks at romance from a man’s point of view. In this case, two men, each with his own unique love history. And what stories they tell. Costello sang, Bacharach arranged and I wonder which one of them gave out a silent sob for Tears at the Birthday Party, about watching your kid celebrate with a new family. Ouch! Or one’s last day at a place once shared and full of memories in The House is Empty Now. Feel that empty gut inside you.

You can just imagine in what mood Bacharach and Costello were by reading the titles: In the Darkest Place, Toledo, I Still Have That Other Girl, The House is Empty Now, Tears at the Birthday Party, Such Unlikely Lovers, My Thief, The Long Division, The Sweetest Punch, What’s Her Name Today and the title cut.

An album like Painted from Memory comes along in a very rare while and it is such a good thing that Costello cherishes the experience. After Bacharach’s demise last Feb. 8, Costello went to work to honor the man. He came up with a new edition of Painted from Memory, a two-volume set that includes the original album in one disc and jazzy versions of some of the songs by various artists in the other.

Plus more. There are also songs from Taken from Life, which would have been a musical they were writing together like Lie Back and Think of England performed by Bacharach himself.