BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Take a late composer who was among the most important and influential figures of 20th century popular music.
Have his music arranged by his longtime musical director and performed by an artist who had more than a dozen soft-rock Top 40 hits from 1970-83 and fronted two bands.
And have them sung by a vocalist who was runner-up on the TV singing competition show "The Voice."
That's the formula for The Burt Bacharach Songbook Live, which will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, April 4, at Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem.
Tickets, at $39.50-$59.50, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 17, at the Wind Creek Event Center website or at the box office at 66 Wind Creek Blvd., Bethlehem.Wind Creek Event Center website
The show will feature songs from Bacharach's catalog of 52 U.S. Top 40 hits, with his longtime arranger/musical director/keyboardist Rob Shirakbari leading a nine-piece all-star ensemble that has worked with Adele, Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Brian Wilson and Aretha Franklin.
The songs will be performed by Todd Rundgren, who led the bands Nazz and Utopia and had the solo hits “Hello, It’s Me,” “Can We Still Be Friends?” and “Bang the Drum All Day.”
And they will be sung by jazz singer Wendy Moten, who had a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom with the 1994 song "Come In Out of the Rain" and was runner-up on "The Voice" in 2022.
Tickets, at $39.50-$59.50, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 17, at the Wind Creek website or at the box office at 66 Wind Creek Blvd., Bethlehem.
6 Grammys, 3 Oscars and an Emmy
With songwriting partner Hal David, over a 20-year period Bacharach wrote songs for singer Dionne Warwick that sold more than 12 million copies.
They included "Walk On By," "I Say a Little Prayer," "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose."
Bacharach also topped the Billboard Hot 100 with the hits "This Guy's in Love with You" by Herb Alpert in 1968, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" by B.J. Thomas in 1969, and "Close to You" by The Carpenters in 1970.
More recent Bacharach hits included "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross in 1981, "That's What Friends Are For" by Dionne Warwick in 1986 and "On My Own" by Carole Bayer Sager in 1986.
Bacharach won six Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards and an Emmy Award.
He died in 2023 at age 94.
In addition to his own successful musical career, Rundgren also has been a producer and engineer for other artists, and fronted the New Cars, a reformed version of the 1980s band The Cars.
