And as if the two didn’t have enough on their plate, in the 1960s they wrote soundtracks for “What’s New, Pussy?”, “The Seducer Sends His Greetings” and “Casino Royale” or the story about Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) in the western comedy Two Bandits (1969). Musically, Bacharach’s cuddly title “Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head” stuck with the screen classic. Bacharach won three Oscars and two Golden Globes, and he was also nominated several times for both awards.
The flight of fancy came to an end for the time being when composer David, singer Warwick and his now second wife left Bacharach. It was to take around ten years before he climbed back onto his old musical plateau. “Music was my essential love all the way through,” he told the Guardian in 2015. He had learned to play the cello, drums and piano as a child and later studied music and composition. By 1986, Bacharach had returned to his former glory, scoring two number one hits in the same year.
In old age, Bacharach, who had been married four times, came to Germany for the first time for a concert. In July 2018 he performed in Berlin, two months after his 90th birthday. About 1,500 supporters came to the Admiralspalast and saw a 90-year-old man wearing sneakers with his jacket, playing the piano for hours, telling anecdotes in between and looking fitter than many 60-year-olds. Bacharach said at the time that he was happy to still be able to travel the world at his age and make music with his own son.
