Elvis Costello is ready to celebrate his decades long collaboration with the legendary Burt Bacharach.
The Songs of Bacharach & Costello is a new box set Costello has personally compiled of every published song the pair has written together. Dropping March 3, the set features 45 songs, including the pair’s 1998 album Painted From Memory, which has been remastered by Bob Ludwig from the original tapes.
The set also includes the new collection, Taken From Life, which includes mostly unreleased songs from the proposed Painting From Memory musical, with three newly recorded songs. There are also two discs of rare and unreleased live performances, as well as a disc of Bacharach and Hal David songs Costello has performed and recorded over the years, and more. It also includes “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” the song the pair performed in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
In addition to the music, the box comes with a 20-page booklet of photography, early drafts of lyrics, studio notes and more, including a brand new 10,000-word essay by Costello which delves into his and Bacharach’s three-decade long friendship and musical partnership.
And to give fans a taste of the set, Costello has released three rare and unreleased live performances: “In the Darkest Place,” recorded with Elvis’ The Imposters bandmate Steve Nieve on tour in Australia, “Painted From Memory,” recorded in Stockholm, Sweden with Nieve and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and a version of the 1963 Dionne Warwick track “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” recorded by Costello and Bacharach at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
