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  1. Culture
2 September 2012

Hal David: 1921-2012

Songwriter dies at the age of 91.

By New Statesman

Hal David, with Burt Bacharach one half of perhaps the most prolific songwriting team to have emerged from New York’s Brill Building, has died at the age of 91. David wrote lyrics for hundreds of Bacharach compositions. The pair had a staggering number of hits, many with songs they wrote for Dionne Warwick (“Make it Easy on Yourself”, “Walk on By”, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”, to name only three). 

Bacharach and David wrote “I Say a Little Prayer” for Warwick, who released it as a single in December 1967. But the song is perhaps better known in a later iteration, performed by Aretha Franklin. Here’s Aretha performing it on the Cliff Richard Show in 1970.

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