Alfie (Burt Bacharach song)

"Alfie" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David to promote the 1966 film Alfie. The song was a major hit for Cilla Black (UK) and Dionne Warwick (US).

Background

Although Bacharach has cited "Alfie" as his personal favorite of his compositions, he and Hal David were not eager to write a song to promote the film Alfie (a release from Paramount Pictures, which owned Famous Music) when approached by Ed Wolpin of the Composers' Guild. David thought the title character's name pedestrian: "Writing a song about a man called 'Alfie' didn't seem too exciting at the time."

The composers agreed to submit an "Alfie" song if they could complete it within three weeks. Bacharach, in California, was inspired by a rough cut of the film about the Cockney womanizer played by Michael Caine. Bacharach felt that: "with 'Alfie' the lyric had to come first because it had to say what that movie was all about".^[1] He arranged for David – on Long Island – to receive a script of the film to enable him to compose the lyrics. David utilized one of Caine's lines, "What's it all about?", as the opening phrase. David's lyrics were then set to music by Bacharach. The original was recorded in the key of F-sharp major, but Bacharach usually plays it live in B-flat major, the same key in which Cilla Black recorded it.

Cilla Black version

Although Bacharach and David suggested "Alfie" be recorded by Dionne Warwick, their most prolific interpreter, Paramount felt the film's setting demanded the song be recorded by a UK singer. Accordingly, Sandie Shaw, who had had a UK #1 hit with the Bacharach/David composition "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me", was initially invited to record "Alfie". When Shaw declined, the song was offered to Cilla Black, who had also had a UK #1 with a Bacharach/David number, "Anyone Who Had a Heart".

Black was invited to record "Alfie" in a letter from Bacharach, and Black recalls him saying that the song had been written specially for her. Brian Epstein, her manager, was sent a demo^[2] of the song, originally performed by 22-year-old Kenny Karen, with Bacharach on piano, accompanied by a string ensemble.^[3] Black reacted negatively on hearing the demo "of some fella singing 'Alfie' ... I actually said to Brian 'I can't do this.' For a start—Alfie?? You call your dog Alfie! ... [Couldn't] it be Tarquin or something like that?"^[4]

Black states that, rather than declining outright to record the song, she decided to set conditions: "I said I'd only do it if Burt Bacharach himself did the arrangement, never thinking for one moment that he would. [When] the reply came back from America that he'd be happy to. ... I said I would only do it if Burt came over to London for the recording session. 'Yes,' came the reply. Next I said that as well as the arrangements and coming over, he had to play [piano] on the session. To my astonishment it was agreed that Burt would do all three. So by this time, coward that I was, I really couldn't back out."

The session for Black's recording of "Alfie" took place in the autumn of 1965, in Studio One at

Cilla Black titled her 2004 autobiography What's It All About?, a reference to the opening phrase of the song. The grave marker beneath the headstone on her burial plot in Allerton Cemetery is inscribed with four lines taken from the bridge and the third verse of "Alfie". Lyrics from Black's hits "Step Inside Love" and "You're My World" also appear on the marker. The black marble headstone and marker were installed 18 April 2016, eight months after Black's death on 1 August 2015. Following the December 2015 theft of the original bronze nameplate, Black's grave remained unmarked until drier weather permitted the installation of the replacement marble headstone and marker.^[10]

Cher version

Although the song "Alfie" (as recorded by Black) had served as a promotional tool for the film's UK release, it did not serve as an official theme song, because director Lewis Gilbert felt the song would distract from the jazz score he had had Sonny Rollins provide for the film. United Artists compromised with Gilbert in keeping the song out of the main body of the film, instead having it play during the closing credits. The song was also not included on the soundtrack album of the film's UK release. However, the film's US distributor, United Artists, wanted the song featured on the US release of the soundtrack album.

Rather than utilize Black's version, United Artists commissioned a new version of the song "Alfie" by the 20-year-old American singer/actress Cher, who was on the roster of Imperial Records. Cher recorded the song at Gold Star Studios, in a rendition produced by her then-husband Sonny Bono, which followed a similar production style to that of Phil Spector. Cher's version of "Alfie" was released at the end of June 1966, almost two months prior to the film's US premiere (August 25, 1966). Despite being the follow-up to her #2 hit "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", "Alfie" rose no higher than #32.^[11] It was also a top 40 hit in Canada, reaching #36.^[12]

The versions of "Alfie" by both Cilla Black and Cher were released in Australia in July 1966, with Black's becoming the major hit at #22; the Cher version's Australian chart peak was #96.

"Alfie" was included in Cher's album Chér, released in October 1966.

Cher re-recorded the song for the closing credits of the 2004 remake of Alfie, but it was dropped in favour of a version by Joss Stone.^[13]

Charts

Early covers

Despite the relative failure of the version of "Alfie" cut for the US film release, Cilla Black's UK success with the song had attracted sufficient attention in the US for several American singers besides Cher to cover the song by the time the film Alfie opened in the US in August 1966. Two of these covers actually predate the Cher recording although neither was released prior to Cher's, the first evident recording of "Alfie" by an American singer being that cut by

rather than scoring a mainstream Pop hit and both Joanie Sommers and Carmen McRae did score an Easy Listening hit with their respective versions of "Alfie" (Sommers - #9; McRae - #29).

Dionne Warwick version

"Alfie"
Single by Dionne Warwick
from the album Here Where There Is Love
B-side	"The Beginning of Loneliness"
Released	March 1967
Recorded	1966
Genre	Soul, pop
Length	2:44
Label	Scepter
Songwriter(s)	Burt Bacharach, Hal David
Producer(s)	Burt Bacharach, Hal David
Dionne Warwick singles chronology
"Another Night" (1966) "The Beginning of Loneliness" / "Alfie" (1967) "The Windows of the World" (1967)
Audio
"Alfie" by Dionne Warwick on YouTube

"Alfie" would not become a Top 15 hit in the US until the spring and summer of 1967 when

Although the "Alfie" track on Warwick's Here Where There Is Love album began receiving radio airplay as early as January 1967, the track was not issued as a single until March 1967 and then as the intended B-side of the Bacharach/David composed "The Beginning of Loneliness"; however disc jockeys preferred "Alfie", flipped the single to its B-side, and the track began to ascend the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1967, with a major assist from Warwick's performance of "Alfie" on the 39th Academy Awards ceremony television broadcast live worldwide on April 10, 1967. Billboard's year end tally of the biggest Pop hits of 1967 ranked Warwick's version of "Alfie" at #44 in a Top 100 of the year composed otherwise of Top Ten hits.

In 2008, Warwick's recording of "Alfie" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Charts

Other versions

In 1966, Dutch singer Conny Vandenbos recorded a Dutch-language version titled "Frankie" for her album Conny Van den Bos.

In 1968,

Mina recorded the song in 1971 for her album Mina, also known as "the monkey album".

The Delfonics recorded "Alfie" for their 1968 La La Means I Love You album produced by Thom Bell; originally the B-side of the group's hit 1968 hit "Break Your Promise", the Delfonics' recording of "Alfie" had a belated A-side release in 1973 when it was a minor R&B hit (#88).

In 1994, Whitney Houston performed the song on select dates during her Bodyguard Tour, and her 1997 HBO televised concert, Classic Whitney: Live from Washington, D.C..

Other artists to record versions of "Alfie" include several versions by Bacharach himself,

Barbra Streisand recorded the song for her 1969 album What About Today? and performed it on her Timeless Tour in 2000.

In a deleted scene from the movie Austin Powers in Goldmember, the song is parodied, with "Austin" replacing "Alfie" in the lyric. Alfie is sung by most of the main characters. Michael Caine, who plays Austin Powers' father, also played the character Alfie in the original 1966 movie, and scenes from the film appear in the background while he is singing. Susanna Hoffs made the recording of this version - entitled "Alfie (What's It All About, Austin?)" for the soundtrack album.

Bob Welch covered this song on his 2011 Album: Sings The Best Songs Ever Written

Gina Hayes recorded an updated/jazzy version of the song, which appears on her 2014 album "Montage".

Olivia Newton-John recorded the song for her 2004 album Indigo: Women of Song

Santana Lopez (portrayed by Naya Rivera) performed this song on the sixth episode of Glee's sixth season, "What The World Needs Now". The episode aired in the US on 6 February 2015.

In 2020, emerging Japanese pop star Fujii Kaze covered this song on the special edition of his debut album, Help Ever Hurt Never.^[22]

On December 3, 2023, Cynthia Erivo sang the song to honor Dionne Warwick at the Kennedy Center Honors.^[23]

References