I agree. Top tune. It's got a bit of history - apparently Burt (unusually) wrote the lyrics because his usual partner Hal David was too busy, or perhaps because their relationship at the time was not at its best. Which may explain why the lyrics are somewhat rudimentary (eg. "don't be lonely, come phone me..."). Also no such place as Hasbrook Heights actually exists....
what interesting facts!! definitely checks out ... what a team bacharach & david made! apparently he lived in a place called hasbrouck heights for a bit, so maybe that's where it came from, though who knows what his artistic vision was with the spelling :')
Burt was, if nothing else, very attuned to what makes a hit song in the U.S./U.K., and part of that is naming your song something that won't be mangled or mispronounced by radio disc jockeys and others. He probably didn't think this particular song was headed for the top-10, but, then again, he'd been surprised before. "Close to You" was recorded by several artists over a period of 8 years before the Carpenters managed to turn it into a hit. He and Hal put a lot of thought and polish into even their obscure tracks. (And there was a Dionne Warwick recording that could have caught on...she was at the height of her career when she recorded it.)
There's another song from the same era where the lyric is basically an invitation to come hang out at the singers' house, by another genius pop songwriter who was thought very uncool by the Rolling Stone Magazine crowd until the mid-1990s, when he became cool again. That's "Busy Doin' Nothin'" by Brian Wilson, from 1968. I always think of these two songs together, in the tiny genre of "come chill with me in my lonely mansion" songs. Although for Burt, by 1971, he'd moved to L.A. and probably wasn't hanging out in Hasbrouck Heights very often.
I'm a bit late to this, but I gotta say that I've been listening to "Busy Doin' Nothin'" on a nonstop repeat lately, all because of this comment. Such a great stream of consciousness song, with such a fun melody. Love the "come chill with me in my lonely mansion descriptor"!
I agree. Top tune. It's got a bit of history - apparently Burt (unusually) wrote the lyrics because his usual partner Hal David was too busy, or perhaps because their relationship at the time was not at its best. Which may explain why the lyrics are somewhat rudimentary (eg. "don't be lonely, come phone me..."). Also no such place as Hasbrook Heights actually exists....
what interesting facts!! definitely checks out ... what a team bacharach & david made! apparently he lived in a place called hasbrouck heights for a bit, so maybe that's where it came from, though who knows what his artistic vision was with the spelling :')
Burt was, if nothing else, very attuned to what makes a hit song in the U.S./U.K., and part of that is naming your song something that won't be mangled or mispronounced by radio disc jockeys and others. He probably didn't think this particular song was headed for the top-10, but, then again, he'd been surprised before. "Close to You" was recorded by several artists over a period of 8 years before the Carpenters managed to turn it into a hit. He and Hal put a lot of thought and polish into even their obscure tracks. (And there was a Dionne Warwick recording that could have caught on...she was at the height of her career when she recorded it.)
There's another song from the same era where the lyric is basically an invitation to come hang out at the singers' house, by another genius pop songwriter who was thought very uncool by the Rolling Stone Magazine crowd until the mid-1990s, when he became cool again. That's "Busy Doin' Nothin'" by Brian Wilson, from 1968. I always think of these two songs together, in the tiny genre of "come chill with me in my lonely mansion" songs. Although for Burt, by 1971, he'd moved to L.A. and probably wasn't hanging out in Hasbrouck Heights very often.
I'm a bit late to this, but I gotta say that I've been listening to "Busy Doin' Nothin'" on a nonstop repeat lately, all because of this comment. Such a great stream of consciousness song, with such a fun melody. Love the "come chill with me in my lonely mansion descriptor"!