Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,andibelle
Date: 12 Nov 12 - 08:45 PM

Lol i know this is 12 years after the original question was asked but ive just finished watching the classic film Alfie....i saw on the end credits that it was Cher that sang the song, this baffled me as the person who was singing didnt sound anything like cher, but i do remember a good few years back that there was a program on tv about the film Alfie n they mentioned on it that the actress that played the character "Siddie" Millicient Martin sang the theme song....So you can see why i was baffled as i know the person singing wasnt Cher, wasnt Cilla, wasnt Dionne....i know what all 3 sound like lol...i also know what Millicient sounds like and I'm 100% sure, she is singing the song "Alfie".......shes probably not credited as singing it because she didnt release it but she did record it for the original British release...thanks :)

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 03:21 AM

Believe me I have just watched Alfie..... the 60's UK version.... last night and it was definitely Cilla Black singing the theme song!

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,Pork sausage Mike
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 03:45 AM

Cilla Black was one of the gals who sang it

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: Allan Conn
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 04:36 AM

According to IMDB the song in the film was sang by Cher and produced by Sonny Bono - and a bit of it is heard in the trailer. Certainly what is on this trailer below isn't Cilla's version which was the original recording of the song! The film was remade in 2004 with Jude Law playing Alfie and Joss Stone singing the song. The guest poster obviously didn't realise this is a remake of an older film when he sugested Joss sang the original version.



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060086/

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: Allan Conn
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 04:44 AM

To make it more confusing on the link it says US version and has a button 'more' when it brings up another page saying title song sung by Cilla Black. So it appears the US and UK versions of the film have different soundtracks. So it appears both Cilla and Cher sing on the film.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 06:04 AM

I have just ploughed through a number of movie sites and the concensus is that there were separate UK and US soundtracks.

Subject: Lyr Add: ALFIE (Hal David, Burt Bacharach)
From: GUEST,999
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 06:42 AM

ALFIE
Words by Hal David; music by Burt Bacharach; ©1966.

What's it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What's it all about when you sort it out, Alfie?
Are we meant to take more than we give
or are we meant to be kind?
And if only fools are kind, Alfie,
then I guess it is wise to be cruel.
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie,
what will you lend on an old golden rule?
As sure as I believe there's a heaven above, Alfie,
I know there's something much more,
something even non-believers can believe in.
I believe in love, Alfie.
Without true love we just exist, Alfie.
Until you find the love you've missed you're nothing, Alfie.
When you walk let your heart lead the way
and you'll find love any day, Alfie, Alfie.

#######################

Good Jesus . . .

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: CupOfTea
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 04:45 PM

Oh my. Tweak the memory lane.

Alfie was in the first book of music I bought with my own money in 1967 when I had started taking electric organ lessons in the 7th grade. I still have the darn thing. Other songs & tunes in that booklet:
Eleanor Rigby
Wipe Out
Born Free (I think that's why I bought it)
can't remember the rest - possibly Unchained Melody - a dozen or so pieces all together.

I wasn't that fond of Alfie, but Burt Bacharach was my idea of elegant in pop tunes & Dionne Warwick was JUST the voice for 'em. Got an album of that 'round here somewhere, too. I'll never fall in love again....la la la....

Joanne in Cleveland

PS anyone want to buy an unplayed but still playable vintage 1970 Hammond Organ with leslie speakers?

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 14 Nov 12 - 07:05 AM

As a teenager, I thought Millicent Martin on 'TW3' was gorgeous.....

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 03:39 PM

I have just watched the film - feeling a tad nostalgic over the death of Cilla. It was Cher singing on the credits, a fact I was slightly disappointed by. However Cilla's version was added to the UK re release and issued as a single which rose to number 9 in the UK charts.
Having listened to all 3 versions hers is definitely the best, the most appropriate and moving.
P

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 04:14 PM

Yep. "Anyone who had a heart" and "Alfie" were two of Cilla's best songs in my book. Really shocked at all the nastiness on the Cilla Obit. thread.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: michaelr
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 07:34 PM

"Hal David's brilliant lyrics"? If what's posted above is the extent of them, I'd hate to see what they call very good.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 08:59 AM

I remember that my dad used to dislike the way Cilla sang it but I loved it.

A few people don't seem to have grasped that there were three different versions of the soundtrack so you may hear Cilla, Millie Martin or Cher. There is no guarantee that the credits on a DVD will match what is actually being played.

As was common in the 60s separate recordings of the single were made for the UK and US markets in 1966 by Cilla and Cher. It was covered by Warwick the following year.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 07:41 AM

I have an old copy of the film and just watched the closing credits and it says Alfie sang by Millicent Martin.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 12:07 PM

I think that the post above yours covered the fact that different releases of the film have different music.

Before anybody throws new names into the mix the whole thread has been about the 1966 version of the film NOT the 2004 remake.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 01:18 PM

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: Helen Date: 13 Nov 00 - 03:45 AM

Hi guys, You were all partly right.

Helen

http://rhino.com/features/liners/75339lin.html

20.Alfie Cilla Black (Burt Bacharach/Hal David)

Musical Direction & Arrangement: Burt Bacharach Produced by George Martin Capitol single #5674 (8/66) * Pop #95

"If you press me for what my favorite song is, the one I'm most proud of, that just about is number one." That's what Burt Bacharach said about "Alfie" on the One Amazing Night telecast that aired on the TNT network during the first half of 1998.

The song was written for the Michael Caine film Alfie. "I saw the script of Alfie, I didn't see the film," says Hal David. "Burt was in Los Angeles and I was in New York. I called Burt, and I asked him if the script and the film were pretty much the same. He said 'yes,' so I felt comfortable working off the story in the script. I wrote a lot of the lyric and gave it to Burt."

Bacharach struggled with the music to accompany Hal's (exceptional) words. "That was a tough song," he told KCRW's Chris Douridas. "[It] took me three weeks to write." Once the song was done, Burt flew to England to record it at Abbey Road with Beatles producer George Martin and the Liverpool-bred, Brian Epstein-managed girl singer Cilla Black.

Cilla may have earned Dionne Warwick's eternal chagrin (due to Cilla's soundalike U.K. hit of "Anyone Who Had A Heart"), but Burt seemed to harbor few ill feelings as he took the singer through the paces of recording "Alfie." As seen in the BBC-TV documentary This Is Now, Burt himself played the piano, conducted the orchestra, and coached the singer simultaneously, pushing a weary Cilla for take after take. "I certainly wouldn't have done it for a Quasimodo," Cilla said in the documentary. "[I did it] because it was Burt, and he was gorgeous and so talented, and I enjoyed his company anyway."

George Martin, who produced the session, claims the British filmmakers turned down the song (!) for inclusion on the movie soundtrack. American prints of the movie later contained Cher's version of the song, produced in Sonny's shaggy pseudo-Wall of Sound style. Dionne recorded the song almost a year later with Burt in New York (the only version to become a sizable hit on the U.S. charts). "I didn't want to record it," she says. "I told them, 'How many versions do you need?'"

Like "A House Is Not A Home," "Alfie" is a genuine standard -- not just an orchestral pop classic, or a '60s oldie, or a bit of lovable kitsch. Due to Hal's brilliant lyric and an astonishingly sympathetic Bacharach melody, the song will certainly outlive us all.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,Bob
Date: 21 Oct 17 - 06:27 PM

There were only two singers who sang on the closing credits of the film. MM on the British release and Cher on the US release. You can throw as many names around as you like, but these were the two singers.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,lou Judson
Date: 21 Oct 17 - 08:14 PM

How can there be so many messages about this song? I just happened to listen to it yesterday, sung by Patricia Barber. I only could stand a verse and a half, though. Awful pop song! As are most songs from musicals, in my arrogant opinion.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Oct 17 - 08:18 PM

My first grandson was born in March, and my son emailed me a photo. I asked what his name was, and my son sent me a recording of Burt Bacharach singing "Alfie." So, I asked my son if he had named the baby "Burt Bacharach." Nope. Alfie.


Cute kid. Smiles a lot, and laughs.
Maybe he's laughing at his parents.

I named my kids Danny, Nick, and Tricia. My kid names my grandson "Alfie." I'm getting used to it now, and I kinda like it.

-Joe, Proud Grandfather of Alfie Burt Bacharach Offer-

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 22 Oct 17 - 05:02 AM

Congratulations, Joe.

I hope you all get a lot of pleasure together.

Subject: RE:What's it all about Alfie? SecondHandSongs db
From: GUEST,Gealt
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 06:29 AM

https://secondhandsongs.com/work/3353/versions

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 11 May 19 - 08:40 AM

The Life of a Song is a regular column in the FT Weekend Life and Arts supplement. And today's article is devoted to the song Alfie;

Bacharach and David wanted Dionne Warwick to record their song. But because the film was set in London, Paramount sought a British singer. At Abbey Road studios in the autumn of 1965, Cilla Black sang "Alfie" 29 times before Bacharach was satisfied.

United Artists, the film's US distributor, instead had Cher record the song. This was heard only during the closing credits. Dionne Warwick recorded it in 1967.

Burt Bacharach described the words as "one of the best lyrics Hal, or anyone else, has written". Cilla Black apparently agreed; lines from "Alfie" are inscribed on her grave in her native Liverpool.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 May 19 - 04:50 PM

Song lyrics, and the writing of lyrics
that are meant to be completed by music --

this is a specialty in a class by itself really.
The well-educated and informed, late lamented
Andre Previn remarked
that songwriters (lyrics inc.) are a law unto themselves.

A comparable dilemma existed -- when it was a viable form --
for the kind of verse that was intended, not only to be sung,
but to be dramatized onstage.
I refer to the versified 'libretto' for grand opera.

A couple of posts on this thread put down Hal David's lyric.
The Mudcatters/guests with those opinions
would probably be equally unimpressed
with
a libretto by Metastasio, da Ponte, Illica, and the rest.

As well as a few nineteenth-century authors
who published poetry and
fully intended that composers -- any and all composers --
should create folk-song-sounding Lieder out of their lyrics.
There are a bunch of those publishing in German in that era.

And yes, if you take the printed words
by themselves, straight off the page,
it is easy to dismiss and belittle what is there;
but
such lyrics
were always intended to be in a sense incomplete --
it is the music that completes the work.

Hal David's lyrics for "Alfie"
do not stand alone, nor are they meant to --
no more than Irving Berlin's lyrics
ought to be separated from Irving Berlin's music.
This is a special craft,
and not many appreciate how special it is.

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 May 19 - 12:54 AM

So, my grandson was born two years ago, in March 2017. My son posted a photo on Facebook....with no name. So, of course, I asked what the baby's name was. In response, my son posted a video of Burt Bacharach singing "Alfie." So, my next question was whether the baby was named "Burt Bacharach," or Alfie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKt4IWKy1mU

The baby's name is Alfie, but I refer to him formally as Alfie Burt Bacharach Offer. Took me a while to get used to the name, but now I can't imagine anything else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W5bvLNMXAo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKt4IWKy1mU

Subject: RE: Help: Who sang 'What's it all about Alfie?'
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 14 May 19 - 05:00 PM

keberoxu; This is a special craft.

It is indeed. And I think that there will be quite a few more Mudcatters who agree with you too.

Songwriters are not always the best judges of their own work!

From Wikipedia;

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".

He arranged for David – in 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.