Alfie (song)
Encyclopedia
"Alfie" is a song written by Burt Bacharach
and Hal David
in 1965 most successfully recorded by Cher
, Cilla Black
and Dionne Warwick
.
who owned Famous Music). Hal David would attribute the composers' disinterest to the title character's name being 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 were able to write a worthy candidate so named within a three week period. When Bacharach, resident in California, was shown a rough cut of the film Alfie the quality of the film's depiction of a Cockney
womanizer
played by Michael Caine
instilled in Bacharach a dedication to writing a complementary song and as Bacharach felt - in his own words - "with 'Alfie' the lyric had to come first because it had to say what that movie was all about" http://www.popentertainment.com/burtbacharach.htm he arranged for David - in Long Island - to receive a script of the film to facilitate writing the lyrics for an "Alfie" song. David utilized one of Michael Caine's lines in the film: "What's it all about", as the opening phrase for the song's lyrics which when completed were set to music by Bacharach.
, their most prolific interpreter, Paramount felt the film's setting demanded the song be recorded by a UK singer and the initial invitation to record "Alfie" was made to Sandie Shaw
who had had a UK number 1 hit with the Bacharach/David composition "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
". When the invitation to Shaw was declined "Alfie" was offered to Cilla Black
who had also had a UK number 1 with a Bacharach/David song: "Anyone Who Had a Heart".
Black was invited to record "Alfie" via a letter from Bacharach - who Black recalls wrote that the song had been written especially for her - and her manager Brian Epstein
was sent a demo
of the song; Black would recall her negative reaction to 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?"
Black states that rather than overtly decline the song "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 Cilla Black's recording of "Alfie" took place in the fall of 1965 at Studio One, Abbey Road Studios
and was overseen by Black's regular producer George Martin
. In addition to the agreed arranging and piano playing, Bacharach conducted the 48-piece orchestra which played on the session which also featured the Breakaways
as background vocalists. According to Black, Bacharach had her cut eighteen complete takes before he was satisfied with her vocal while Bacharach's estimation of the session's total number of takes including partial ones is as high as "twenty-eight or twenty-nine...I kept going [thinking] can we get it a little better...[add] just some magic[?]".
"Alfie" was released in January 1966 four months prior to the opening of the film. The single was essentially intended as a specialty item to foster interest in the upcoming film rather than a mainstream hit; however the track accrued enough interest to enter the UK Top 50 in April 1966 reaching number 9 that May.
Black's "Alfie" was issued in Australia and the US in July 1966 the month prior to the release of the film Alfie in both territories. Despite the soundtrack appearance of a version of "Alfie" by Cher
in the film's worldwide release, Black's "Alfie" was a sizable Australian hit at number22. In the US - where Black had had only one moderate success with "You're My World
" in 1964 - her "Alfie" single just made the Billboard Hot 100
at number 95, the Pop mainstream sector's focus on the song being primarily on Cher's version which itself was only a moderate hit at number 32, interest in any single recorded version of "Alfie" also being dissipated by the plethora of easy Listening
-oriented covers which were in release by the summer of 1966.
Cilla Black entitled her 2004 autobiography What's It All About? referencing the opening phrase of the song "Alfie".
wanted the song featured on the film's soundtrack despite the objections of the film's director Lewis Gilbert
who felt the song "Alfie" would distract from the jazz
score he had had Sonny Rollins
provide for the film. United Artists compromised with Gilbert in keeping the prospective theme song out of the main body of the film Alfie but having it play during the closing credits.
Rather than utilize Black's version, United Artists commissioned a new version of the song "Alfie" by Cher
who was on the roster of Imperial Records
which was a United Artist subsidiary. Recorded at Gold Star Studios
, Cher's version of "Alfie" was released at the end of June 1966 almost two months prior to the film's US premiere (25 August 1966); Sonny Bono
's heavy-handed production (à la Phil Spector
) did not showcase the song appealingly and despite being the follow-up to the #2 hit "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
" Cher's version of "Alfie" rose no higher than #32.
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 featured on the October 1966 album release entitled Chér
.
Despite her 1966 version being a relative chart disappointment, Cher was recruited to remake the song "Alfie" to play under the closing credits of the 2004 remake of the film Alfie
, Cher by then being the only one of the song's early interpreters to have had any recent recording success. After previews, audiences responded to Cher's updated version of the theme song with laughter which led to the track being subsequently dropped from the soundtrack. After unsuccessfully wooing Norah Jones
to remake "Alfie" for the film, the producers successfully recruited Joss Stone
.
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 Jerry Butler
in May 1966 which first appeared as a track on the December 1967 album release Mr Dream Merchant. Also in the spring of 1966 Dee Dee Warwick
while on a promotional junket to the UK made a recording of "Alfie" at the Philips Studio in Marble Arch
with Johnny Franz
producing the session and Peter Knight
arranging and conducting the orchestra; this version was first issued over a year later as the B-side
of Dee Dee Warwick's 1967 single "Locked in Your Love".
At the time the film Alfie premiered in New York City 25 August 1966 at least eight recorded versions of the song "Alfie" were in release in the US: besides the Cher version from the film and the Cilla Black original which had been issued in the US that July to peak at #95 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Alfie" had been recorded by Vikki Carr
, Jack Jones
, Tony Martin
, Carmen McRae
, Joanie Sommers
and Billy Vaughn
. The five last-named singers had recorded "Alfie" in hopes of taking the song into the Billboard Easy Listening chart 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).
, the most prolific interpreter of Bacharach/David compositions and the composers' original choice to cut the song, took it to #15. Introduced on the December 1966 album release Here Where There Is Love
, Warwick's version of "Alfie" had been an impromptu addition to a recording session at A&R Studio in New York City whose scheduled tracks had been completed early; Scepter Records A&R man Steve Tyrell
suggested to Burt Bacharach that the booked time remaining be put to use by having Warwick record a version of "Alfie". Warwick, though feeling it pointless to increase the song's massive cover version count (there were by then some forty-two recorded versions of the song), was persuaded to record the song cutting her vocal in a single take.
Although the "Alfie" track on Here Where There Is Love 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 Beginning of Loneliness"; however disc jockeys preferred "Alfie" and the track began to ascend the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1967, with a major assist from Warwick's performing "Alfie" on the 39th Academy Awards
ceremony television broadcast of 10 April 1967. "Alfie" had a somewhat staggered regional success resulting in its national peak on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1967 being outside the Top Ten at #15. However Billboards year end tally of the biggest Pop hits of 1967 ranked "Alfie" at #44 in a Top 50 composed otherwise of Top Ten hits.
released a harmonica
instrumental
version. This version made the Hot 100, peaking at number 66, and it was also a Top 20 Easy Listening hit. Wonder's single was made for Gordy Records and released pseudonymously as
Eivets Rednow - an inversion of "Stevie" and "Wonder".
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).
Joss Stone
remade "Alfie" to play under the closing credits of the 2004 remake of the film Alfie
, her version replacing a new recording by Cher
which was dropped after drawing laughter from preview audiences (Stone was offered the song after Norah Jones
declined).
Other artists to record versions of "Alfie" include several versions by Bacharach himself, Patricia Barber
, Bill Evans
, Percy Faith
, Blossom Dearie
, Everything But The Girl
, Maynard Ferguson
, Stan Getz
, Tony Hatch
, Dick Hyman
, The Anita Kerr Singers
, Johnny Mathis
, David McCallum
, Brad Mehldau
, Mina
, Matt Monro
, Olivia Newton-John
, Elaine Paige
, Rita Reys
, Buddy Rich
, Rumer
, Barbra Streisand
, The Sweet Inspirations, McCoy Tyner
, Midge Ure
, Sarah Vaughan
, Nancy Wilson
and Vanessa Williams
.
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.
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
and Hal David
Hal David
Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...
in 1965 most successfully recorded by Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
, Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
and Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
.
Background
Although Burt Bacharach has cited "Alfie" as his personal favorite of his compositions, he and Hal David had not been very interested when approached by Ed Wolpin, who headed the composers' publishers Famous Music, to write a song to serve as a promotional tie-in with the upcoming film Alfie (a release from Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
who owned Famous Music). Hal David would attribute the composers' disinterest to the title character's name being 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 were able to write a worthy candidate so named within a three week period. When Bacharach, resident in California, was shown a rough cut of the film Alfie the quality of the film's depiction of a Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
womanizer
Promiscuity
In humans, promiscuity refers to less discriminating casual sex with many sexual partners. The term carries a moral or religious judgement and is viewed in the context of the mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships...
played by Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
instilled in Bacharach a dedication to writing a complementary song and as Bacharach felt - in his own words - "with 'Alfie' the lyric had to come first because it had to say what that movie was all about" http://www.popentertainment.com/burtbacharach.htm he arranged for David - in Long Island - to receive a script of the film to facilitate writing the lyrics for an "Alfie" song. David utilized one of Michael Caine's lines in the film: "What's it all about", as the opening phrase for the song's lyrics which when completed were set to music by Bacharach.
Cilla Black
Although Bacharach and David suggested "Alfie" be recorded by Dionne WarwickDionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
, their most prolific interpreter, Paramount felt the film's setting demanded the song be recorded by a UK singer and the initial invitation to record "Alfie" was made to Sandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw is an English pop singer, who was one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. In 1967 she was the first UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest...
who had had a UK number 1 hit with the Bacharach/David composition "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
" Always Something There to Remind Me" is a song written in the 1960s by songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David.-First charting versions:...
". When the invitation to Shaw was declined "Alfie" was offered to Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
who had also had a UK number 1 with a Bacharach/David song: "Anyone Who Had a Heart".
Black was invited to record "Alfie" via a letter from Bacharach - who Black recalls wrote that the song had been written especially for her - and her manager Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
was sent a demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
of the song; Black would recall her negative reaction to 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?"
Black states that rather than overtly decline the song "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 Cilla Black's recording of "Alfie" took place in the fall of 1965 at Studio One, Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
and was overseen by Black's regular producer George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
. In addition to the agreed arranging and piano playing, Bacharach conducted the 48-piece orchestra which played on the session which also featured the Breakaways
The Breakaways
The Breakaways were an English female vocal trio, formed in 1962. Britain's premiere session vocalists throughout the 1960s, The Breakaways also recorded a handful of little known girl group singles.-Career:...
as background vocalists. According to Black, Bacharach had her cut eighteen complete takes before he was satisfied with her vocal while Bacharach's estimation of the session's total number of takes including partial ones is as high as "twenty-eight or twenty-nine...I kept going [thinking] can we get it a little better...[add] just some magic[?]".
"Alfie" was released in January 1966 four months prior to the opening of the film. The single was essentially intended as a specialty item to foster interest in the upcoming film rather than a mainstream hit; however the track accrued enough interest to enter the UK Top 50 in April 1966 reaching number 9 that May.
Black's "Alfie" was issued in Australia and the US in July 1966 the month prior to the release of the film Alfie in both territories. Despite the soundtrack appearance of a version of "Alfie" by Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
in the film's worldwide release, Black's "Alfie" was a sizable Australian hit at number22. In the US - where Black had had only one moderate success with "You're My World
You're My World
"You're My World" is a ballad originally recorded in 1963 as "Il Mio Mondo" by Umberto Bindi, who co-wrote the Italian-language version with Gino Paoli. Rendered with English lyrics by Carl Sigman as "You're My World",the song has reached No...
" in 1964 - her "Alfie" single just made the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
at number 95, the Pop mainstream sector's focus on the song being primarily on Cher's version which itself was only a moderate hit at number 32, interest in any single recorded version of "Alfie" also being dissipated by the plethora of easy Listening
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...
-oriented covers which were in release by the summer of 1966.
Cilla Black entitled her 2004 autobiography What's It All About? referencing the opening phrase of the song "Alfie".
Cher
Although Black's version of "Alfie" had served as a promotional tool for the film's UK release rather than as the film's theme - being in fact featured nowhere on the soundtrack of the film's UK release - for the US release of the film Alfie the film's distributor United ArtistsUnited Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
wanted the song featured on the film's soundtrack despite the objections of the film's director Lewis Gilbert
Lewis Gilbert
Lewis Gilbert CBE is an English film director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:He was the son of music hall performers, and spent his early years travelling with his parents, and watching the shows from the side of the stage. He first performed on-stage at the age of 5, when asked to drive a...
who felt the song "Alfie" would distract from the jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
score he had had Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
provide for the film. United Artists compromised with Gilbert in keeping the prospective theme song out of the main body of the film Alfie but having it play during the closing credits.
Rather than utilize Black's version, United Artists commissioned a new version of the song "Alfie" by Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
who was on the roster of Imperial Records
Imperial Records
Imperial Records is a United States based label started in 1947 by Lew Chudd and reactivated in 2006 by label owner EMI.- The independent and Liberty Records years :...
which was a United Artist subsidiary. Recorded at Gold Star Studios
Gold Star Studios
Gold Star Studios was a major independent recording studio located in Los Angeles, California, United States. For more than thirty years, from 1950 to 1984, Gold Star was one of the most influential and successful commercial recording studios in the world....
, Cher's version of "Alfie" was released at the end of June 1966 almost two months prior to the film's US premiere (25 August 1966); Sonny Bono
Sonny Bono
Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American recording artist, record producer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades.-Early life:...
's heavy-handed production (à la Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
) did not showcase the song appealingly and despite being the follow-up to the #2 hit "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
"Bang Bang " is the second single by singer-actress Cher from her second studio album The Sonny Side of Chér. The song was written by Sonny Bono and released in 1966. The song reached number three in the UK Singles Chart and number two on the Billboard Hot 100...
" Cher's version of "Alfie" rose no higher than #32.
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 featured on the October 1966 album release entitled Chér
Cher (1966 album)
Chér is the third studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released on October 1966 by Imperial. Cher collaborates again with Sonny Bono, with Harold Battiste and with Stan Ross. The album is by-and-large a covers album and contains only one song written by Bono...
.
Despite her 1966 version being a relative chart disappointment, Cher was recruited to remake the song "Alfie" to play under the closing credits of the 2004 remake of the film Alfie
Alfie (2004 film)
Alfie is a 2004 British/American comedy-drama film based on the 1966 British film of the same name, starring Jude Law as the title character, originally played by Michael Caine. The film was written, directed and produced by Charles Shyer.-Plot:...
, Cher by then being the only one of the song's early interpreters to have had any recent recording success. After previews, audiences responded to Cher's updated version of the theme song with laughter which led to the track being subsequently dropped from the soundtrack. After unsuccessfully wooing Norah Jones
Norah Jones
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies...
to remake "Alfie" for the film, the producers successfully recruited Joss Stone
Joss Stone
Jocelyn Eve Stoker , better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer-songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist...
.
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 coverCover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
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 Jerry Butler
Jerry Butler (singer)
Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...
in May 1966 which first appeared as a track on the December 1967 album release Mr Dream Merchant. Also in the spring of 1966 Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick was an American soul singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey as Delia Mae Warrick, she was the sister of Dionne Warwick, niece of Cissy Houston and cousin of Whitney Houston....
while on a promotional junket to the UK made a recording of "Alfie" at the Philips Studio in Marble Arch
Marble Arch
Marble Arch is a white Carrara marble monument that now stands on a large traffic island at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane, and Edgware Road, almost directly opposite Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London, England...
with Johnny Franz
Johnny Franz
Johnny Franz was a UK record producer and A&R man at the Philips label. Although his name is not recognized by many Americans, Franz was one of Britain's most successful producers in the 1950s and 1960s...
producing the session and Peter Knight
Peter Knight (composer)
Peter Knight was an English musical arranger, conductor and composer.-Career:Knight was born in Exmouth, Devon, England. He worked with Independent Television light entertainment stars from 'Spot The Tune' with Jackie Rae and Marion Ryan to the comedy series 'Home to Roost' ...
arranging and conducting the orchestra; this version was first issued over a year later as the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of Dee Dee Warwick's 1967 single "Locked in Your Love".
At the time the film Alfie premiered in New York City 25 August 1966 at least eight recorded versions of the song "Alfie" were in release in the US: besides the Cher version from the film and the Cilla Black original which had been issued in the US that July to peak at #95 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Alfie" had been recorded by Vikki Carr
Vikki Carr
Vikki Carr is an American singer and humanitarian from El Paso, Texas. She has performed in a variety of music genres, including jazz, pop and country, but has enjoyed her greatest success singing in Spanish.-Career:After taking the stage name 'Vikki Carr', she signed with Liberty Records in 1962...
, Jack Jones
Jack Jones (singer)
John Allan "Jack" Jones is an American jazz and pop singer. He was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1960s.-Overview:...
, Tony Martin
Tony Martin (entertainer)
Tony Martin is an American actor and singer.-Career:Tony Martin was born on Christmas Day, 1913 as Alvin Morris in San Francisco, California to Jewish immigrant parents. He received a saxophone as a gift from his grandmother at the age of ten. In his grammar school glee club, he became an...
, Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...
, Joanie Sommers
Joanie Sommers
Joanie Sommers , is an American singer and actress with a long career of jazz, standards and popular material and extensive show-business credits...
and Billy Vaughn
Billy Vaughn
Richard "Billy" Vaughn was an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, orchestra leader, and A&R man for Dot Records....
. The five last-named singers had recorded "Alfie" in hopes of taking the song into the Billboard Easy Listening chart 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
"Alfie" would not become a Top 30 hit in the US until the summer of 1967 when Dionne WarwickDionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
, the most prolific interpreter of Bacharach/David compositions and the composers' original choice to cut the song, took it to #15. Introduced on the December 1966 album release Here Where There Is Love
Here Where There Is Love
Here Where There Is Love, Dionne Warwick's seventh studio album for Scepter Records, was released in 1966. The LP was catalog number 555 on the label. The album was recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City and was produced in full by Burt Bacharach and Hal David...
, Warwick's version of "Alfie" had been an impromptu addition to a recording session at A&R Studio in New York City whose scheduled tracks had been completed early; Scepter Records A&R man Steve Tyrell
Steve Tyrell
Steve Tyrell is an American jazz musician.-Early career:Upon moving to New York City at the age of 18, he was made head of A&R and promotion at Scepter Records...
suggested to Burt Bacharach that the booked time remaining be put to use by having Warwick record a version of "Alfie". Warwick, though feeling it pointless to increase the song's massive cover version count (there were by then some forty-two recorded versions of the song), was persuaded to record the song cutting her vocal in a single take.
Although the "Alfie" track on Here Where There Is Love 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 Beginning of Loneliness"; however disc jockeys preferred "Alfie" and the track began to ascend the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1967, with a major assist from Warwick's performing "Alfie" on the 39th Academy Awards
39th Academy Awards
The 39th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1966, were held on April 10, 1967 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California...
ceremony television broadcast of 10 April 1967. "Alfie" had a somewhat staggered regional success resulting in its national peak on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1967 being outside the Top Ten at #15. However Billboards year end tally of the biggest Pop hits of 1967 ranked "Alfie" at #44 in a Top 50 composed otherwise of Top Ten hits.
Other versions
In 1968, Stevie WonderStevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
released a harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
version. This version made the Hot 100, peaking at number 66, and it was also a Top 20 Easy Listening hit. Wonder's single was made for Gordy Records and released pseudonymously as
Eivets Rednow - an inversion of "Stevie" and "Wonder".
The Delfonics
The Delfonics
The Delfonics are a pioneering Philadelphia soul singing group, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their most notable hits include "La-La ", "Didn't I ", "Break Your Promise," "I'm Sorry," and "Ready or Not Here I Come "...
recorded "Alfie" for their 1968 La La Means I Love You album produced by Thom Bell
Thom Bell
Thomas Randolph "Thom" Bell is an American songwriter and producer, best known as one of the creators of the Philadelphia style of soul music in the 1970s. He moved to Philadelphia as a child.-Biography:...
; 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).
Joss Stone
Joss Stone
Jocelyn Eve Stoker , better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer-songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist...
remade "Alfie" to play under the closing credits of the 2004 remake of the film Alfie
Alfie (2004 film)
Alfie is a 2004 British/American comedy-drama film based on the 1966 British film of the same name, starring Jude Law as the title character, originally played by Michael Caine. The film was written, directed and produced by Charles Shyer.-Plot:...
, her version replacing a new recording by Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
which was dropped after drawing laughter from preview audiences (Stone was offered the song after Norah Jones
Norah Jones
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies...
declined).
Other artists to record versions of "Alfie" include several versions by Bacharach himself, Patricia Barber
Patricia Barber
-Discography:* Split Premonition Records * Distortion of Love Antilles * Cafe Blue Blue Note, Premonition Records * Modern Cool Blue Note, Premonition Records...
, Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, Percy Faith
Percy Faith
Percy Faith was a Canadian-born American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and...
, Blossom Dearie
Blossom Dearie
Blossom Dearie was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and remembered for her girlish voice.-Early career:...
, Everything But The Girl
Everything but the Girl
Everything but the Girl was a two-person English band, formed in Hull during 1981, consisting of lead singer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, and singer Ben Watt . They are currently inactive although vocalist Tracey Thorn hinted that they may reform someday...
, Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...
, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Tony Hatch
Tony Hatch
Anthony Peter "Tony" Hatch is an English composer, songwriter, pianist, music arranger and producer.-Early life and early career:...
, Dick Hyman
Dick Hyman
Richard “Dick” Hyman is an American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer, best-known for his versatility with jazz piano styles. Over a 50 year career, he has functioned as pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and, increasingly, as composer...
, The Anita Kerr Singers
Anita Kerr
Anita Jean Grilli , known profesioanlly as Anita Kerr, is an American singer, arranger, composer, conductor, pianist, and music producer. She recorded and performed successfully with her vocal harmony groups in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Europe.-Nashville:Kerr was born in Memphis, Tennessee...
, Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
, David McCallum
David McCallum
David Keith McCallum, Jr. is a Scottish actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., as interdimensional operative Steel in Sapphire & Steel, and Dr...
, Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau is an American jazz pianist. Besides leading his own group, the Brad Mehldau Trio, he has performed with many renowned artists, including Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Larry Grenadier, Peter Bernstein, Jeff Ballard, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Kurt...
, Mina
Mina (singer)
Anna Maria Quaini, Grand Officer , known as Mina, is an Italian pop singer. She was a staple of Italian television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an...
, Matt Monro
Matt Monro
Matt Monro was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s...
, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
, Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige OBE is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, North London, Paige attended the Aida Foster stage school, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16...
, Rita Reys
Rita Reys
Rita Reys is a jazz singer from the Netherlands.At the 1960 jazz festival of Juan Les Pins , she received the title 'Europe’s first lady of jazz'.-Early career:...
, Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...
, Rumer
Rumer
Rumer may refer to:*Rumer , British singer*Rumer Willis , actress, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore*Rumer Godden , English author*Yuriy Rumer , Russian physicist also known as Georg Rumer...
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, The Sweet Inspirations, McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...
, Midge Ure
Midge Ure
James "Midge" Ure, OBE is a Scottish guitarist, singer, keyboard player, and songwriter...
, Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
, Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson (singer)
Nancy Wilson is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist...
and Vanessa Williams
Vanessa L. Williams
Vanessa Lynn Williams is an American pop-R&B recording artist, producer, dancer, model, actress and showgirl. In 1983, she became the first woman of African-American descent to be crowned Miss America, but a scandal generated by her having posed for nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine...
.
In a deleted scene from the movie Austin Powers in Goldmember
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Austin Powers in Goldmember is a 2002 American spy comedy film and the third installment of the Austin Powers series starring Mike Myers in the title role. The movie was directed by Jay Roach, and co-written by Mike Myers and Michael McCullers. Myers also plays the roles of Dr. Evil, Goldmember,...
, the song is parodied, with "Austin" replacing "Alfie" in the lyric. Alfie is sung by most of the main characters. Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
, 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
Susanna Hoffs
Susanna Lee Hoffs is an American vocalist, guitarist and actress. She is best known as a member of the all-female pop band The Bangles.-Early life:...
made the recording of this version - entitled "Alfie (What's It All About, Austin?)" for the soundtrack album.