Bacharach, Was Making Music For 2000 Oscars

Sun., Jan. 9, 2000

Chris Gennusa The Hollywood Reporter

Oscar-winning songwriter Burt Bacharach and Grammy-winning producer Don Was are tuning up to make music for Oscarcast 2000. The pair have been tapped as musical directors for the 72nd annual Academy Awards on March 26 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

“It’s a very big honor,” said Bacharach, adding that Oscar show producers Richard Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck want the selections to include a medley of past Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated songs.

It’s the first time either has worked behind the scenes at the Oscars.

Bacharach said he will conduct, from behind the piano, a nine- or 10-piece live band featuring three male and three female singers.

“I am thrilled. Burt is one of my heroes,” said Was, who will play bass and help with the arrangements. “You wait a lifetime for a fun thing like this. We want to treat this venerable institution with respect but also do something different. The Zanucks’ overall approach is inspiring.”

Bacharach has won three Oscars in his career. In 1969, he and Hal David won for best original song for “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” He also won a statuette that year for writing the original score for the Paul Newman-Robert Redford western. In 1981, Bacharach took home an Oscar for “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” from “Arthur.”

Was, former frontman for the rock band Was (Not Was), won the producer of the year Grammy in 1994.

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