Hal David — the stylish, heartfelt lyricist who teamed with Burt Bacharach on dozens of timeless songs for movies, TV and a variety of recording artists in the 1960s and beyond — died yesterday. He was 91.
The Brooklyn native — and ex-New York Post writer — died of complications from a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to his wife, Eunice.
“Even at the end, Hal always had a song in his head,” she said. “He was always writing notes or asking me to take a note down, so that he wouldn’t forget a lyric.”
The Bacharach-David songbook includes such pop standards as “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” “Close to You,” “That’s What Friends Are For,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” “Walk On By,” “Alfie,” “Message to Michael,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “There’s Always Something There to Remind Me.”
The duo was honored in May by President Obama as “two kings of songwriting” and awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.