Song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and originally recorded by Dionne Warwick.

Dionne Warwick version

‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ was presented to Dionne Warwick in unfinished form while she, Burt Bacharach and Hal David were rehearsing in Bacharach’s Manhattan apartment for an upcoming recording session. Bacharach had finished the score which, in his words, “changes time signature constantly, 4/4 to 5/4, and a 7/8 bar at the end of the song on the turnaround. It wasn’t intentional, it was all just natural. That’s the way I felt it.” This was the first use of polyrhythm in popular music. However David had written only about a third of the lyric and was reluctant to finalize the sixth line of the first stanza as “And know I dream of you” feeling the stress was unnatural (as opposed to “And know I dream of you”). Bacharach played a snippet of the tune for Warwick who was enraptured and at her urging David left Warwick to rehearse with Bacharach in the living room while he (David) retired to a bedroom where he completed the lyric. Of the unnatural stress in “I dream of you”, David later stated: “I tried to find a way to make the of do something and I could never do it… [I] had to let it go.”

Warwick recorded ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ at Bell Sound Studios in Manhattan in November 1963, in a session produced by Bacharach which also yielded ‘Walk On By’ and ‘In the Land Of Make Believe’. According to published reports, Warwick nailed the tune in only one take – though an alternate remix of the take appears on a compilation album released in 1976 by Springboard International.

Released on the Scepter label in November 1963, ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ became Warwick’s first Top Ten single in January 1964 peaking at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.

Cilla Black version

A scout for UK record producer George Martin discovered ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ when Warwick’s version took off in the US, suggesting to Martin that the song would be a strong UK single for Shirley Bassey. However Martin saw the song as a vehicle for Cilla Black, the Liverpool vocalist whose obvious star potential had yet to be realized despite her association with the Beatles, her recording of the Lennon-McCartney original “Love of the loved” having been only a modest hit. Martin produced the session for Black’s recording of ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ at Abbey Road Studios; the arrangement was by Johnny Pearson and the session personnel included guitarists Vic Flick and Big Jim Sullivan and the Breakaways vocal group.

Black’s single of “Anyone Who Had a Heart” debuted at number 28 on the UK single chart. The Dionne Warwick original, issued by Scepter’s UK licensee Pye Records debuted on the chart for the following week at number 42; by then Black’s version had reached number 10 ascending in the subsequent two weeks to number 1 while Warwick’s version concurrently ended its chart run with two weeks at number 47. Cilla Black stayed at number one for three weeks. Eventually she sold one million copies of her single.

Black recorded a new version of ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ for her 1993 ‘Through the Years’ album.

Kim Wilde version

Kim Wilde recorded a cover of ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ for her 2011 album Snapshots.

Versions

There are two versions of ‘Anyone who had a heart’: the album version and the ‘mixed but not mastered’ version from the promotional cd of ‘Snapshots’.

Kim about ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’

I don’t know what year, ’62? ’63?, I was only three years old and I remember mum and dad had the radio on in the house and listening to all kinds of fantastic music at thar time. I remember Gene Pitney, the Beatles, The Kinks and all kinds of great music coming out of that box. Anyone who had a heart, there was something about the way Cilla sang it, not Dionne Warwick or anyone else. Heartrending stuff. (1)

In 1964, I was four years old. I was living in London in a semi-detached house with my parents and there was a lot of music being played at home. My dad was sitting around strumming guitars and writing songs. But I remember the radio was on a lot, and this particular song really had a big impact on me. I find it interesting now, I didn’t realise I was quite so young… When I started researching some of the songs that are on the ‘Snapshots’ album I was really staggered to realise that I was so young and yet this song had such a big impact on such a small little person. And so I grew up with this song being like one of those really precious songs that – one of the most precious songs I can think of. So I wasn’t in any rush to record it because I had it in such, I looked up to it so much, on such a pedestal, but when Snapshots came around I just thought ‘this is the time to do this song, if you’re ever gonna have a crack at this song it’s gotta be now or never.’ So I went into the studio with Rick, my brother, and it was quite an emotional thing to do, but we did it (laughs) and I’m so chuffed, I’m so delighted with the way we’ve interpreted that song. It’s just wonderful. It’s real dream come true stuff. So many songs on the album had long journeys to get to the album. They weren’t just picked out randomly, like ‘Oh I fancy that or maybe I’ll do that one.’ There’s real stories to them and I think that what makes the album so special and so special to me. (2)

To be in the studio and singing that was a big emotional day. I had lots of moments that day. The thing I enjoyed most about singing ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ was actually doing all the backing vocals, because all the backing vocals on that song are huge and massive, and really challenging, and I’d always wanted to do them. I’d almost wanted to do the backing vocals more than I’d wanted to sing the song itself. (3)

Credits

Guitars: Ricky Wilde
Keyboards: Ricky Wilde
Additional vocals by Kim Wilde
Produced by Ricky Wilde & Andrew Murray
Vocal production by Ricky Wilde

Interview source

(1) Tracks of my years, BBC Radio 2 (UK), 4 April 2005.
(2) Track by track commentary, Sony Music, 2011.
(3) Unsung Heroes podcast, 23 July 2021

Song written by Cathy Dennis and Lukasz Gottwald.

Sugababes version

‘About you now’ was the lead single for the Sugababes’ 2007 album ‘Change’. It became the first single to reach number 1 in the UK singles chart on digital downloads alone, although cd-singles were subsequently released. Having sold more than 485,000 copies on the UK alone as of 2011, it ranks as the band’s best-selling single.

Kim Wilde version

Kim Wilde recorded a cover of ‘About you now’ for her 2011 album Snapshots. She subsequently performed the song live in 2012 during the Snapshots & Greatest Hits tour.

Versions

There are two versions of ‘About You Now’: the album verison and the rough demo mix from the promotional cd of ‘Snapshots’.

Live performances

‘About you now’ was performed live during the Snapshots & Greatest Hits tour in 2012.

Kim about ‘About You Now’

‘About You Now’ by the Sugababes is the most recent song that I’ve covered. I think it’s only a few years old. (…) It’s just a great pop record, I’ve always loved girl bands anyway. My mother was in one of the first girl bands in the UK called the Vernons Girls, they were all singing and all dancing.  I remember growing up thinking ‘girl bands are very cool’. I love the Supremes, I love the Shangri-las, the Ronettes, and then later in the Eighties, Bananarama and Sister Sledge, you know – girl bands can be very cool. All Saints, I really liked them as well. The Sugababes are really cool. I just love the way they present themselves and it’s an old concept, but it’s a really potent one. When it’s done well it’s really exciting and the Sugababes do it with style. (1)

Credits

Drums: Paul Kaiser
Guitars: Heiko Fischer
Additional vocals: Kim Wilde, Ricky Wilde, Scarlett Wilde & Lisa Rethwisch
Drums recorded by Manfred Faust @ Gaga Studio, Hamburg
Produced by Alex Rethwisch
Vocal production by Ricky Wilde

Interview source

(1) Track by track commentary, Sony Music, 2011.

Song written and originally recorded by Erasure.

Erasure version

The British synthpop duo Erasure released ‘A Little Respect’ in September 1988 as their tenth single. The single was taken from their album ‘The Innocents’. The lyric is an empowering plea to a lover to show compassion and respect.

Kim Wilde version

Kim Wilde performed this song live during her European tour in March/April 2009 and subsequent festival performances in the summer of 2009. She continued to perform the song in 2010 and during the ‘Come Out and Play’ tour in March 2011. In August 2011 the song was released as a studio recording on Kim’s album Snapshots.

Versions

There are two versions of ‘A Little Respect’: the album version and the ‘mixed but not mastered’ version from the promotional cd of ‘Snapshots’.

Live performances

‘A Little Respect’ was performed live during Kim’s 2009 tour, during the Snapshots & Greatest Hits tour in 2012 and during the Christmas gigs in 2013.

Kim about ‘A little respect’

‘A Little Respect’ is a great song by Erasure, Vince Clark and Andy Bell, and I remember it came out in 1988 which was a really important year for me. I had ‘Close’ out which did really well, and of course I was on tour with Michael Jackson, so it all kindof kicked off that year. Every time I hear this song it just takes me back to that fantastic time in my career. (1)

Andy Bell absolutely loved it and has told us so, so that’s one of the reasons why it’s on [Pop Don’t Stop, the greatest hits compilation]. It was fully endorsed by him and he loves it, so that means the world to us. (2)

Credits

Guitars: Bernd Klimpel
Additional vocals: Ricky Wilde & Scarlett Wilde
Produced by Alex G.
Vocal production by Ricky Wilde

Interview source

(1) Track by track commentary, Sony Music, 2011.
(2) Unsung Heroes podcast, 23 July 2021