Burt Bacharach, master of pop songwriting, dies aged 94

Burt Bacharach, the songwriter and performer who turned easy listening into high art, has died at 94. A representative for Bacharach confirmed to the Washington Post that the singer died at home in Los Angeles of natural causes.

In all, he scored 73 Top 40 hits in the US and 52 in the UK.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1928 and raised in New York, Bacharach would sneak into jazz clubs underage to hear performers such as Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie, while immersing himself in the work of composers such as Stravinsky and Ravel. He was classically trained at schools in Montreal, New York and California, and, following a spell in the US army, he became a piano accompanist to musicians, including Vic Damone, the Ames Brothers and his first wife, Paula Stewart. He also worked as an arranger and conductor for Marlene Dietrich when she toured Europe in the late 50s and early 60s.

After he and Stewart divorced in 1958, Bacharach married three more times, to Angie Dickinson in 1965, Carole Bayer Sager in 1982, and Jane Hansen in 1993. He and Hansen, who remained married until his death, had two children, Oliver and Raleigh. Nikki Bacharach, his daughter with Dickinson, killed herself in 2007, aged 40, after a history of mental health issues.

Bayer Sager became a successful musical collaborator in the 80s, writing lyrics for new Bacharach songs performed by Neil Diamond, Roberta Flack and Christopher Cross, whose theme for the 1981 movie Arthur won Bacharach his second Oscar for best original song.