By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Award-winning musician Steve Tyrell will entertain fans with his own version of Burt Bacharach classics and American standards during his first concert in Seoul, Thursday.
``I am very excited to have this opportunity to play my music in Korea. I hope this is the beginning of a relationship that will bring me back to Seoul time and time again,'' Tyrell said, in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times.
Tyrell was only 19 years old when he moved to New York and started working for a record company. He began producing music with legendary singer Burt Bacharach and his partner Hal David. He co-produced ``Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head,'' which won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Song from a Movie.
Tyrell was already a well-known music producer, before he decided to go solo. It was his performance singing ``The Way You Look Tonight'' in the 1991 ``Father of the Bride'' film that got him noticed by a wider audience.
He considers his latest album ``Back to Bacharach'' as extra-special because he started his career as a teenager working with Bacharach and David. ``I decided to do this album because I was there with him and Hal David when most of these songs were written and they are a big part of my life. … There are many more I love and could have done, but I just spoke the ones that spoke the loudest to me at this moment,'' he said.
Among the songs on the album, Tyrell considers ``A House is Not a Home'' as his favorite. He described it as ``one of the most perfect songs anyone has ever written.''
While recording the album, Tyrell went through a difficult time because his wife Stephanie was diagnosed with cancer. ``I started to make this album in 2002 when Burt and I went into the studio and recorded two songs. Shortly after those sessions, my wife Stephanie was diagnosed with cancer and ultimately lost the battle 18 months later. Because of my personal involvement with these songs and the incredibly personal time in my life when we started this project, it has taken me five years to finish what we started,'' he said.
Tyrell assembled an all-star group to do a remake of ``What The World Needs Now is Love,'' in the memory of his late wife. The proceeds of the single would go to colon cancer research.
``Ever since the passing of my wife and seeing first hand the devastation that cancer can cause a person and family, I have tried to do whatever I can to raise money for colon cancer research. I wanted to find a song that my friends who share this cause could help me with, and `What the World Needs Now is Love' seemed to me to be the perfect message,'' he said.
Tyrell will perform June 5 at the M Theater in the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets cost from 33,000 won to 55,000 won. Visit www.ticketlink.co.kr or call (02) 563-0595 for English information.