Is Love Enough?

Album: At This Time (2005)
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Songfacts®:

  • Burt Bacharach worked with the American singer-songwriter Tonio K (Vanessa Williams & Brian McKnight's "Love Is") for his 2005 At This Time album, whilst rap impresario Dr. Dre supplied some drum loops. Speaking with us in a 2013 interview, Tonio K recalled how the hip-hop producing legend got involved: "My publisher at the time, Steve Lindsey, was working with Dre, actually giving him piano lessons. Lindsey is the guy who produced Leonard Cohen's The Future and a bunch of Aaron Neville records, and was kind of a producer/publisher around town."

    "So anyway," he continued, "Steve called me up one day and says, 'Hey, you think Burt would be interested in working with Dre' 'Yeah,' I said. 'I've been telling Dre what he needs to do is put up some of his loops and then get some really legitimate music, like Burt Bacharach music.' And then Dre says, 'Oh, hook it up.' And so I said, 'I'll certainly lay that one on Burt,' that would be interesting. And Burt said, 'Yeah, let's see what he's talking about.'

    So we went to Dre's studio one day with Steve and Dre laid a half a dozen loops on Burt. And Burt wrote this stuff that I've never heard anything quite like. It's somewhere between Stravinsky and Gershwin with Bacharach top line melodies and Dre loops.

    Dre wasn't that involved other than the day of laying those loops on us," Tonio added, "that was pretty much the extent of his involvement. He was back and forth in the studio listening a couple of times. But other than the loop, Burt did everything musically."

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