I Say a Little Prayer composer Burt Bacharach dies aged 94

The composer has died aged 94 (Picture: Getty)

Burt Bacharach, who composed hits including I Say A Little Prayer, has died aged 94.

The legendary songwriter died at his home in Los Angeles of natural causes, his publicist Tina Brausam confirmed to PA news agency.

The American composer produced hits including 1968 song This Guy’s In Love With You and That’s What Friends Are For in 1986.

Amongst the 500 songs he composed during his career, some of his most famous included Walk On By and Do You Know The Way to San Jose.

Bacharach was a six-time Grammy winner, having been nominated for 21, and three-time Academy Award winner, whose songs have been performed by the likes of Sir Tom Jones and Cilla Black.

He wrote for stars including Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick, going on to write 39 songs for the latter with lyricist Hal David.

He wrote for the likes of Cilla Black (Picture: ITV/REX Shutterstock)

David and Bacharach created classic hits including I Say a Little Prayer, sung by Aretha Franklin and What’s New Pussycat? by Sir Tom.

They also produced the likes of The Look of Love by Dusty Springfield, among so many more.

Bacharach, born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1928 before moving to New York, was classically trained at schools across the country, from New York to California, and became a piano accompanist to musicians after a stint in the US army.

He won two Academy awards in 1970 for his original score for Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and for Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.

Bacharach won three Academy awards and six Grammys (Picture: Gus Stewart/Redferns via Getty Images)

In 1982 he and his then-wife, lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, won the Oscar for Best That You Can Do from Arthur.

In 2008 he was proclaimed music’s ‘greatest living composer’ as he accepted the Grammy lifetime achievement award.

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More recently Bacharach developed a songwriting partnership with Elvis Costello, the British new wave singer-songwriter, and they were due to release a compilation of their published songs from the last 30 years in the coming months.

He scored 73 Top 40 hits in the US, and 52 in the UK, and in 2015, Bacharach went on to at the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

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