Bacharach

January 19, 2000
Web posted at: 3:40 p.m. EST (2040 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- In 1998, Burt Bacharach collaborated with Elvis Costello on the album "Painted From Memory." Now he's got a new collaboration drawing attention: The single "Walking Tall" appears on the soundtrack for the recently released movie "Stuart Little," and it's receiving its share of Oscar buzz.

In an interview with CNN "Showbiz Today" anchor Jim Moret, Bacharach says "Walking Tall," which Lyle Lovett performs on the soundtrack, is the first song he ever wrote with Tim Rice -- Rice did the lyrics.

"I always wanted to write a song with him," Bacharach says, "and we got a chance."

While collaborating, the pair were never in the same room together. Rather, they wrote the song "on the phone, fax machines," he says. It must have worked for them: There's word that the song may be up for best original song consideration at the Academy Awards this year. Bacharach has already won three Oscars and five Grammys in his career.

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Bacharach performs "Walking Tall" on CNN's Showbiz Today Audio clip: 1.07M MPEG-3 Full audio performance: 519k WAV Video clip: 2.4Mb QuickTime

The man known by many for his easygoing "elevator music," now in his early 70s, has a child in first grade. He says taking his son to see "Stuart Little" was special because of his contribution to the film.

What's more, he says, "The picture was really impactful on kids Oliver's age, and also for adults. This picture surprised everybody."

Along with the single, he worked on his first film score in a couple of years, writing and conducting the music for the upcoming Bette Midler film "Isn't She Great."

He's in the midst of a symphonic tour, with a February date in Raleigh, North Carolina, with the North Carolina Symphony Pops, and an engagement starting March 31 in Columbus, Ohio, with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.

And he'll soon act as co-musical director of this year's Academy Awards (set for March 26), with producer Don Was.

"This is a very, very exciting project," he says. "Dick and Lily Zanuck are producing this year, and they're bringing a very different look. I don't know that there's going to be any orchestra in the pit. There could be two orchestras, at least, on stage."

It's a busy time for this music veteran, and he's glad to still be busy in his chosen field.

"I'm so grateful," he says. "I was just telling my concert manager, we were in St. Louis doing concerts on the weekend, going to see the Rams game then do a matinee with the symphony, and I was just telling her at dinner the night before, 'Isn't life great?' I mean, life is so great."