The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion Burt Bacharach’s songwriting brilliance could stop you in your tracks

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February 10, 2023 at 6:36 p.m. EST
Composer Burt Bacharach pauses during a media event in Sydney on June 28, 2007. (Tim Wimborne/Reuters, File)
3 min

Carole King is a singer, songwriter, author and environmental advocate.

In 1962, the lyricist (and my then-husband) Gerry Goffin and I were driving up the Garden State Parkway when we heard Dionne Warwick’s recording of “Don’t Make Me Over” for the first time. We were stunned into silence. If we hadn’t been in the left lane between exits, it would have been a pull-over-to-the-side-of-the-road moment.