Burt Bacharach - Nikki (A&M; Records 1966)

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• published: 03 Oct 2013
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"Nikki" is a song composed, arranged and conducted by Burt Bacharach and is dedicated to his late daughter Nikki. Burt Freeman Bacharach is an American composer, songwriter, record producer, pianist, and singer. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, he is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many with lyrics written by Hal David. Most of Bacharach & David hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick, but earlier associations (from 1957–63) saw the composing duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels, and Jerry Butler. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach went on to write hits for Gene Pitney, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, Bobbie Gentry, Tom Jones, Herb Alpert, B. J. Thomas, The Carpenters, among numerous other artists. Burt had Nikki with former wife Angie Dickinson, best known for playing Sgt. Suzanne 'Pepper' Anderson in the 1970s television show Police Woman. She was born one-pound, 10 punches at birth and grew up with emotional issues and had an undiagnosed case of Asperger's syndrome. She was placed at a psychiatric treatment facility in Minnesota at age 16 and spent 10 years there. Despite her struggles, Burt said he never thought she would kill herself. 'It's like the boy who cried wolf. Somebody who says, "I can't stand it. The helicopters are making too much noise and the gardeners and the blowers are making too much noise and if they don't stop I'm going to kill myself,'" he said with a cracking voice. 'And you hear that enough and you know it's never gonna happen and then one day she just goes and kills herself,' he said. Burt also revealed that he thought that the strong relationship she had with her mother would prevent it from ever happening. 'They had a very connected, symbiotic relationship,' he said, adding, 'We all did everything we could. I did what I thought would be the right thing and it wasn't the right thing and I was just trying to get her better.' Burt deeply regrets the painful decision to send her away and he feels she always held that against him. 'There was always that resentment that I kind of imprisoned her and the last thing in the world you know,' he said. 'I wish somebody would have just said, you're not going to heal her, let her be.' Burt in his memoir said that Nikki died on January 4, 2007 and that, 'There was a bag over her head with a tube that fed nitrous oxide into it, and that was how they found her. Burt has revealed he continues to be haunted by his daughter's suicide to this day! Somewhere there is sunshine. Somewhere days are warm. Somewhere there's a happy harbor far from the storm. Out where the sun shines there is someone I'm meant to adore, and I know the day I find her, I'll smile once more. Nikki, it's you. Nikki, where can you be? It's you, no one but you for me I've been so lonely since you went away. I won't spend a happy day 'til you're back in my arms. For ev'ry dream there is a dreamer, and when dreams are gone, for each wish another star shines to wish up on. Take all my dreams and all my wishes Hold them in your heart. Tell me soon we'll be together, never to part. Nikki, it's you. Nikki, where can you be? It's you, no one but you for me I've been so lonely since you went away. I won't spend a happy day 'til you're back in my arms. Don't make me wait here in the shadows till my life is done. I can't live without the sunshine, you are the sun. Oh Nikki, it's you.