Anyone Who Had a Heart (song)

Anyone Who Had a Heart" is a song written by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) for Dionne Warwick in 1963. Warwick's original recording hit the Top Ten in the United States, Canada, Spain, The Netherlands, South Africa, Belgium and Australia in January 1964.

Cilla Black's version was a UK #1 hit in 1964: in May 2010 research published by BBC Radio 2 revealed that her version was the biggest female chart hit of the 1960s although that version, as well as Cilla Black, remains relatively unknown outside the UK and western Europe.

Original recording
"Anyone Who Had a Heart" was presented to Dionne Warwick in unfinished form while she, Burt Bacharach and Hal David were rehearsing in Bacharach's Manhattan apartment for an upcoming recording session. Bacharach had finished the score which, in his words, "changes time signature constantly, 4/4 to 5/4, and a 7/8 bar at the end of the song on the turnaround. It wasn't intentional, it was all just natural. That's the way I felt it." This was the first use of polyrhythm in popular music. However, David had written only about a third of the lyric and was reluctant to finalize the sixth line of the first stanza as "And know I dream of you", feeling the stress was unnatural (as opposed to "And know I dream of you"). Bacharach played a snippet of the tune for Warwick, who was enraptured and at her urging David left Warwick to rehearse with Bacharach in the living room while he (David) retired to a bedroom where he completed the lyric. Of the unnatural stress in "I dream of you", David later stated: "I tried to find a way to make the you do something and I could never do it...[I] had to let it go."

Warwick recorded "Anyone Who Had a Heart" at Bell Sound Studios in Manhattan in November 1963, in a session produced by Bacharach which also yielded "Walk On By" and "In the Land of Make Believe" and included session drummer Gary Chester. According to published reports, Warwick nailed the tune in only one take – though an alternative remix of the take appears on a compilation album released in 1976 by Springboard International.

Released on the Scepter label in November 1963, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" broke in Detroit, where it reached #1 that December. The track became Warwick's first Top Ten single in January 1964, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Cash Box Pop 100 that February, also reaching #6 on the Cash Box R&B chart. The track was also a hit in Canada, reaching #11 on the hit parade for Toronto radio station CHUM, the country's most influential rock music broadcaster (national charts for Canada were not published during the chart run of "Anyone Who Had a Heart").

In the UK
A scout for UK record producer George Martin discovered "Anyone Who Had a Heart" when Warwick's version took off in the US, suggesting to Martin that the song would be a strong UK single for Shirley Bassey. However, Martin saw the song as a vehicle for Cilla Black, the Liverpool vocalist whose star potential had yet to be realized despite her association with the Beatles, her recording of the Lennon-McCartney original "Love of the Loved" having been only a modest hit (#35). Martin produced the session for Black's recording of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" at Abbey Road Studios; the arrangement was by Johnny Pearson and the session personnel included guitarists Vic Flick and Big Jim Sullivan and the Breakaways vocal group.

Black's single of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" debuted at #28 on the UK Top 50 dated 8 February 1964. The Dionne Warwick original, issued by Scepter's UK licensee Pye Records, debuted on the chart for the following week at #42; by then Black's version had reached #10, ascending in the subsequent two weeks to #2 and then #1 while Warwick's version concurrently ended its chart run with two weeks at #47. On the chart dated 29 February 1964, besides Black's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" at #1 for the first of three weeks and Warwick's version in its final chart week at #47, the UK Top 50 featured a third version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" as the version by Mary May1 made its one week appearance at #49. On 25 April 1964, Billboard reported that the sales tally for Black's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was nearing one million units.

"Anyone Who Had a Heart" was also a #1 hit for Cilla Black in Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa.

Despite the international success and recognition of Warwick's original version, the besting in Great Britain by Black's version has long been a sore point with Warwick. In a 1995 edition of Great Performances which saluted Burt Bacharach, Warwick stated that Black's version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" replicated Warwick's to the point where had Warwick coughed while recording her vocal for the original track or had that track's organist hit a wrong note, those features would have been present on Black's cover. In fact – whether intentionally - Black's original recording features distinct lyrics on the chorus with Black singing "who couldn't be another heart" rather than the original and standard lyric "you couldn't really have a heart": Black has always sung the standard lyric in live performance. Also, arranger Johnny Pearson utilized a bassoon solo for the instrumental break in Black's version as opposed to the saxophone utilized in the Warwick original.

Cilla Black, interviewed for that Great Performances telecast, expressed her awareness of Warwick's disenchantment: "It was a #1; Dionne was dead choked and she's never forgiven me to this day."

Black recorded a new version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" for her 1993 Through the Years album.

"Anyone Who Had a Heart" backed with "They Say It's Wonderful" was the third and final Fontana release by Mary May in January 1964 following and "Listen, All You Lovers" in April 1962 "Our Day Will Come" in February 1963. Nothing else is known of her.

International hit
In Australia, both Dionne Warwick's and Cilla Black's versions of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" were released as singles: Warwick's version rose as high as #11 while Black's peak was #34. Warwick had the hit with "Anyone Who Had a Heart" in Belgium (Flemish Region), the Netherlands and South Africa, reaching #4 in each territory.

Petula Clark was on the roster of Pye Records, Warwick's UK label, and therefore in a position to almost immediately cover "Anyone Who Had a Heart" in several foreign language versions for the international market. Clark reached #7 in France with "Ceux Qui Ont Un Coeur" in the spring of 1964 then #5 in Italy with "Quelli che hanno un cuore"1 that September; in October 1964 Clark reached #1 in Spain - for a two-week period - with "Tú no tienes corazón".

The success of Petula Clark's translated version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" did not preclude the Dionne Warwick original reaching #7 in Spain; Warwick's version also charted in France at #57 and in Italy at #30. In Germany, Clark's specialized cover, "Alles ist nun vorbei", was assigned a tandem chart ranking with both the Dionne Warwick and the Cilla Black versions of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" by with a peak achieved of #37 in May 1964, marking Warwick's sole German chart entry until 1982's "Heartbreaker" and Black's sole German charting ever.

The orchestra on Petula Clark's versions of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was conducted by Tony Hatch. The instrumentation of Clark differs from that of the versions by Dionne Warwick and Cilla Black in utilizing an organ for the solo on the instrumental break rather than a saxophone as on the Warwick original or a bassoon as on Black's cover.

Petula Clark has never recorded "Anyone Who Had a Heart" in English, feeling that both Dionne Warwick and Cilla Black have definitively rendered the song in its original language.

Italian singer Mina performed a version of "Quelli che hanno un cuore" to an unprecedented Italian viewing audience of twenty million watching an episode of the Canzonissima series, orchestrated by Bruno Canfora for an ensemble of 400 musicians on 14 December 1968.

Other versions
Dusty Springfield, who was a devotee of Warwick's records, cut a version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" which may predate Cilla Black's: Springfield cut her version at Olympic Studios on 21 January 1964. The Breakaways – who sang on Cilla Black's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" - also sing on Springfield's recording.

Shirley Bassey, the vocalist for whom "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was brought to the UK, recorded it only in 1978 for her The Magic is You album with veteran producer Nick DeCaro. He had previously produced a version by Vikki Carr included on the 1968 album The Way of Today!.

The 1982 B.E.F. album Music of Quality and Distinction, Vol. 1 featured a rendering of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" by Sandie Shaw marking a return to recording by the 1960s hitmaker although that particular track would not be her comeback vehicle as despite its single release (credited to B.E.F. Presents Sandie Shaw) the track fell short of the UK Top 50; it was a lower chart item (#71) in Australia.

Atomic Kitten reunited to remake "Anyone Who Had a Heart" for the 2008 album Liverpool - The Number Ones Album, to which the group member Natasha Hamilton (with Kush) contributed a remake of Cilla Black's subsequent single and #1 "You're My World". Issued as a digital single release, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" spent one week on the UK charts at #77, the only UK charting of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" since the Cilla Black version. It sold 5,154 copies in the United Kingdom.

Shelby Lynne remade "Anyone Who Had a Heart" for her 2008 tribute to Dusty Springfield: Just a Little Lovin'.

In 1993, Linda Ronstadt recorded the song for her album Winter Light.

In the US, the Dionne Warwick original remains the only version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" to chart. In 1968, the Lettermen had a single release of the song as the B-side of their "bubbling under" hit "All the Grey Haired Men" (#109); it is the second track on the first side of their album "Goin' Out of My Head" (Capitol ST2865). Peter Rivera of Rare Earth sang lead on a 1975 remake of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" fronting HUB. In 2008, the Shelby Lynne recording from Just a Little Lovin' was issued as a digital single release.

Wynonna Judd performed "Anyone Who Had a Heart" on the TNT special One Amazing Night broadcast in 1998; her version is included on the soundtrack album. Judd also performed the song with Dionne Warwick on the latter's 2006 duet-based album My Friends and Me.

"Anyone Who Had a Heart" has also been recorded by Cheryl Baker, Michael Ball, Bec & Beth, Björk with the Brodsky Quartet, Tim Curry, Barbara Dickson, The Four Seasons, Jan Graveson, Nicola Hitchcock, Vicky Leandros, Maureen McGovern, Anita Meyer, Olivia Newton-John, Maxine Nightingale, Páll Óskar, Inger Lise Rypdal, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Bic Runga, Luther Vandross, Silvie Paladino,and Kim Wilde.

Josie James released a jazz version of the song for her album That Jazz in 2012. She also performs the song during her concerts with Burt Bacharach.

American Idol contestant Angela Miller performed the song during the show's 12th season on their "Burt Bacharach & Hal David" episode.