Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote so many great songs it’s tough to keep track of them all. One of their lesser tunes, if anything they wrote could be called lesser, is today’s classic song of the day. “Are You There (With Another Girl)” was recorded by Dionne Warwick and released as a single in December of 1965. Early the next year, the song peaked at just #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #36 on the Cash Box Top 100.
“Are You There (With Another Girl)” is the one that starts with the lyrics:
I hear the music coming out of your radio
Are you there with another girl instead of me?
I hear your laughter and there’s something I’ve got to know
Are you there with another girl instead of me?
The song really doesn’t have a chorus, it’s just a succession of verses with a little bridge halfway through. Hal buries the song’s title in the second line of the first verse, so there’s really no hook to hang on. In fact, the only line that repeats, in the bridge and at the very end of the song, is that first line, “I hear the music coming out of your radio”—which is how some people know the song. That lack of a repeating hook might have contributed to its relatively poor chart performance for a Bacharach/David/Warwick collaboration, in spite of the song’s obvious musical quality.
(By the way, I’d always had difficulty understanding what the backup vocalists were singing on the bridge, after the “I hear the music coming out of your radio” line. It’s this: “Oom pah pah pity the girl,” atypically nonsensical for a Hal David lyric.)
All that said, “Are You There (With Another Girl)” is a brilliant piece of work. This is one where it seems that Hal came up with the lyrics first and Burt fitted the melody to those almost train-of-thoughtish words. The rhythmic run-on complexity of the chorus is a case in point, with the melody following the natural rhythm of the words:
Oh, I’m standing on your doorstep and I don’t know what to do
Should I ring your doorbell or just walk away?
My friends all say that you were never true
It’s the rush of “just walk away” is key here. Terrific writing, almost theatrical, from the duo.
Musically, Burt fills this one with one extended chord after another. The verse starts out with alternating GMaj9 and F#m7 chords, then shifts to a rapid progression of D – Bm9 -Bm7 – Em7 chords, and it gets even more complex from there. This bit finally ends up on an A, which is the dominant (V) chord of the key of D, before heading back to the GMaj9 (IVMaj9). Interestingly, the song doesn’t really resolve to the tonic until the repeating “Pity the girl” line. What can I say? It’s Bacharach.
As you can tell, I think “Are You There (With Another Girl)” is one of Burt and Hal’s best and most interesting works. So here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, Dionne Warwick singing “Are You There (With Another Girl)” live on the February 26, 1966, episode of The Sacha Distel Show on the BBC. Great song—with great vocals by Ms. Warwick.
