Bacharach was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in New York City’s Kew Gardens neighborhood, graduating from Forest Hills High School in 1946. He was the son of syndicated newspaper columnist Mark Bertram “Bert” Bacharach and Irma M. (née Freeman). Bacharach was forced to learn the piano as a child by his mother, an amateur painter, and songwriter.

His family was Jewish, but he claims they never practiced or paid much attention to their religion. “However, the kids I knew were Catholic,” he continues. “I was Jewish, but I didn’t want anyone to know.”

Bacharach was a teenager who disliked his classical piano lessons and frequently used a fake ID to gain entry into 52nd Street nightclubs. He was exposed to bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie, whose styles influenced his songwriting later on.

Bacharach received his Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University in Montreal, where he studied music with Helmut Blume, as well as at the Mannes School of Music and the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California. During this time, he studied a variety of music, including jazz harmony, which influenced his songs, which are generally classified as pop music.

Darius Milhaud, Henry Cowell, and Bohuslav Martin were among his composition teachers. Bacharach credits Milhaud as his greatest influence, for whom he composed a “Sonatina for Violin, Oboe, and Piano.”

Did Burt Bacharach have any children?

His second marriage lasted 15 years to actress Angie Dickinson (1965–1980). Nikki Bacharach was born to Bacharach and Dickinson.

How old are Burt Bacharach’s children?

Bacharach and Dickinson had a daughter named Nikki Bacharach, who committed suicide on January 4, 2007, when she was 40 years old.