Trains and Boats and Planes
| "Trains and Boats and Planes" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Burt Bacharach and his Orchestra & Chorus | |
| from the album Hit Maker!: Burt Bacharach plays the Burt Bacharach Hits | |
| A-side | "Trains and Boats and Planes" |
| B-side | "Wives and Lovers" |
| Released | May 1965 |
| Genre | Traditional pop |
| Label | Kapp / London |
| Writer(s) | Burt Bacharach, Hal David |
| Trains and Boats and Planes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| EP by Laura Cantrell | ||||
| Released | April 15, 2008 | |||
| Genre | Country music | |||
| Length | 34:30 | |||
| Label | Diesel Only | |||
| Laura Cantrell chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| PopMatters |   |
| Prefix |  |
| Blurt | (mixed) |
| Robert Christgau |  |
"Trains and Boats and Planes" is a song written by composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David, and first recorded in 1965. Hit versions were recorded by Bacharach himself and by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas in 1965, and by Dionne Warwick in 1966.
Bacharach and David wrote the song at a time when they had achieved great popular success, and Bacharach in particular was travelling widely to record and promote his songs. The pair intended the song to be recorded by Gene Pitney, who had had several hits with earlier Bacharach and David songs including "Only Love Can Break a Heart" and "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". However, Pitney declined to record it, telling Bacharach "it's not one of your better ones". Bacharach then recorded it himself, in London, with an orchestra, chorus, and uncredited vocals by female session singers the Breakaways. His version was issued on the album Hit Maker!: Burt Bacharach plays the Burt Bacharach Hits in 1965, and as a single. According to writer Serene Dominic, the Breakaways' "dispassionate delivery blends perfectly with Hal David's haunted verses, which give all the responsibility for coming and going to the transportation and not the passengers....Trains and boats and planes are capable of bringing back someone they took away, if the person they left behind prays hard enough for their return."
While a special show was being recorded by Bacharach at the Granada TV studios in Manchester, producer Johnnie Hamp heard the song and had it offered to a group who also recorded there, the Four Just Men (who later recorded as Wimple Winch). However they also turned it down, and the song then came to the attention of Brian Epstein, who suggested that Billy J. Kramer record it. Kramer's recording was released at about the same time as Bacharach's own version, and both recordings entered the UK singles chart the same week in May 1965. Other, less successful, versions were issued in the UK around the same time by Anita Harris and Alma Cogan, and a recording was made in French by Claude François ("Quand un bateau passe").
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Wikipedia