Ronan Keating to release Bacharach songs

Irish singer Ronan Keating has come a long way since his early days with Boyzone.

The boy band image is long gone and he is now an established performer who appeals to audiences of all ages.

Now he’s about to release a new album of songs written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Keating worked closely with Bacharach on the album which is simply called, When Ronan Met Burt.

It features some of Bacharach’s most popular songs including Walk on By, What the World Needs Now and I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself. The songs were recorded with a full orchestra at the Capitol studio.

Both men say it’s a mutually beneficial collaboration. Keating gets to sing some of the greatest pop songs ever written and work with one of pop music’s true legends.

Bacharach, meanwhile, is looking forward to his songs being presented to a new generation of fans who follow Keating.

Keating said: “It has been a dream come true to work with Burt on this album. I grew up listening to his songs and the tracks we’ve chosen to record for the album are simply some of the greatest pop masterpieces ever written, so it was an honour to sing them alongside the man himself.

“It was one of the hardest sessions I’ve done. It’s hard enough trying to do justice to such legendary tunes but to record them with the man himself was another level of pressure”.

Bacharach said: “To do these songs with a different slant and approach on them made it very interesting for me. And too be able to work with Ronan and expose these songs to maybe a younger audience as well as my fan base.

“Then to be able to record it in the legendary Capitol recording studio – full orchestra live. Quite a trip we were on Ronan.”

The album is due to be released on March 21st. It’s available for pre-ordering at Amazon.

In between promoting the album, Keating is hoping to take a short holiday back home in Ireland.

By Patrick Kehoe

Pat Kehoe is a writer for Irish Music Daily. His favourite Irish music bands are the Dubliners and Planxty.