Village Voice, 1998-11-25
-        Robert Christgau, B-

THE LOOK OF LOVE: THE BURT BACHARACH
COLLECTION (Rhino) Now it's official: Dionne
Warwick and Burt Bacharach were the best things ever to
happen to each other. She's a bore without him, and he
brings out the best in none of the other singers here. If anything,
his fancy hackwork diminishes them—whether
it's starters like the Drifters, the Shirelles, and Dusty Springfield
or second-stringers like Gene Pitney, Jackie DeShannon, and
end-of-the-bencher Chuck Jackson, all sound about as good as you'd
expect and all peaked elsewhere. Then there are Lou Johnson, 
B.J. Thomas, Bobby Vinton, and the hapless Bacharach himself, not to
mention horrid one-shots by Richard Chamberlain, Bobby
Goldsboro, Trini Lopez, Jill O'Hara, gad. It's enough to renew your
faith in Elvis Costello.
                                 B MINUS