What Love Can Do

Album: New Music from an Old Friend (2007)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song was included on a Target album New Music from an Old Friend, where several well-known artists, including Brian Wilson, did a new recording of an old song, and then laid down one new tune.
  • Singer-songwriter Tonio K found himself collaborating with two music legends when he penned this song with Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach. Tonio had taken on the Hal David role with Bacharach on a number of other tunes, but this was the only time either of them had written with Brian Wilson. Speaking with us in a 2013 interview, Tonio told us how this one-off collaboration came about: "He and Burt, I don't know if they even knew each other," he said. "They must have said hello over the years at one function or another, but he and Burt I think were seated at the same table at some Grammy function and someone at the table was going, 'Hey, have you two guys ever written a song?' They went, 'No, actually. We've never written a song together.' And I think Melinda, Brian's wife and kind of manager aide-de-camp put it together.

    So one day Burt called me up and he goes, 'Hey, I'm going to write a song with Brian Wilson. First time I've ever written with him before. Do you want to write the lyric?' I went, 'Oh, gee, let me think about that.' So anyway, we did.

    But Brian had a verse, melody, and background harmonies, which are really cool. Some real Beach Boy kind of background stuff that he already had. He was hoping Burt would come up with a great Burt Bacharach '60s chorus, which Burt did. I'm sitting around with my legal pad, looking at the two of them on a piano bench working it out at Burt's house, and I said, 'Burt, you know me well enough to know I don't do this, but I'm sitting here looking at Burt Bacharach and Brian Wilson sharing a piano bench as we're writing this song. I've got to have a picture of that. Are you guys okay if I bring a camera tomorrow?' [Laughing] This was pre iPhone. They went, 'Sure.'

    I don't do that, but that one just struck me as something no one was ever going to see again, and I needed to get a picture of it."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Trans Soul Rebels: Songs About Transgenderism

Trans Soul Rebels: Songs About TransgenderismSong Writing

A history of songs dealing with transgender issues, featuring Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Morrissey and Green Day.

Tony Joe White

Tony Joe WhiteSongwriter Interviews

The writer of "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Polk Salad Annie" explains how he cooks up his Louisiana swamp rock.

Tommy James

Tommy JamesSongwriter Interviews

"Mony Mony," "Crimson and Clover," "Draggin' The Line"... the hits kept coming for Tommy James, and in a plot line fit for a movie, his record company was controlled by the mafia.

Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders

Chrissie Hynde of The PretendersSongwriter Interviews

The rock revolutionist on songwriting, quitting smoking, and what she thinks of Rush Limbaugh using her song.

The Police

The PoliceFact or Fiction

Do their first three albums have French titles? Is "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" really meaningless? See if you can tell in this Fact or Fiction.

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."