Burt Bacharach, a popular music composer known for giving several unforgettable melodies in the form of Do You Know the Way to San Jose, Walk on By, and many more hits has died at the age of 94. On Wednesday, February 8, 2023, the popular composer died of natural causes in his Los Angeles home.
Bacharach appeared in the first Austin Powers movie, International Man of Mystery, which was released in 1997. The movie follows, Powers, played by Mike Myers, a British secret agent, as he settles into the 1990s after being frozen in a cryogenic state since the 60s. He had cameos in all three Austin Powers Movies, Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, 1999’s Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and 2002’s Austin Powers in Goldmember. He makes a musical cameo appearance in every Austin Powers movie, all as himself.
Bacharach’s association with the Austin Powers movies may seem like an absurd non-sequitur, but considering his music’s importance in the titular spy’s 1960s heyday, along with Bacharach’s own score for the 1967 spy spoof Casino Royale, it makes a lot of sense.
Burt Bacharach was one of the most prolific and significant composers of popular 20th-century music and his influence on popular culture cannot be overstated.
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In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, he appears on top of a double-decker bus, complete with a piano, to help in Austin’s wooing of Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), with a rendition of his classic What the World Needs Now Is Love.
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Austin uses the same method in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, but this time with Felicity Shagwell, played by Heather Graham. Bacharach is joined by Elvis Costello for a performance of I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.
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Sometimes, Bacharach is thought to be missing from the series’ third and last installment, Austin Powers in Goldmember, but he actually does make a short appearance at the very end of a montage, set once again to What the World Needs Now Is Love, during the film’s closing credits.
