Make It Easy on Yourself

"Make It Easy on Yourself"
Single by Jerry Butler
from the album Need to Belong & Other Great Performances
B-side	"It's Too Late"
Released	June 1962
Format	7"
Recorded	1962
Genre	R&B
Length	2:30
Label	Vee-Jay Records
Writer(s)	Burt Bacharach and Hal David
Producer	Calvin Carter
Jerry Butler singles chronology
"Island of Sirens" (1961) "Make It Easy on Yourself" (1965) "You Can Run But You Can't Hide" (1965)

"Make It Easy On Yourself" is a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David which was first a hit for Jerry Butler in 1962 and has since been a Top 40 single for the Walker Brothers - for whom it was a #1 UK hit - and Dionne Warwick.

Jerry Butler

Chicago-based Vee-Jay Records head a&r man Calvin Carter brought back "Make It Easy on Yourself" from a trip to New York City scouting song publishers. Carter played the demo of "Make It Easy on Yourself" — featuring Dionne Warwick's vocal — for Vee-Jay artist Jerry Butler who commented: "Man, it's a great song, and the girl who's singing it, and the arrangement, is a hit." When Carter explained that Florence Greenberg, the owner of Scepter Records who'd recently signed Warwick, was not interested in "Make It Easy on Yourself" Butler recalls being "ecstatic" and, wanting the same arrangement featured on the demo flew to New York City to record the song in a session overseen by Burt Bacharach (although Bacharach's official credit was limited to arranger). "Make It Easy on Yourself" was released in June 1962 to reach reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 that August; the track's R&B chart peak was #18.^[1]

The Walker Brothers

"Make It Easy on Yourself"
Single by The Walker Brothers
from the album Take It Easy with The Walker Brothers
B-side	"But I Do"
Released	1965
Format	7"
Recorded	1965
Genre	Pop
Length	3:11
Label	Philips Records Smash Records (U.S.)
Writer(s)	Burt Bacharach and Hal David
Producer	Johnny Franz
The Walker Brothers singles chronology
"Love Her" (1965) "Make It Easy on Yourself" (1965) "My Ship Is Coming In" (1965)

The most successful Pop version of "Make It Easy on Yourself" was the 1965 single by the Walker Brothers which reached #16 on the Hot 100 that December; this version had been a #1 hit in the UK in September 1965. Although based in London, the Walker Brothers were familiar with the original 1962 hit by Jerry Butler (which had been overlooked in its concurrent UK release) and group member John Maus suggested that the Walker Brothers make a recording of "Make It Easy on Yourself". The track was recorded in a June 1965 session at the Philips studios in Marble Arch arranged by Ivor Raymonde who conducted his orchestra with production credited to Philips' owner Johnny Franz; session personnel included Vic Flick and Big Jim Sullivan on guitars and Ronnie Verrell on drums.^[2] In 2001 the Walker Brothers' "Make It Easy On Yourself" was sampled extensively by the Northern Irish band, Ash, on their single "Candy".

Dionne Warwick

"Make It Easy on Yourself"
Single by Dionne Warwick
from the album Very Dionne
B-side	"Knowing When to Leave"
Released	1970
Format	7"
Recorded	1970
Genre	Pop
Length	3:32
Label	Scepter Records
Writer(s)	Burt Bacharach and Hal David
Producer	Blue Jac Production
Dionne Warwick singles chronology
"Paper Maché" (1970) "Make It Easy on Yourself" (1970) "The Green Grass Starts to Grow" (1970)

Dionne Warwick's session work on the Drifters' track "Mexican Divorce" - recorded February 1962 - brought her to the attention of Burt Bacharach who subsequently had Warwick regularly provide vocals on demos of his songs beginning with "Make It Easy on Yourself". On the strength of her vocals on another demo: that of "Is It Love That Really Counts", Warwick was signed by Florence Greenberg of Scepter Records although Greenberg gave the last-named song to the Shirelles as a B-side while rejecting "Make It Easy on Yourself" altogether leading to that song's being shopped to Jerry Butler. Warwick had assumed "Make It Easy on Yourself" would serve as her own debut single; on learning from Bacharach and co-composer Hal David that Jerry Butler was recording the song a keenly disappointed Warwick dismissed the composers' assurance of providing her with an equally potent song with the words: "Don't make me over, man" - ie. "Don't con me". Bacharach and David in fact utilized Warwick's pessimistic response (with a shift in meaning) as the title for "Don't Make Me Over" the song which would indeed launch Warwick's hitmaking career.

Warwick's demo version of "Make It Easy on Yourself" was featured as an album track on Warwick's 1963 debut album Presenting Dionne Warwick but the track which became a hit for her was a recording of a live performance featured in a concert which took place at the Garden State Center in Holmdel NJ in the summer of 1970. As with Warwick's 1966 hit "Message to Michael" the non-involvement of Bacharach and David in the track (beyond writing the song) is evidenced in its producers credit reading "a Blue Jac Production", Blue Jac Productions being the name Bacharach/David and Warwick had incorporated under in 1962 (officially Blue Jac Productions rather than Warwick personally were signed to Scepter Records). Warwick's sole live track released as a single, "Make It Easy on Yourself" served as the advance single for Warwick's final album (of new material) for Scepter, the December 1970 release Very Dionne; the single charted that autumn with chief support from easy listening radio as indicated by its #2 peak on that format's chart making moderate crossover to Pop - at #37 the final Top 40 hit of the first phase of Warwick's career - and R&B (#26).^[3]

Other versions

"Make It Easy on Yourself" served as the title cut of a 1969 album by Burt Bacharach with the track featuring Bacharach's vocals as well as his piano playing.

The Carpenters included "Make It Easy on Yourself" in a medley of Bacharach/David songs featured on their May 1971 album release Carpenters.

The 1972 Johnny Mathis album Song Sung Blue - produced by Jerry Fuller - featured a version of "Make It Easy on Yourself"; issued as a single the track reached #16 on the Easy Listening chart and "bubbled under the Hot 100" with a #103 peak. In the UK Mathis' Song Sung Blue album was released with the title Make It Easy on Yourself.

In 1997 "Make It Easy on Yourself" was featured on the album A Short Album About Love by the Divine Comedy.

"Make It Easy on Yourself" has also been recorded by Rick Astley, Long John Baldry, Tony Bennett, Cilla Black, Glen Campbell, the Four Seasons, Connie Francis, the Three Degrees, Jackie Trent and - in medley with "Baby I'm Yours" - by Bobby Vee.

In 2011, Ronan Keating recorded the song for his album "When Ronan Met Burt".

The song was sampled by Northern Irish rock group Ash for their 2001 album Free all Angels on the track Candy_(Ash_song)

References

1. ^ Butler, Jerry (2004). Only the Strong Survive: Memoirs of a Soul Survivor (1st paperback ed.). Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press. pp. 116. ISBN 0-253-21704-0. 
2. ^ Reynolds, Anthony (2009). The Impossible Dream: The Story of Scott Walker and the Walker Brothers (1st ed.). London UK: Jawbone Press. pp. 80. ISBN 978-1-906002-25-1. 
3. ^ Dominic, Serene (2002). Burt Bacharach, song by song: the ultimate Burt Bacharach reference for fans. London: Omnibus Press. pp. 73, 83–84, 93. ISBN 0825672805. 

Preceded by "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones

UK number-one single (Walker Brothers version) 23 September 1965

Succeeded by "Tears" by Ken Dodd