Leesburg Teen Shares Story Of Friendship With Burt Bacharach
February 20, 2023 at 10:28 p.m.
Leesburg Teen Shares Story Of Friendship With Burt Bacharach
By David [email protected]
Bacharach, 94, died Feb. 8 in Los Angeles about a year after Alex sent his first letter to Bacharach.
“I was diagnosed with Asperger’s when I was really young, around 4 years old, and I struggled a lot in school and I was being picked on a lot. Now that I’m getting older, I’m getting more curious about Asperger’s and so I decided to do some research on it,” Alex explained on why he wrote the letter.
In the course of his research, he came across the 2016 film “A Boy Called Po,” which is about a boy with Asperger’s. Alex said the boy deals with the same situations that he was dealing with, like being bullied.
“I decided to watch the movie and I realized that, when I was looking at it more, I realized that all of the music that was in the movie was scored by the same guy that dad (Patrick Pfefferkorn) plays his music around the house or boat,” Alex recalled.
That guy is Bacharach, an American songwriter, composer, pianist and record producer. He wrote songs like the Oscar-winning “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” and “Arthur’s Theme”; “I Say a Little Prayer,” “What the World Needs Now Is Love” and many more for artists like Dionne Warwick, Patti LaBelle and others.
Alex wondered why Bacharach decided to write songs for “A Boy Called Po.” In his research on that, Alex learned Bacharach was bringing awareness to Asperger’s in honor of his daughter Lea Nikki Bacharach by writing the music for free for the movie.
Nikki, born in 1966 to Bacharach and actress Angie Dickinson, also had Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of autism.
“She didn’t have all the coping techniques and she didn’t have all these group meetings and private meetings and therapy and stuff. We have such a good community with it now, but she didn’t and she committed suicide at the age of 40,” Alex said.
He felt really bad for Bacharach so Alex decided to write him a letter in February 2022 to tell him thank you for bringing awareness to autism and Asperger’s by writing the songs for “A Boy Called Po.”
Patrick didn’t know about the letter Alex had sent. One day Patrick received a phone call from an “unknown” caller and ignored it, thinking it was probably a telemarketer.
“The next thing I know, I have voicemail from this unknown caller. I went to play it, he said, ‘Hey, this is Burt Bacharach. Calling for your son, Alexander. I will try you again,’” Patrick said.
He put his phone down and went into Alex’s bedroom and asked why there was any reason Bacharach was calling them. Alex looked at his dad and said Bacharach must have received the letter he wrote to him. Patrick was taken aback.
“By that time, I had another voicemail, like within a 4-minute period,” Patrick said.
In the March 21, 2022, voicemail - which Patrick keeps on his cell phone with other messages from Bacharach - Bacharach says to Alex, in part, “I wanted you to know I got the letter. And I just wanted to touch base with you and say hello to you. I appreciate you taking the time to call.” He further says he likes the way Alex expressed himself in the “really well-written letter” and that they will talk on the phone “one of these days.” He tells Alex to “hang in there and be strong. We’ll talk soon.”
“Burt Bacharach was such a cool guy,” Alex said.
After that, the Pfefferkorns received several random calls from Bacharach. Patrick missed a couple from him, but then Alex got a call from Bacharach as they were taking the boat to the boat ramp. That was around May 2022.
“When he called you, he always seemed to be in a hurry because he was doing stuff,” Patrick said.
Alex said Bacharach was in his 90s and still working hard at writing songs.
In another recorded phone conversation between Alex and Bacharach, Bacharach tells Alex he’s working on a song for a movie, and Alex tells Bacharach it was an honor to talk to him. Bacharach tells Alex he will call him again when things slow down a little for him.
“Stay well, my friend,” Bacharach tells him.
Alex was in bed one night around 10 p.m. when Bacharach called in June or July. He didn’t want Patrick to wake Alex up, he just wanted Alex to know he hadn’t forgotten about him and told Patrick to let Alex know he called.
Alex began educating himself about Bacharach. For his birthday, his parents - Patrick and Nicole - bought him an autographed first edition of Bacharach’s autobiography.
“I was reading, and watching PBS and I heard Burt say a lot that he lost the Oscar awards with ‘Alfie’ in 1967 to ‘Born Free.’ He said that he was upset that he didn’t get the Oscar for ‘Alfie.’ It was his favorite song. That is probably my favorite Burt Bacharach song, too. It has such good lyrics,” Alex said.
Alex told his dad that he felt bad that Bacharach didn’t get the Academy Award for “Alfie” and he wished there was a way he could get Bacharach an Oscar for the song. Thinking that was a good idea, Patrick found a company that made true replicas. They had one made and the engraving on it says, “Academy Award to Burt Bacharach and Hal David - Best Song/Best Lyric Ever Written - ‘Alfie’ - 1967 - Love Alexander Pfefferkorn.” It was mailed out to Bacharach in November 2022.
“(We) got a call immediately once he received it,” Patrick stated.
In the recording of the call from Bacharach, he tells Alex to call him Burt. He thanks him for the gift and Alex tells Bacharach that’s what he should have received back in 1967.
“I didn’t, but sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t,” Bacharach said.
“Yeah, but ‘Alfie’ should have won,” Alex replied.
They talk a while, with Bacharach saying he wanted to get away from the piano for a bit and asking Alex how he was doing in school. Bacharach tells Alex he didn’t graduate high school. Bacharach also tells Alex the letter he wrote to him with the gift was very good, too. They spent some time talking about Asperger’s and trains.
A paragraph in Alex’s letter states, “I know this award isn’t real, but it has real heart and real meaning to it. You took time to call me and we share in this crazy autism world. You did a great thing and brought awareness to Asperger’s with your wonderful gift of music and ‘A Boy Called P’ ... I read the credits at the end of the movie and saw where you dedicated the score to Nikki. You’re a great man Mr. B and I have a very special place in my heart for you!”
At the end of the conversation, Alex tells Bacharach he would love to hear him play “Alfie” for him. Bacharach, who was not at his piano, responds, “How about the next time? I will do that.”
That conversation was around Thanksgiving. There was talk about the Pfefferkorns meeting up with Bacharach in California when they go visit Patrick’s nephew. Unfortunately, over the holidays, the Pfefferkorns got sick and the meeting never transpired.
On Jan. 22, 2023, Patrick missed a call from Bacharach. Out of respect, he didn’t call Bacharach back, but thought Bacharach would call back to play “Alfie” for Alex. Bacharach never called back.
Alex’s heart was broken when he found out Bacharach had died Feb. 8. “Never had that kind of final hang-out with him,” Patrick said. “It’s a good story. Here’s a guy bigger than life checking in with this little guy.”
When Alex thinks of Bacharach now, his music and their conversations are the first things that come to mind. He says he’s a bigger fan of Bacharach’s now than before, “definitely.”
“He was just a cool guy talking to you,” Patrick said to Alex. “They just connected.”
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Bacharach, 94, died Feb. 8 in Los Angeles about a year after Alex sent his first letter to Bacharach.
“I was diagnosed with Asperger’s when I was really young, around 4 years old, and I struggled a lot in school and I was being picked on a lot. Now that I’m getting older, I’m getting more curious about Asperger’s and so I decided to do some research on it,” Alex explained on why he wrote the letter.
In the course of his research, he came across the 2016 film “A Boy Called Po,” which is about a boy with Asperger’s. Alex said the boy deals with the same situations that he was dealing with, like being bullied.
“I decided to watch the movie and I realized that, when I was looking at it more, I realized that all of the music that was in the movie was scored by the same guy that dad (Patrick Pfefferkorn) plays his music around the house or boat,” Alex recalled.
That guy is Bacharach, an American songwriter, composer, pianist and record producer. He wrote songs like the Oscar-winning “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” and “Arthur’s Theme”; “I Say a Little Prayer,” “What the World Needs Now Is Love” and many more for artists like Dionne Warwick, Patti LaBelle and others.
Alex wondered why Bacharach decided to write songs for “A Boy Called Po.” In his research on that, Alex learned Bacharach was bringing awareness to Asperger’s in honor of his daughter Lea Nikki Bacharach by writing the music for free for the movie.
Nikki, born in 1966 to Bacharach and actress Angie Dickinson, also had Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of autism.
“She didn’t have all the coping techniques and she didn’t have all these group meetings and private meetings and therapy and stuff. We have such a good community with it now, but she didn’t and she committed suicide at the age of 40,” Alex said.
He felt really bad for Bacharach so Alex decided to write him a letter in February 2022 to tell him thank you for bringing awareness to autism and Asperger’s by writing the songs for “A Boy Called Po.”
Patrick didn’t know about the letter Alex had sent. One day Patrick received a phone call from an “unknown” caller and ignored it, thinking it was probably a telemarketer.
“The next thing I know, I have voicemail from this unknown caller. I went to play it, he said, ‘Hey, this is Burt Bacharach. Calling for your son, Alexander. I will try you again,’” Patrick said.
He put his phone down and went into Alex’s bedroom and asked why there was any reason Bacharach was calling them. Alex looked at his dad and said Bacharach must have received the letter he wrote to him. Patrick was taken aback.
“By that time, I had another voicemail, like within a 4-minute period,” Patrick said.
In the March 21, 2022, voicemail - which Patrick keeps on his cell phone with other messages from Bacharach - Bacharach says to Alex, in part, “I wanted you to know I got the letter. And I just wanted to touch base with you and say hello to you. I appreciate you taking the time to call.” He further says he likes the way Alex expressed himself in the “really well-written letter” and that they will talk on the phone “one of these days.” He tells Alex to “hang in there and be strong. We’ll talk soon.”
“Burt Bacharach was such a cool guy,” Alex said.
After that, the Pfefferkorns received several random calls from Bacharach. Patrick missed a couple from him, but then Alex got a call from Bacharach as they were taking the boat to the boat ramp. That was around May 2022.
“When he called you, he always seemed to be in a hurry because he was doing stuff,” Patrick said.
Alex said Bacharach was in his 90s and still working hard at writing songs.
In another recorded phone conversation between Alex and Bacharach, Bacharach tells Alex he’s working on a song for a movie, and Alex tells Bacharach it was an honor to talk to him. Bacharach tells Alex he will call him again when things slow down a little for him.
“Stay well, my friend,” Bacharach tells him.
Alex was in bed one night around 10 p.m. when Bacharach called in June or July. He didn’t want Patrick to wake Alex up, he just wanted Alex to know he hadn’t forgotten about him and told Patrick to let Alex know he called.
Alex began educating himself about Bacharach. For his birthday, his parents - Patrick and Nicole - bought him an autographed first edition of Bacharach’s autobiography.
“I was reading, and watching PBS and I heard Burt say a lot that he lost the Oscar awards with ‘Alfie’ in 1967 to ‘Born Free.’ He said that he was upset that he didn’t get the Oscar for ‘Alfie.’ It was his favorite song. That is probably my favorite Burt Bacharach song, too. It has such good lyrics,” Alex said.
Alex told his dad that he felt bad that Bacharach didn’t get the Academy Award for “Alfie” and he wished there was a way he could get Bacharach an Oscar for the song. Thinking that was a good idea, Patrick found a company that made true replicas. They had one made and the engraving on it says, “Academy Award to Burt Bacharach and Hal David - Best Song/Best Lyric Ever Written - ‘Alfie’ - 1967 - Love Alexander Pfefferkorn.” It was mailed out to Bacharach in November 2022.
“(We) got a call immediately once he received it,” Patrick stated.
In the recording of the call from Bacharach, he tells Alex to call him Burt. He thanks him for the gift and Alex tells Bacharach that’s what he should have received back in 1967.
“I didn’t, but sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t,” Bacharach said.
“Yeah, but ‘Alfie’ should have won,” Alex replied.
They talk a while, with Bacharach saying he wanted to get away from the piano for a bit and asking Alex how he was doing in school. Bacharach tells Alex he didn’t graduate high school. Bacharach also tells Alex the letter he wrote to him with the gift was very good, too. They spent some time talking about Asperger’s and trains.
A paragraph in Alex’s letter states, “I know this award isn’t real, but it has real heart and real meaning to it. You took time to call me and we share in this crazy autism world. You did a great thing and brought awareness to Asperger’s with your wonderful gift of music and ‘A Boy Called P’ ... I read the credits at the end of the movie and saw where you dedicated the score to Nikki. You’re a great man Mr. B and I have a very special place in my heart for you!”
At the end of the conversation, Alex tells Bacharach he would love to hear him play “Alfie” for him. Bacharach, who was not at his piano, responds, “How about the next time? I will do that.”
That conversation was around Thanksgiving. There was talk about the Pfefferkorns meeting up with Bacharach in California when they go visit Patrick’s nephew. Unfortunately, over the holidays, the Pfefferkorns got sick and the meeting never transpired.
On Jan. 22, 2023, Patrick missed a call from Bacharach. Out of respect, he didn’t call Bacharach back, but thought Bacharach would call back to play “Alfie” for Alex. Bacharach never called back.
Alex’s heart was broken when he found out Bacharach had died Feb. 8. “Never had that kind of final hang-out with him,” Patrick said. “It’s a good story. Here’s a guy bigger than life checking in with this little guy.”
When Alex thinks of Bacharach now, his music and their conversations are the first things that come to mind. He says he’s a bigger fan of Bacharach’s now than before, “definitely.”
“He was just a cool guy talking to you,” Patrick said to Alex. “They just connected.”
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