Ronald Isley with Burt Bacharach - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 11-2003

Here's another episode of that great TV show, "PBS Soundstage." This time, it stars Ronald Isley, who sings exclusively from the catalog of classic songs written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. He's assisted by Bacharach playing piano on all the songs, though Bacharach doesn't sing, or talk much.

Ronald Isley is the long-time lead singer of the American R&B group the Isley Brothers. He founded the group in 1957 with two of his brothers. The Isley Brothers had hits from the 1950s to the 2000s, and they are still going as I write this in 2025. Ronald Isley didn't release a solo album until 2003, called "Here I Am: Ron Isley Meets Burt Bacharach." No doubt he put it out as a solo album because it was so different from the usual R&B danceable, funky style of the Isley Brothers. It turns out there was an ballad crooner inside Ronald Isley waiting to get out.

Not only was this concert part of the tour to support that 2003 album mentioned above, apparently it was the very first concert of the tour, so these were all performed live by Isley for the first time. Generally speaking, all of the songs are classics from the 1960s and 1970s, most of them associated with Dionne Warwick. However, the first version of "Love's [Still] The Answer" was from just a year earlier.

I don't believe this has even been shared as an audio bootleg before. I found a video of the episode and converted it to mp3s. However, the sound quality is still excellent.

This unreleased album is 54 minutes long.

01 talk (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
02 The Look of Love (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
03 This Guy's in Love with You (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
04 Anyone Who Had a Heart (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
05 Love's [Still] The Answer (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
06 Here I Am (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
07 talk (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
08 Windows of the World (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
09 Alfie (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
10 In Between the Heartaches (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
11 [They Long to Be] Close to You (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
12 Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
13 talk (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)
14 A House Is Not a Home (Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rZ1TTXsa

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/TknRRIFjVuk7Udj/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a YouTube video of this exact concert. I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality.