“Burt covered so much ground and was so influential that a lot of celebrities would cozy up to me to get access to him!” said Shirakbari, who is now the mastermind of the “What the World Needs Now” ...

In 1964, singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren wasn’t quite 16 years old when a Burt Bacharach song first caught his attention. “The first thing I heard, or the first thing I reacted to, was ‘Walk On By’ by ...