Trains and Boats and Planes

Original 1965 recordings

Bacharach and David wrote the song at a time when they had achieved great popular success, and Bacharach in particular was travelling widely to record and promote his songs. The pair intended the song to be recorded by Gene Pitney, who had had several hits with earlier Bacharach and David songs including "Only Love Can Break a Heart" and "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". However, Pitney declined to record it, telling Bacharach "it's not one of your better ones". Bacharach then recorded it himself, in London, with an orchestra, chorus, and uncredited vocals by female session singers the Breakaways. His version was issued on the album Hit Maker!: Burt Bacharach plays the Burt Bacharach Hits in 1965, and as a single. According to writer Serene Dominic, the Breakaways' "dispassionate delivery blends perfectly with Hal David's haunted verses, which give all the responsibility for coming and going to the transportation and not the passengers....Trains and boats and planes are capable of bringing back someone they took away, if the person they left behind prays hard enough for their return."

While a special show was being recorded by Bacharach at the Granada TV studios in Manchester, producer Johnnie Hamp heard the song and had it offered to a group who also recorded there, the Four Just Men (who later recorded as Wimple Winch). However they also turned it down, and the song then came to the attention of Brian Epstein, who suggested that Billy J. Kramer record it. Kramer's recording was released at about the same time as Bacharach's own version, and both recordings entered the UK singles chart the same week in May 1965. Other, less successful, versions were issued in the UK around the same time by Anita Harris and Alma Cogan, and a recording was made in French by Claude François ("Quand un bateau passe").

Bacharach's version reached no. 4 on the UK chart in 1965, while Kramer's recording reached no. 12 in the UK, becoming his final chart hit. When released in the US, Kramer's version reached no. 47 on the Billboard Hot 100, and no. 10 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart.

Dionne Warwick version

Dionne Warwick recorded the song in 1966. Her version was arranged and conducted by Bacharach, and produced by Bacharach and David. It spent 7 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and reached no. 22 on August 6, 1966. Warwick's version also reached no. 37 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart and no. 49 on Billboard's Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart.

Other recordings

Other recordings include those by Chet Baker (1966); the Everly Brothers, the Box Tops, Joanie Sommers, Dinah Shore (all 1967); Astrud Gilberto (1969), Fountains of Wayne (2003) and Dwight Yoakam (2003).

Laura Cantrell

The song was the title track of an EP released on Diesel Only Records by Laura Cantrell on April 15, 2008. In total, six songs (out of nine) on this EP are covers.

Track listing

1. "Trains and Boats and Planes"
2. "Train of Life"
3. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
4. "Howard Hughes Blues"
5. "Love Vigilantes"
6. "Silver Wings"
7. "Roll Truck Roll"
8. "Big Wheel"
9. "Yonder Comes a Freight Train"