Hal David

He was never as well known as his long-time collaborator Burt Bacharach, but Hal David's impact on popular American music was unquestionable: Without his lyric expertise, the world would be deprived of such timeless classics as "Rain Drops Keep Fallin' on My Head," What the World Needs Now (Is Love)" and "I Say A Little Prayer," to name a few. A songwriter and lyricist whose career began in the 1940s, David was somewhat of a late bloomer. After meeting Bacharach in 1957, the duo scored their first success in 1958 when "Magic Moments," sung by Perry Cuomo, became a Top 10 hit. Over the next two decades, David and Bacharach were responsible for some of the most enduring pop songs in history, while racking up a seemingly endless number of prestigious awards in the process. Although David's later career never quite matched the stratospheric success he had in the 1960s and '70s, his enduring legacy as one of the greatest pop music songwriters of the 20th century had already been cemented decades prior to his death at age 91 in September of 2012.