Alfie (Burt Bacharach song) Alfie (Burt Bacharach song) "Alfie" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David to promote the 1966 film "Alfie". The song was a major hit for Cilla Black (UK) and Dionne Warwick (US). Although Bacharach has cited "Alfie" as his personal favorite of his compositions, he and Hal David were not eager to write a song to promote the film "Alfie" (a release from Paramount Pictures, which owned Famous Music) when approached by Ed Wolpin of the Composers' Guild. David thought the title character's name pedestrian: "Writing a song about a man called 'Alfie' didn't seem too exciting
Michael Caine roles as effete-seeming aristocrats were to contrast with his next projects, in which he was to become notable for using a regional accent, rather than the Received Pronunciation then considered proper for film actors. At the time, Caine's working class Cockney, just as with The Beatles' Liverpudlian accents, stood out to American and British audiences alike. "Zulu" was closely followed by two of his best-known roles: the spy Harry Palmer in "The Ipcress File" (1965), and the womanising title character in "Alfie" (1966). He went on to play Palmer in a further four films, "Funeral in Berlin" (1966), "Billion Dollar