Time Out Ten
That's What Friends Are For
Trijntje Oosterhuis
For this item you need to be able to stop for ten minutes.
We are often moving on to the next job, the next meeting, scrolling down social media, taking the next call ......'Time Out Ten' asks you to stop for ten minutes and listen to a particular piece of music; to find a time when you won't be interrupted, when you can put in/on your headphones and chill out. Ten minutes isn't long.
Hal David is probably the best known lyricist who collaborated with the late Burt Bacharach, but the words for That's What Friends Are For were written by the singer-songwriter Carol Bayer Sager. Carol tells the story of how she wrote the first line for the song "I never thought I'd feel this way ...", but Burt Bacharach pointed out that he had written another note at the beginning. Carol struggled to find words to fit and then Burt said "Just add 'And'!" So the song is always sung "And I never thought I'd feel this way ...".
It has been recorded multiple times and you will find plenty of examples on YouTube; it is a natural choice for groups (Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder sang a version together here), but for our ten minutes time out, here is Dutch vocalist Trijntje Oosterhuis (pronounced TREIN-chuh OH-stur-heys where "Trijn" sounds like "train," "tje" is a soft "chuh,").
Trijntje had liaised with Burt Bacharach when she recorded an album of his songs The Look Of Love in 2006. The album includes That's What Friends Are For, but this video is from the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2021. Trijntje sang most of her set with the Metropole Orchestra but for this song it was just her and guitarist Peter Tiehuis:
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2026.5