- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Dionne Warwick mostly released singles written by Bacharach/David, and that is true of all 12 of the songs on Dionne Warwick’s Golden Hits Pt. 1.
Dionne Warwick – Dionne Warwick’s Golden Hits Pt. 1 (1967): Dionne Warrick (sic) is a sophisticated singer with a particularly malleable voice and was born into a gospel music family. She began singing as a young girl in the choir at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, NJ. As a teenager, she formed a singing group called the Gospelaires, who later took the name the Sweet Inspirations, with her sister Dee Dee Warrick and her aunt Cissy Houston, the mother of Whitney Houston. Dionne Warrick received a music scholarship to the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, CT and in the same time period recorded background vocals with her group in New York for such artists as Garnet Mimms, the Drifters, Jerry Butler, and Solomon Burke. Burt Bacharach saw her at one recording session and asked Dionne Warrick if she would record some demos for him.
A small independent label called Scepter Records signed her as a recording artist after hearing the demos. Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote and produced her first single, “Don’t Make Me Over”, in 1962. When the record was released, the performer was erroneously shown as “Dionne Warwick” instead of “Dionne Warrick”, and she kept the new name. Her sister eventually became Dee Dee Warwick as well. For the early part of her career, Dionne Warwick exclusively released singles written by Bacharach/David, much as the Coasters’ singles were written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller; and that is true of all 12 of the songs on Dionne Warwick’s Golden Hits Pt. 1, her first retrospective album. All of these songs are memorable, and several are major hits, with my particular favorites being “Don’t Make Me Over”, “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, “Make it Easy on Yourself”, “Wishin’ and Hopin’ ”, “Walk on By”, “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)”, and “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me”. Later, Dionne Warwick began recording songs written by others; teaming up with the Spinners, she had a #1 hit single with “Then There Was You” (1974), and she also had a Top Ten hit with “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” (1979) that was produced by Barry Manilow. Buoyed by the outstanding vocals in her portion of the USA for Africa song “We Are the World” earlier that year, Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder collaborated on the 1985 charity single to raise money for AIDS research and prevention, “That’s What Friends are For”, with the recording artist shown as Dionne & Friends. The song was written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager and was first recorded by Rod Stewart in 1982. “That’s What Friends are For” was a massive hit, becoming the #1 single of the entire year of 1986 in the U.S. and winning two Grammy Awards, Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The song raised over $3 million for its cause.