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Dionne Warwick - Presenting Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick - Here I Am
Dionne Warwick - Here Where There Is Love
Dionne Warwick - The Magic Of Believing
Dionne Warwick - On Stage And In The Movies
Dionne Warwick - In Paris
Dionne Warwick - The Sensitive Sound Of
Dionne Warwick - Anyone Who Had A Heart
Dionne Warwick - Love At First Sight
Dionne Warwick - Make Way For
As all things Bacharach are starting to get their
long desreved notice, there is no better place to start
appreciating the wonderful songwriting and production talents of
one-time team Burt Bacharach and Hal David than listening to
some classic Dionne Warwick albums. After all, it was Bacharach
and David who turned this pop and soft-soul thrush into the
major star she became. Thanks to reissue label Collector's
Choice, the best of Warwick's work on Scepter Records both with
and without this legendary duo has just been re-released back
into the beautiful sunlight of the marketplace where it should
have always been, untouched and pristine and as pure as
Warwick's voice itself. With Bacharach's eccentric melodies and
David's pithy and heartfelt lyrics at her seeming disposal, how
could Warwick not have ended up a star?
The vocalist's first album for Scepter, the
aptly-titled Presenting Dionne Warwick ('63), was her initial
foray with the team of Bacharach and David. She met them while
singing backup on a Drifters' song, Mexican Divorce, which
Bacharach and David had written. At the time, Warwick was just
getting her feet wet in the business while Bacharach and David
were also trying to find not only their footing in the music
busines, but also a perfect vehicle with which to interpret
their distinctive songs. Immediately after hearing Dionne
Warwick and noting her professional, yet eager, demeanor, they
had found their muse and started to writing. In fact, they wrote
so much after being inspired by Warwick's voice, they wrote
about three-fourths of this disc's songs. Surprisingly for a
first-time effort, they also were able to score some top hits:
Don't Make Me Over (which was initially rejected by the head of
Scepter), Wishin' & Hopin' (also a huge hit for Dusty
Springfield in Europe) and Make It Easy On Yourself.
The next disc, Anyone Who Had A Heart ('64), seems a
little rushed, but still has plenty of Bacharach and David
brilliance as well as the beautifully effortless tone of Warwick
in her prime. Why does it seem rushed? Three songs from the
previous album (Warwick's debut) were seemingly tacked on just
to flesh out the album. The label must have been desirous to
take advantage of Warwick's hits and wanted another album to
ship out despite not having enough new songs in the can for an
all-new release. Thus, a consumer buying this second album is
really only getting an extended EP's worth of material. While
this was done often in the '60's, the reason it was done is
obvious - to take advantage of an artist's sudden surge of
popularity. After scoring a handful of hits on her first album
and having her songs slavishly covered overseas by the likes of
Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield, Warwick was beyond being a
hot property and was close to being what we now refer to as a
mega-star. With her classic good looks and stellar voice, she
was a veritable phenomenon. It is not a surprise the label
wanted to get more product out on the market. Hits from this
album include Don't Make Me Over (the same version as her debut
album - thrown in to spark sales) and Anyone Who Had A Heart
(the title track), both solid songs that remained in Warwick's
repetoire for years.
Surprisingly, Warwick's third album for Scepter, Make
Way for Dionne Warwick ('64) also had one cut repeated from her
debut but, thankfully, the rest of the album contained new
material. This album became a milestone for Warwick as this was
her first album to make the charts after previously only scoring
several huge single hits. Pretty much staying true to the
formula previously perfected on her earlier records, this album
contains a bunch of Bacharach and David cuts which turned out to
be huge hits and several songs from other songwriters that
didn't become hits. Go figure. Warwick ended up with three major
hits from this album as well as recording a couple Bacharach and
David songs which turned out later to be hits for other artists
(Close To You which hit for The Carpenters and the repeat track
Wishin' and Hopin' which Dusty Springfield took the the top of
the charts in Europe). Warwick's hits from this album were
Wishin' and Hopin' (again, a repeat from her first album), the
classic Walk On By, and You'll Never Get To Heaven.
The first major break in Warwick's hit making ways
came with her next album for Scepter, The Sensitive Sound Of
Dionne Warwick which was released in 1965. Though the album did
not produce even one hit for the singer, the performances are of
a piece with her earlier albums, making this one of the most
overlooked and most revelatory albums for Warwick's many fans.
Once again, most of the best songs on the album come from the
very talented Bacharach and David team while the rest are
divvied up between a number of other songwriters. While it seems
Scepter Records was trying to give Warwick a little room to
experiment with other writers so she didn't get "typecast", all
her hits continued to be penned by Bacharach and David, so it
really didn't help much and these other songs usually felt like
filler. This is nonetheless a fine album, as Warwick's
sophisticated singing and thrilling interpretations of her
material are engaging and heart-rending as was to be extected by
this time.
Here I Am ('65), the singer's fifth record for
Scepter, was another smash success for the trio of Warwick,
Bacharach, and David. Scoring yet another trio of hits, the
formula (which began on her very first record) used by the three
continued it's winning ways on this CD. Once again Bacharach and
David contributed the hits while several other songwriting teams
were used to pad the album out. By now, some of you may be
wondering why Warwick simply didn't wait to record albums until
Bacharach and David had enough material for a whole set of
songs. For one reason, in the '60's, you simply had to put out
two to three albums a year or the public would forget about you
in all of the other musical activity going on. Even the biggest
bands like The Beatles Stones, Beach Boys and Supremes had to
hustle out as much product as they could. That's why you see so
many covers on albums from the British Invasion acts. Secondly,
the labels knew this and made artists do it as more product
simply meant more money. Thirdly, Scepter didn't want Warwick to
be perceived as being dependent on Bacharach and David even
though she was and the label conversely undermined themselves as
they promoted the Bacharach and David songs much more than the
others. Hits off of this album include Are You There (With
Another Girl), Window Wishing, and Don't Go Breaking My Heart
and the song This Little Light even contains some solo piano
playing from Warwick.
A killer version of A House Is Not A Home
notwithstanding, the next album chronologically in Collectors
Choice's Warwick reissues on Scepter, Dionne Warwick In Paris
('66), is not really a must-have by any means. Sure, it's a
nicely recorded concert album and all but, for the most part,
lacks any real fire and is pretty much just politely-sung live
recordings of her hits. Better live showcases were to follow and
those wanting to hear some really good live Warwick should
search out her other in-concert recordings and leave this trifle
alone. For completists only.
The next disc in Collector's Choice's Scepter Warwick
reissues is Here Where There Is Love ('67) and it was a huge
record for Warwick, and a great return to form after the
lackadaisical stop-gap live set Dionne Warwick In Paris. Here
Where There Is Love stayed true to the usual Bacharach, David,
and Warwick formula and gave Warwick her customary
three-hits-per-album result. On this album Bacharach and David
once again provide at least one half of the album's songs
(which, as usual, contained the hits) while the rest of the
material (i.e.: the non-hits) were provided by other
songwriters. Bacharach also arranged and conducted several other
songs on the album, lending his signature sound (if not his
songwriting talents) to other's material with the unfortunate
result being the songs left to other arrangers sounding weird
and out of place compared to the rest of the album. It sort of
makes for a schizophrenic feel, but Warwick's hits (like the
song Alfie) make this album a definite keeper. Hits off of this
album besides Alfie included What The World Needs Now, Trains
and Boats and Planes, and I Just Don't Know What To Do With
Myself and all are done as only consummate singer Warwick can.
Another sort-of stopgap album for Warwick followed,
the nonetheless beautifully sung and arranged On Stage And In
The Movies ('67). While containing no songs by her usual
hitmaking team of Bacharach and David and yielding no hits, this
album features the kind of songs Warwick has always sung best:
well written and pliable to her trademark soft-soul sound.
Warwick's talents have always been best used to convey a mood
just as much as sing a lyric and movie songs and showtunes are
written with mood in mind. Hence, a "throwaway" album that
should not be thrown away. If you want to pick up a Warwick
album that doesn't contain any hits, this is the album to get.
Sublime performances from Warwick, who has never sounded better.
Though it could arguably be said that Warwick isn't
the right kind of singer to sing gospel songs, she does a great
job here in singing gospel songs her way on the album The Magic
Of Believing ('68). Warwick has always been more of a pure
singer than anything else. In other words, you won't find
Warwick shouting, using too much melisma, or getting too riled
up in general while singing a song. Warwick just gets up and
sings a song the way old-schoolers like Frank Sinatra and Tony
Bennett always did and that's by picking songs with strong
melodies. Although all, including Warwick of course, have great
voices, the main thrust of all these singers was to pick the
best songs possible. Songs that didn't need anything extra to
help put the point across. Therefore, when consumers saw this
album with Warwick singing gospel and religious songs, I am sure
they did a double-take when thinking about the result of such an
album. They needn't have worried. Warwick can make the phone
book sound as eloquent and melodic as the most well-written
song. The prevailing opinion is that Bacharach and David made
Warwick. I suggest it is the exact opposite and this album
provides the proof.
Collector's Choice picks up Warwick's career again
in 1977 and the Love At First Sight album. Her last album for
Warner Brothers before she would enjoy a career renaissance at
Arista, the album is Warwick's only release out of her
half-dozen on Warners that comes close to her halcyon days at
Scepter. Featuring a song written by Hal David (Burt Bacharch's
former partner and with whom Bacharach wrote all of Warwick's
early hits) and produced by the hitmaking team of Michael
Omartian and Steve Barri, the album was nonetheless a commercial
disappointment for Warwick though an artristic triumph. By the
time she landed at Arista, a new formula similar this album's
was in place and she began having hits again, though not on the
scale of her early years. She also hosted several popular
syndicated TV shows during her Arista tenure which raised her
profile considerably, showing that although Bacharach and David
have arguably contributed the most to her success, Warwick was
and is a supremely talented and versatile performer capable of
making a song her own, no matter what the origin or
circumstance.
These re-issues should appeal to anyone interested
in sophisticated pop music with a dollop of smooth soul thrown
in. Though they won't get the party started, these albums will
do a fine job in helping smooth the edges of a rough,
hangover-filled Sunday morning. - Scott Homewood
www.collectorschoice.com
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