Dionne Warwick - A Profile

Marie Dionne Warwick was born in East Orange, NJ, on 12 Dec 1940 and is celebrating her 82nd birthday today. She is one of the top selling recording artists of all time and the second most charted female vocalist and has numerous awards including six Grammys.

She sang in her mother's (Lee Drinkard) gospel group The Drinkard singers which included her aunt Cissy Houston (mother of Whitney) and at one time also Judy Clay.  Dionne was also a member of The Gospelaires who would eventually become The Sweet Inspirations who, as well as releasing their own recordings, were much sought after backing singers featuring on recordings by Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley amongst many others.

Warwick was discovered singing backing vocals for The Drifters in 1962 by Burt Bacharach and he hired her to record demos of his songs to pitch to labels.

Her big break came when she recorded a demo for a Bacharach song "It's Love That Really Counts" which Bacharach pitched to Scepter Records for The Shirelles. Scepter president Florence Greenburg suggested Warwick record it herself and she was signed to the label and the song was included on her debut album "Presenting Dionne Warwick" in 1963.

Another demo song she recorded, "Make It Easy On Yourself", which she wanted to be her debut single, was recorded by Jerry Butler, so her debut was "Don't Make Me Over" in Nov 1962 which became Bacharach & David's first top 40 pop hit. The following year she and Bacharach & David had their first top 10 hit with "Anyone Who Had A Heart" followed by "Walk On By".

Warwick has released in the region of 40 plus solo albums and dozens of charting singles, yet has achieved only two #1 Hot 100 singles, "Then Came You" in 1975 with The Spinners and "That's What Friends Are For" in 1985.

The R&B chart is a different story with three #1s, "Walk On By", "Reach Out For Me" and "That's What Friends Are For", and ten other Top 10 R&B records with a total of 20 reaching the Top 20.

Her career declined at the end of the 80s with none of her subsequent twelve albums released since then charting, however, one of, arguably, her best songs was included as the title track of her 1993 album "Friends Can Be Lovers" but even a duet with her cousin Whitney Houston couldn't elevate the album into the charts. Prior to that she had three RIAA certified Gold and two Platinum selling albums. 

Many of her later albums were novelty releases, two were rehashes of her 60s hits, another a  rehash of hits but this time with featured guest singers, one was sung in Brazilian, two Christmas albums and yet another a gospel album. Her latest album "She's Back" in 2019 includes several contemporary guests such as Musiq Soulchild, Kenny Lattimore, Kevon Edmonds and Brian McKnight with Krayzie Bone featuring on Deja Vu. 

In 2013, fifty years after her first hit, she was declared bankrupt owing an estimated $10 in unpaid taxes. She claimed that it was due to 'negligent and gross financial mismanagement' in the late 80s through mid-90s. The debt was accredited to mainly interest and penalties as the actual back taxes had been paid.

Last year a documentary/biography film "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over" was made about her career that premiered in Sep 2021 at Toronto International Film Festival. CNN has acquired the rights and it is set for airing on TV on 1 Jan 2023. A  trailer below.

The playlist below avoids most of the obvious recordings and tries to highlight some lesser known songs (that are available on Spotify), many of which are album tracks only.

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