Dionne Warwick, the #93 Artist of the Rock Era

"The power of beautiful music."

"Mrs. Warwick's voice is so beautiful.  It is a voice that touches your soul.  She developed her natural talent  to its fullest potential!"

"Dionne's music has been a treasure."

"Warwick is easily beheld as one of 'the voices' of the Sixties, second perhaps only to Aretha."

"The strange osmosis when music and singer and production blend and create something new and unique within us. She delivers the goods every time."

"Dionne Warwick is timeless."

"Awesome and classy."

"Cannot sing her praises enough."

"Her beautiful songs will always live on."




Part of an amazing partnership with songwriters Hal David and Burt Bacharach, this amazing talent was one of the top acts of the 1960's.  But she extended her career by continuing to find songwriters she could work with, carrying her music into a new generation.

Marie Warrick was born December 12, 1940 in East Orange, New Jersey.  Dionne began singing gospel at age six while at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey.  Many of Warrick's family were members of the Drinkard Singers, a recording group managed by her mother which performed throughout the New York area.   Dionne formed the Gospelaires with sister Dee Dee, cousin Cissy Houston and friend Doris Troy and landed some work singing backing vocals for recording sessions in New York City for artists such as the Drifters, Ben E. King, Dinah Washington, Solomon Burke and others.  

After finishing high school in 1959, Warwick pursued her passion at the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut while continuing to record backing vocals at a New York studio.  During one session for the Drifters, composer Burt Bacharach noticed Warrick's talent and later, while Dionne as on break from college, she contacted Burt, who was now writing with lyricist Hal David.  Bacharach invited her to sing on demos that he and David were making of some of their songs for the purpose of promoting them to record labels.  One of the songs Dionne recorded, "It's Love That Really Counts", attracted the attention of Florence Greenberg, President of Sceptor Records.  Greenberg told Bacharach, "Forget the song, get the girl!"

Warwick signed a contract with Bacharach's and David's production company, which in turn signed a recording contract with Scepter.  In 1962, Warwick released her first single, "Don't Make Me Over", the title coming from a phrase that Dionne yelled to Bacharach and David in anger.  Dionne's last name was misspelled as Warwick on the 45, but she decided to keep it as a stage name.  Although it stalled at #21, the song remains as a fan favorite.  She released her debut album, Presenting Dionne Warwick, in 1963.

After the success of "Don't Make Me Over", Warwick left school and toured France, where critics called her "Paris' Black Pearl".  French critic Jean Monteaux, writing in the magazine Arts, noted, "The play of this voice makes you think of an eel, of a storm, of a cradle, a knot of seaweed, a dagger.  It is not so much a voice as an organ.  You could write fugues for Warwick's voice." 

Warwick returned to the United States to find equal praise, signing at nightclubs and on popular television shows.

Dionne enjoyed her first career Top 10 hit with the title song from her 1964 album Anyone Who Had A Heart, a #2 smash of three weeks on the Adult chart.

 

She followed that up with the album Make Way for Dionne Warwick and one of her best-known songs, "Walk On By", which reached #6 overall and #7 on the Easy Listening chart.  Dionne's star was spreading across the globe, and "Walk On By" became her U.K. breakthrough at #9.  

In Cash Box's 1964 poll, Warwick was named Best-Selling Female Vocalist, and she was named Top Female Vocalist by Cash Box in 1969, 1970 and 1971.  

While on tour in Glasgow, Scotland, Warwick was injured in an auto accident, forcing her to cancel several dates.  When she recovered, she recorded the album The Sensitive Sound Of Dionne Warwick at Pye Studios in London and also released the album Here I Am in 1965.

 

In 1966, Dionne released the single "Message To Michael", a gender-switched remake of Bacharach and David's hit by both Lou Johnson and Adam Faith as "A Message To Martha".  Warwick's version rose to #8.

Dionne began a four-month European tour in January of 1967, helping her album Here, Where There Is Love become her first Gold LP.

Warwick released the album On Stage and In the Movies and found herself among the heavyweights at the two-day Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Fest in California.  Billed alongside the Doors, Jefferson Airplane and the Miracles, Dionne sang before 15,000.

Warwick released the single "The Beginning Of Loneliness", with "Alfie", a solid track on the album as the "B" side.  Disc jockeys flipped the 45 over and made "Alfie" the bigger hit at #16.  Dionne was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

 

Later in the year, Dionne released the album The Windows of the World.  Warwick scored her first Gold record for "I Say A Little Prayer", a #4 smash in 1967.  She was nominated for Best Contemporary Female Solo Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards.

Now an established star, Warwick released the compilation album Dionne Warwick's Golden Hits, Part One, which gave her a Top 10 U.S. album.

Dionne's follow-up hit, "(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls", was one of few songs early in her career that weren't written by Bacharach and David.  While the movie was being filmed, actress Barbara Parkins suggested that Dionne sing the movie's theme song.  Judy Garland was tabbed instead but subsequently fired, and producers turned to Warwick at that time.  When the movie became successful in 1968, DJ's flipped the single over and made the single one of The Top Double-Sided 45's of the Rock Era*. "Valley Of The Dolls" hit #2 for four weeks on both the Popular and Easy Listening charts, quite an achievement. 

 

"Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" became one of Dionne's signature songs, a worldwide smash that reached the Top 10 in the United States, the U.K., Canada, Australia, Japan, South Africa and Mexico.  It reached #4 on the Easy Listening chart.  

Later in the year, Warwick scored this hit from the musical Promises, Promises, the title song from her 1968 album.  The single was underrated at #19 overall but reached #7 among adults.  Dionne was on quite a roll with adult fans by this time.

Dionne released this female version of Herb Alpert's classic "This Guy's In Love With You" from the year before.  It reached #7 on the Popular chart in 1969 but was a #2 song for four weeks among adults.  "This Girl's In Love With You" earned Dionne another Grammy nomination for best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Warwick won her first Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the smash hit.  She released the album Soulful, which was recorded with producer Chips Moman in Memphis, Tennessee.  In 1969, "The Dionne Warwick Chevy Special" aired on CBS Television and Warwick made her film debut in Slaves.  At the end of the year, Dionne released Dionne Warwick's Golden Hits, Part 2.

Warwick won the award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for another of her most memorable songs, "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", the title song from her album in 1970.  It rose to #6 overall and gave Dionne one of her biggest career hits among adults, a #1 smash of three weeks.

 

She appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in London in April and scored another #2 Easy Listening hit later that year with "Make It Easy On Yourself" from her album Very Dionne.  The single was one of five Top 10 songs on the Adult chart in 1970 and part of an amazing string of 14 consecutive Top 10's.

By 1971, Dionne had sold an estimated 35 million singles and albums worldwide.  At that juncture, Warwick left Scepter for a $5 million offer with Warner Brothers, the biggest recording contract ever for a female artist to that time, according to Variety magazine.  Dionne began recording her first album for Warner Brothers at A&R Studios in New York City.  But due to a rift between Bacharach and David in 1972, the prominent songwriters terminated their working relationship, so Warwick had to look elsewhere for her material.

 

The Bacharach/David/Warwick partnership was pure golden, and without it, Dionne struggled from 1972-1977.  But in 1974, after the Spinners opened for her on a five-week summer tour, producer Thom Bell suggested that Dionne's voice would blend in well with the group.  Warwick and the Spinners went into the recording studio and came up with this #1 song that sold over one million copies.  Dionne and the group were nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Dionne won a People's Choice award for Favorite Female Singer.  

In 1979, Dionne moved to Arista Records and also completed work on her master's degree in music.  At Arista, she received the help of labelmate Barry Manilow, who produced her first album Dionne for the label.  "I'll Never Love This Way Again" spurred her comeback, going Gold and reaching #5 on both the Popular and Adult Contemporary charts.  She captured the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.

 

"Deja Vu" was co-written by Isaac Hayes, and gave Dionne a #15 Popular hit and another #1 AC smash.  The song earned a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female.  Warwick scored two Grammy Awards, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "I'll Never Love This Way Again") and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (for "Deja Vu"). 

In 1980, Warwick hosted the television special Solid Gold '79, which was so successful that it was adapted into a weekly show called Solid Gold, which Dionne hosted in 1980 and 1981 and again in 1985-86.

Dionne released another big hit in 1980, "No Night So Long".  Although it stopped at #23 with teenagers, it became one of the biggest Adult hits of the year, #1 for three weeks.

Warwick recorded "Friends In Love" with Johnny Mathis.  The two superstars took it to #5 on the AC chart.

In 1982, Arista head Clive Davis was attending a wedding on Orlando, Florida when he spoke with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees.  Barry told Davis that he had always been a fan of Warwick's and after Clive set up a meeting between the two superstars, Barry was set to produce her next album.

Heartbreaker sold over three million copies worldwide and included the highly underrated title song.  With it by far being the best song on the album and the album selling three million copies, the #10 peak that Billboard placed on the song seems foolish.  That's an obvious problem when your methodology does not include album sales.  By this time, the Adult Contemporary chart was much more reflective of music tastes, since more Rock Era listeners were adults, and on that chart, "Heartbreaker" went to #1.

Warwick and Luther Vandross teamed up for this #4 Adult hit in 1983--"How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye".  

In 1984, the album Finder of Lost Loves reunited Dionne with both Barry Manilow and Bacharach, who was by now writing songs with his wife, Carole Bayer Sager.  

In 1985, Warwick contributed to the blockbuster hit "We Are The World", a #1 smash and eight-million seller in the U.S. alone. 

Dionne received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in December of 1985.  "That's What Friends Are For", written by Bacharach and Sager, was originally recorded by Rod Stewart for the great movie Night Shift.  Warwick decided to raise money for AIDS research and invited Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight to sing it with her.  It went to #1 for four weeks and sold over one million records and won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

Warwick and her friends received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and the song was nominated for Record of the Year.  Dionne earned a Grammy nomination for the album Friends.

 

In 1987, Warwick and Luther Vandross co-hosted the initial Soul Train Music Awards at the Hollywood Center in California.  While working on her album Reservations For Two, Dionne recorded "Love Power" with Jeffrey Osborne, taking the single to #7 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #12 on the Popular chart.

In September, Dionne and the Warwick Foundation was honored for raising $1 million for AIDS research.  In 1990, Dionne released the compilation Greatest Hits 1979-1990.

"Superwoman", Dionne's 1991 collaboration with Gladys Knight & Patti LaBelle, landed a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

Dionne has released 12 studio albums since, with her latest being Feels So Good in 2014.

Dionne received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the ASCAP Awards in 1998 and a Heroes Award in 2002.  In 1999, Warwick's hits "Walk On By" and "That's What Friends Are For" were both named as Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America.

In 2002, Dionne was nominated to be the Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

In 2014, Warwick was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Now.

Warwick has won five Grammy Awards out of 13 nominations, one American Music Award, one Billboard Music Award, one People's Choice Award and two ASCAP Awards.

Dionne is second only to Aretha Franklin as the most-charted female artist of all-time with 69 Hot 100 hits.  Of those, 13 reached the Top 10 and four rose to #1.  An incredible 29 out of 45 Adult hits landed in the Top 10, including a magical 14 in a row from 1967 to 1971, and six of those went to #1.  "Alfie", "Don't Make Me Over" and "Walk On By" have all been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

While Bacharach and David launched the magically melodic voice of Warwick, she proved to the world her star had staying power, continuing to thrill audiences and record beautiful music to this day.