Dionne Warwick Biography
Marie Dionne Warrick, 12 December 1940, East Orange, New Jersey, USA. One of the truly sophisticated voices over the past five decades of soul influenced pop, Warwick first sang in Newark's New Hope Baptist Church choir. She played piano with the Drinkard Singers, a gospel group her mother managed, and studied at Connecticut's Hart School of Music. During the same period, Warwick also formed the Gospelaires with her sister, Dee Dee and aunt Cissy Houston. Increasingly employed as backing singers, the trio's voices appeared on records by the Drifters and Garnet Mimms. Through such work Warwick came into contact with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Her first solo single, on Scepter Records, "Don't Make Me Over" (1963), was a fragile slice of "uptown R&B" and set the tone for such classic collaborations as "Anyone Who Had A Heart" and "Walk On By". Bacharach's sculpted, almost grandiose compositions were the perfect setting for Warwick's light yet perfect phrasing, delicate almost to the point of vulnerability. "You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)", "Reach Out For Me" (both 1964) and "Are You There (With Another Girl)" (1966) epitomized the style. Although many of her singles charted, few were Top 10 hits, and the soulful edge, prevalent for the first two years, was gradually worn away.
As her songwriters moved ever closer to the mainstream, so Warwick too embraced a safer, albeit classier, approach with such successes as the uplifting "I Say A Little Prayer" (1967) and "Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" (1968). In 1971, Warwick abandoned both her label and mentors for Warner Brothers Records, but despite several promising releases, the relationship floundered. Around this time she also added an extra "e" to the end of her name, on advice given to her by an astrologer. Her biggest hit came with the (Detroit) Spinners on the Thom Bell-produced "Then Came You" (1974). Warwick moved to Arista Records in 1979 where work with Barry Manilow rekindled her commercial standing. Heartbreaker, her collaboration with the Bee Gees, resulted in several hit singles while a pairing with Luther Vandross on "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye?" was also a success. "That's What Friends Are For" pitted Dionne with Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder, and became a number 1 in both the US R&B and pop charts in 1985. Duets with Jeffrey Osborne, Kashif and Howard Hewitt, of Shalamar, maintained Warwick's newly-rediscovered profile in subsequent decades.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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