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| Dionne Warwick I Say A Little Prayer 1967 Million Seller |
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Vintage (1962-1971) photo and ad montage
covering Dionne Warwick's tenure at Scepter
Records and featuring her huge international
smash I Say A Little Prayer. Burt Bacharach
arranged, conducts and is on piano. The tune
was released as single in Oct. 1967 after DJs
all over the country started playing the
album cut from the Windows of the World lp. I
Say A Little Prayer was certified RIAA Gold
selling over 1 million in the USA alone and
peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles
chart in December 1967. The flip or B side
Theme from Valley of the Dolls was also a
million seller and rode the #2 position for 4
weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart
in February 1968. I Say A Little
Prayer/Theme From Valley of the Dolls is one
of the most successful double sided hits of
the Rock era. This is the rare unedited
version in which Burt Bacharach can be heard
on countoff. I Say A Little Prayer was also
the first RIAA certified million seller for
Bacharach and David.
Less than one year later, Aretha Franklin
would take her cover of "I Say A Little
Prayer" to the #10 spot on Billboards Hot 100
singles chart.
Writes Nick Tosches, the renowned writer,
music journalist, novelist, biographer and
poet in the January 7, 1972 issue of the rock
magazine FUSION; "...getting into Dionne
Warwick is like finding buried treasure. The
Bacharach/David repertoire which milady
chooses to sing is so fascinatingly cynical /
fatalistic / stoical / emotional / happy,
simultaneously! It's pure emotion. There is a
whole lot more to emotion than some rock punk
bursting his dexedrine-staved blood vessels
by screaming "Baby I need you baby" into a
microphone. Dionne Warwick is not a rock and
roll singer. She's not a jazz singer either.
Rhythm and blues? Nope. A pop singer? No way.
Did you ever tongue-kiss with someone who
barfed a Singapore Sling bolus into your
mouth, and then four years later you're with
someone else and you feel good and you
realize how beautiful it all was and then
it's all melancholy/happiness, sort of?
That's the kind of singer Dionne Warwick is.
She's beautiful. Dionne, paired with
Bacharach's string/horn/reed arrangements,
comes up as a lyric mezzo-sopranoid
par-excellence,
melodious/expressiveness-wise. If you've
never gotten into her, you ought to. Get hep
to Dionne Warwick. For your own sake."
Tags : Dionne Warwick Best Friend's Wedding 1960s Rare Burt Bacharach 1967 Say Little Prayer Aretha Oldies RRHOF Old School |
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Affichage : 427222
Durée : 199 s |
| Dionne Warwick Heartbreaker 1982 International Smash Hit |
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Over 100 Dionne Warwick tracks with rare
photos on Dibotis' Dionne Warwick Channel.
Check them out! "Heartbreaker", a 1982 hit
written by The Bee Gees' Barry, Maurice, and
Robin Gibb, became one of Dionne's biggest
international hits, peaking on Billboard's
Hot 100 at #10 in January 1983 and #1 AC in
the USA and #2 in the UK. Internationally,
the tune was also a smash in continential
Europe, Australia, Japan, South Africa, South
America, Eastern Europe, Canada, and Asia.
The track was taken from the album
Heartbreaker which to date has sold over 3
million internationally and earned Dionne an
RIAA USA gold record award for the album.
The album peaked at #25 on the Hot 100 Album
Chart, #13 on the R&B Chart and #3 in the UK.
Dionne stated to Wesley Hyatt in his The
Billboard Book of Number One Adult
Contemporary Hits that she was not fond of
"Heartbreaker," but recorded the tune because
she trusted the Bee Gees' judgment that it
would be a hit. How did the project come
about? The legendary Clive Davis was
attending his aunt's wedding in Florida and
spoke with Barry Gibb. Barry mentioned that
he had always been a fan of Dionne's and
Clive arranged for Dionne and the BeeGees to
discuss a project. Dionne and the brothers
Gibb hit it off and the album "Heartbreaker"
and the title single was released in October
1982.
Tags : Dionne Warwick Heartbreaker Bee Gees BeeGees Gibb 1982 |
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Affichage : 321023
Durée : 257 s |
| Dionne Warwick Do You Know the Way to San Jose 1968 Top 10 |
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Dionne Warwick's 1968 million selling Grammy
winning international smash hit the top ten
in May 1968 and was also a UK smash at #8.
The flip side "Let Me Be Lonely" also written
by Bacharach and David also hit the Billboard
Hot 100, one of many double sided hits Dionne
recorded on Florence Greenberg's Scepter
label. Dionne charted an astonishing eight
Billboard Top Twenty hits in less than 30
months: Alfie-#15 July 67; I Say A Little
Prayer-Nov 67-#4; Theme From Valley of the
Dolls-Feb 68-#2 (4 weeks); Do You Know the
Way to San Jose-May 68-#10; Promises,
Promises-Oct 1968-#19; This Girl's In Love
With You-March 1969-#7; You've Lost That
Lovin' Feeling-#15-Sept 69; I'll Never Fall
In Love Again-Jan 70-#6. In addition, Warwick
hit the Top 40 in the same time period with
Windows of the World-Sept 67, Who Is Gonna
Love Me-July 68, and The April Fools-July 69.
In 1969 Dionne was the first African-American
Female Vocalist to win in the Grammy category
Best Contemporary-Pop Vocal Performance,
Female for Do You Know the Way to San Jose.
"San Jose" was also used as the theme in
Dodge automobile commercials in 1968 and
1969, for the Charger and the Challenger.
"Do You Know the Way to San Jose" became
"Dodge Is Turning Up the Fever Now"! Another
note of trivia: the background vocalists for
this session were Valerie Simpson (Ashford &
Simpson), Cissy Houston and DeeDee Warwick.
Writes Nick Tosches, the renowned writer,
music journalist, novelist, biographer and
poet in the January 7, 1972 issue of the rock
magazine FUSION; "...getting into Dionne
Warwick is like finding buried treasure. The
Bacharach/David repertoire which milady
chooses to sing is so fascinatingly cynical /
fatalistic / stoical / emotional / happy,
simultaneously! It's pure emotion. There is a
whole lot more to emotion than some rock punk
bursting his dexedrine-staved blood vessels
by screaming "Baby I need you baby" into a
microphone. Dionne Warwick is not a rock and
roll singer. She's not a jazz singer either.
Rhythm and blues? Nope. A pop singer? No way.
Did you ever tongue-kiss with someone who
barfed a Singapore Sling bolus into your
mouth, and then four years later you're with
someone else and you feel good and you
realize how beautiful it all was and then
it's all melancholy/happiness, sort of?
That's the kind of singer Dionne Warwick is.
She's beautiful. Dionne, paired with
Bacharach's string/horn/reed arrangements,
comes up as a lyric mezzo-sopranoid
par-excellence,
melodious/expressiveness-wise. If you've
never gotten into her, you ought to. Get hep
to Dionne Warwick. For your own sake."
Tags : Dionne Warwick oldies Do You Know Way San Jose Burt Bacharach Hal David Grammy UK 1968 Dodge Challenger RRHOF Old School |
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Affichage : 229537
Durée : 178 s |
| Dionne Warwick Alfie 1967 Smash; Grammy Hall of Fame 2008 |
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Alfie, from the 1966 Michael Caine classic,
was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David,
and was an Adacemy Award nominee for Best
Song From A Motion Picture for 1966 (Born
Free, the title track from the film of the
same name, won). Bacharach wrote the tune
with Warwick specifically in mind, but when
the tune was pitched for the movie in London,
Bacharach was overridden because the
producers wanted a British singer to record
the tune. Cilla Black recorded the tune and
her version died at number 95 in the USA,
although a hit in England. Ironically,
Cilla's version was not used in the UK and
European prints of the film; Sonny Rollins is
heard in Australian prints of the film. When
the film was released in the USA, United
Artists felt a singer on their label should
record the tune, so for the American prints
of the film, Cher can be heard over the final
credits, and her version peaked at 34 on the
charts in 1966. Alfie was recorded by 42
other singers before Burt finally got his
wish to record Alfie with Dionne and she took
it all the way to # 5 on Billboard's Hot R&B
Chart and #15 on Billboard's Hot 100. Dionne
has stated Burt insisted that she record the
tune since he had written it specifically for
her to sing in the film, and she was
reluctant after 42 other versions had been
released and asked Burt, "How many more
recordings of Alfie do you need?" Burt's
reply? "Just one more, yours." She agreed
to cut the tune because she needed one more
track to complete the album. Originally
released on the Here Where There Is Love LP
in early 1967, the track was pulled from the
album and played frequently by DJs all over
the country. Dionne sang Alfie at the
Academy Awards Ceremony in March to a world
wide audience to much critical acclaim and
the public began snap up her LP containing
the tune. In March 1967 Scepter released the
tune as the "B" side of The Beginning of
Loneliness, a little known but beautiful
Bacharach/David ballad. But, DJ's once again
had the final word on the single and flipped
it to make Alfie a huge hit, after Dionne's
stunning performance of Alfie at the Academy
Awards. The Here Where There Is Love LP hit
the top twenty on the Billboard album chart
and received an RIAA gold record award.
In 2008, Dionne Warwick's recording of Alfie
was chosen for the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Previous Warwick recordings honored by the
Hall of Fame: Walk on By-1998, and Don't
Make Me Over-2000.
Tags : Dionne Warwick Alfie Bacharach David Movie Cher Cilla Oldies Academy Awards Oscar |
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Affichage : 55603
Durée : 165 s |
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