Marie Dionne Warwick ( ; née Warrick; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. During her decades long career, Warwick has won many awards, including six Grammy Awards. She has been inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Apollo Theater Walk of Fame. In 2019, Warwick won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Three of her songs ("Walk On By", "Alfie", and "Don't Make Me Over") have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on Billboards Hot 100 pop singles chart. She is the second-most charted female vocalist during the rock era (1955–1999), as well as one of the most-charted vocalists of all time, with 56 of her singles making the Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998 (12 of them Top Ten), and 80 singles in total – either solo or collaboratively – making the Hot 100, R&B, or adult contemporary charts. Warwick ranks number 74 on the Billboard Hot 100's "Greatest Artists of all time".
She is a former Goodwill Ambassador for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.
Early life and education
Marie Dionne Warrick, later Warwick, was born to Arthur Lee Drinkard and Mancel Warrick. Her mother was manager of the Drinkard Singers, and her father was a Pullman porter, chef, record promoter, and CPA. Dionne was named after her aunt on her mother's side. She had a sister, Delia ("Dee Dee"), who died in 2008, and a brother, Mancel Jr., who was killed in an accident in 1968 at the age of 21. Her parents were both Foundational Black American, and she also has a smaller amount of Irish and English ancestry.
Warwick was raised in East Orange, New Jersey, and was a Girl Scout for a time. She began singing gospel as a child at her grandfather’s AME church in Newark, New Jersey, where he was pastor and later at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. After finishing East Orange High School in 1959, Warwick pursued her passion at the Hartt College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut. She landed some work with her group singing backing vocals for recording sessions in New York City. During one session, Warwick met Burt Bacharach, who hired her to record demos featuring songs written by him and lyricist Hal David. She later landed her own record deal.
Career
Drinkard Singers
Many members of Warwick's family were members of the Drinkard Singers, a family gospel group and RCA recording artists who frequently performed throughout the New York metropolitan area. The original group, known as the Drinkard Jubilairs, consisted of Cissy, Anne, Larry, and Nicky, and later included Warwick's grandparents, Nicholas and Delia Drinkard, and their children: William, Lee (Warwick's mother) and Hansom. When the Drinkard Singers performed on TV Gospel Time, Dionne Warwick had her television performance debut.
Marie instructed the group, and they were managed by Lee. As they became more successful, Lee and Marie began performing with the group, and they were augmented by pop/R&B singer Judy Clay, whom Lee had unofficially adopted. Elvis Presley eventually expressed an interest in having them join his touring entourage.
The Gospelaires
Other talented singers joined the Gospelaires from time-to-time, including Judy Clay, Cissy Houston (mother of Whitney Houston), and Doris "Rikii" Troy, whose chart selection "Just One Look" (when she recorded it in 1963) featured backing vocals from the Gospelaires. After personnel changes (Dionne and Doris left the group after achieving solo success), the Gospelaires became the recording group the Sweet Inspirations, and had some chart success, but were much sought after as studio background singers. The Gospelaires, and later the Sweet Inspirations, performed on many records cut in New York City for artists such as Garnet Mimms, the Drifters, Jerry Butler, Solomon Burke and, later, Warwick's solo recordings, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley. Warwick recalled, in 2002's Biography, that "a man came running frantically backstage at the Apollo and said he needed background singers for a session for Sam "the Man" Taylor and old big-mouth here spoke up and said 'We'll do it!' and we left and did the session. I wish I remembered the gentleman's name because he was responsible for the beginning of my professional career."
The chance encounter led to the group being asked to provide background vocals at recording sessions around New York. Soon, the group was in-demand for their harmonies among New York musicians and producers, after hearing their work with the Drifters, Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, Dinah Washington, Ronnie Hawkins, and Solomon Burke, among many others. In the aforementioned Biography interview, Warwick recalled that, on weekdays after school, the girls would catch a bus from East Orange to the Port Authority Terminal, then take the subway to the recording studios in Manhattan, perform their background vocal work, and still be back at home in East Orange with time to do their school homework. Warwick's music work would continue while she pursued her studies at Hartt.
Discovery
While she was performing background on the Drifters' recording of their 1962 release "Mexican Divorce", Warwick's voice and star presence were noticed by the song's composer, Burt Bacharach, a Brill Building songwriter who was writing songs with many other songwriters, including lyricist Hal David. According to a July 14, 1967, article on Warwick in Time, Bacharach stated, "She has a tremendous strong side and a delicacy when singing softly – like miniature ships in bottles." Musically, she was no "play-safe girl. What emotion I could get away with!" During the session, Bacharach asked Warwick if she would be interested in recording demonstration recordings of his compositions to pitch the tunes to record labels, paying her $12.50 per demo recording session ().<!--- Paley ref provides date detail ---> One such demo, "It's Love That Really Counts"destined to be recorded by Scepter-signed act the Shirellescaught the attention of the President of Scepter Records, Florence Greenberg, who, according to Current Biography (1969 Yearbook), told Bacharach, "Forget the song, get the girl!"
Warwick was signed to Bacharach's and David's production company, according to Warwick, which in turn was signed to Scepter Records in 1962 by Greenberg. The partnership would provide Bacharach with the freedom to produce Warwick without the control of recording company executives and company A&R men. Warwick's musical ability and education would also allow Bacharach to compose more challenging tunes. Warwick had found out that "Make It Easy on Yourself" – a song on which she had recorded the original demo and had wanted to be her first single release – had been given to another artist, Jerry Butler. From the phrase "don't make me over", Bacharach and David created their first top-40 pop hit (No. 21) and a top-5 U.S. R&B hit. Warrick's name was misspelled on the single's label, and she began using the new spelling, "Warwick", both professionally and personally.
After "Don't Make Me Over" hit in 1962, she answered the call of her manager, left school and went on a tour of France, where critics crowned her "Paris' Black Pearl", having been introduced on stage at Paris Olympia that year by Marlene Dietrich.
The two immediate follow-ups to "Don't Make Me Over" – "This Empty Place" (with "B" side "Wishin' and Hopin'" later recorded by Dusty Springfield) and "Make The Music Play" – charted briefly in the top 100. Her fourth single, "Anyone Who Had a Heart", was Warwick's first top 10 pop hit (No. 8) in the U.S. and an international million seller. This was followed by "Walk On By" in April 1964, another major international hit and million seller that solidified her career. For the rest of the 1960s, Warwick was a fixture on the U.S. and Canadian charts, and much of her output from 1962 to 1971 was written and produced by the Bacharach/David team.
Warwick weathered the British Invasion better than most American artists. Her biggest UK hits were "Walk On By" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" Warwick later covered two of Cilla's songs – "You're My World" appeared on Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls, released in 1968 and on the soundtrack to Alfie.
Warwick was named the Bestselling Female Vocalist in the Cash Box Magazine poll in 1964, with six chart hits in that year. Cash Box named her the Top Female Vocalist in 1969, 1970 and 1971. In the 1967 Cash Box poll, she was second to Petula Clark, and in 1968's poll second to Aretha Franklin. Playboys influential Music Poll of 1970 named her the Top Female Vocalist. In 1969, Harvard's Hasty Pudding Society named her Woman of the Year.
In Times cover article of May 21, 1965, entitled "Rock 'n' Roll: The Sound of the Sixties", Warwick's sound was described as:
<blockquote>Swinging World. Scholarly articles probe the relationship between the Beatles and the nouvelle vague films of Jean-Luc Godard, discuss "the brio and elegance" of Dionne Warwick's singing style as a 'pleasurable but complex' event to be 'experienced without condescension.' In chic circles, anyone damning rock 'n' roll is labeled not only square but uncultured. For inspirational purposes, such hip artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers and Andy Warhol occasionally paint while listening to rock 'n' roll music. Explains Warhol: "It makes me mindless, and I paint better." After gallery openings in Manhattan, the black-tie gatherings often adjourn to a discothèque.</blockquote>
In 1965, Eon Productions intended to use Warwick's song titled "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" as the theme song of the James Bond film Thunderball, until Albert R. Broccoli insisted that the theme song include the film's title. A new song titled "Thunderball" was composed and recorded at the eleventh hour, performed by Tom Jones. The melody of "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" remains a major component of the film score. The Ultimate Edition DVD of Thunderball has the Warwick song playing over the titles on one of the commentary track extras, and the song was released on the 30th-anniversary CD of Bond songs.
Chart success (1966–1971)
thumb|upright|Warwick in 1969
The mid-1960s to early 1970s were a more successful time period for Warwick, who saw a string of gold-selling albums and Top 20 and Top 10 hit singles. "Message to Michael", a Bacharach-David composition
Later that same year, Warwick earned her first RIAA certified Gold single for U.S. sales of over one million units for the single "I Say a Little Prayer". When disc jockeys across the nation began to play the track from the album in late 1967 and demanded its release as a single, Scepter Records complied and "I Say a Little Prayer" became Warwick's biggest U.S. hit to that point, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Chart. The tune was also the first RIAA certified USA million seller for Bacharach-David.
Her follow-up to "I Say a Little Prayer", "(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls", was unusual in several respects. It was not written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David; it was the "B" side of her "I Say a Little Prayer" single, and it was a song that she almost did not record. While the film version of Valley of the Dolls was being made, actress Barbara Parkins suggested that Warwick be considered to sing the film's theme song, written by songwriting team André and Dory Previn. The song was to be recorded by Judy Garland, who was subsequently fired from the film. Warwick performed the song, and when the film became a success in the early weeks of 1968, disc jockeys flipped the single and made the single one of the biggest double-sided hits of the rock era and another million seller. At the time, RIAA rules allowed only one side of a double-sided hit single to be certified as gold, but Scepter awarded Warwick an "in-house award" to recognize "(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls" as a million selling tune.
Warwick had re-recorded a Pat Williams-arranged version of the theme at A&R Studios in New York because contractual restrictions with her label would not allow the Warwick version from the film to be included on the 20th Century Fox soundtrack LP, and reverse legal restrictions would not allow the film version to be used anyplace else in a commercial LP. The LP Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls, released in early 1968 and containing the re-recorded version of the movie theme (No. 2 for three weeks), "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" and several new Bacharach-David compositions, hit the No. 6 position on the Billboard album chart and would remain on the chart for over a year. The film soundtrack LP, without Warwick vocals, failed to impress the public, while Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls earned an RIAA Gold certification.
The single "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" (an international million seller and a Top-10 hit in several countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Japan and Mexico) was also a double-sided hit, with the "B" side "Let Me Be Lonely" charting at No. 79. More hits followed into 1971, including "Who Is Gonna Love Me" (No. 32, 1968) with "B" side, "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" becoming another double-sided hit; "Promises, Promises" (No. 19, 1968); "This Girl's in Love with You" (No. 7, 1969); "The April Fools" (No. 37, 1969); "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (No. 15, 1969); "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (No. 6 Pop, No. 1 AC, 1969); "Make It Easy on Yourself" (No. 37 Pop, No. 10 AC, 1970); "Let Me Go to Him" (No. 32 Pop, No. 4 AC, 1970); and "Paper Mache" (No. 43 Pop, No. 3 AC), 1970). Warwick's final Bacharach/David penned single on the Scepter label was March 1971's "Who Gets the Guy" (No. 52 Pop, No. 6 AC), 1971), and her final "official" Scepter single release was "He's Moving On" b/w "Amanda", (No. 83 Pop, No. 12 AC) both from the soundtrack of the motion picture adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's The Love Machine.
Warwick had become the priority act of Scepter Records with the release of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" in 1963. Other Scepter LPs certified RIAA Gold include Dionne Warwick's Golden Hits Part 1 released in 1967 and The Dionne Warwicke Story: A Decade of Gold released in 1971. By the end of 1971, Warwick had sold an estimated 35 million singles and albums internationally in less than nine years and more than 16 million singles in the U.S. alone. Exact figures of her sales are unknown and probably underestimated, due to Scepter Records' apparently lax accounting policies and the company policy of not submitting recordings for RIAA audit. Warwick became the first Scepter artist to request RIAA audits of her recordings in 1967 with the release of "I Say a Little Prayer".
On September 17, 1969, CBS Television aired Warwick's first television special, entitled The Dionne Warwick Chevy Special. Warwick's guests were Burt Bacharach, George Kirby, Glen Campbell, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. In 1970, Warwick formed her own label, Sonday Records, of which she was president. Sonday was distributed by Scepter.
In 1970, she was a performer on the prestigious Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium, singing The Look of Love, What the World Needs Now and Come Together.
thumb|left|upright|Warwick with First Lady [[Pat Nixon in 1971]]
In 1971, Warwick left the family atmosphere of Scepter Records for Warner Bros. Records, for a $5 million contract, the most lucrative recording contract given to a female vocalist up to that time, according to Variety. Warwick's last LP for Scepter was the soundtrack for the motion picture The Love Machine, in which she appeared in an uncredited cameo, released in July 1971. In 1975, Bacharach and David sued Scepter Records for an accurate accounting of royalties due to the team from their recordings with Warwick and labelmate B.J. Thomas. They were awarded almost $600,000 and the rights to all Bacharach/David recordings on the Scepter label. The label, with the defection of Warwick to Warner Bros. Records, filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and was sold to Springboard International Records in 1976.
Following her signing with Warners, with Bacharach and David as writers and producers, Warwick returned to New York City's A&R Studios in late 1971 to begin recording her first album for the new label, the self-titled Dionne (not to be confused with her later Arista debut album) in January 1972. The album peaked at No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 Album Chart. In 1972, Burt Bacharach and Hal David scored and wrote the tunes for the motion picture Lost Horizon. However, the film was panned by the critics, and in the fallout, the songwriting duo decided to terminate their working relationship. The break-up left Warwick devoid of their services as her producers and songwriters. She was contractually obligated to fulfill her contract with Warners without Bacharach and David, and she would team with a variety of producers during her tenure with the label.
Faced with the prospect of being sued by Warner Bros. Records due to the breakup of Bacharach/David and their failure to honor their contract with Warwick, she filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against her former partners for breach of contract. The suit was settled out of court in 1979 for $5 million, including the rights to all Warwick recordings produced by Bacharach and David.
Also in 1971, Warwick had her name changed to "Warwicke" per the advice of Linda Goodman, an astrologer friend, who believed it would bring greater success. A few years later, she reverted to the old spelling after a string of disappointments and an absence from the Billboard top 40.
Warner era (1972–1978)
thumb|upright|From left to right: Warwick, [[Don Kirshner, Helen Reddy and Olivia Newton-John in 1974]]
Without the guidance and songwriting that Bacharach/David had provided, Warwick's career stalled in the early 1970s although she remained a top concert draw throughout the world. There were no big hits during the early and mid part of the decade, aside from 1974's "Then Came You", recorded as a duet with the Spinners and produced by Thom Bell. Bell later noted, "Dionne made a (strange) face when we finished [the song]. She didn't like it much, but I knew we had something. So we ripped a dollar in two, signed each half and exchanged them. I told her, 'If it doesn't go number one, I'll send you my half.' When it took off, Dionne sent hers back. There was an apology on it." It was her first U.S. No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Other than this success, Warwick's five years on Warner Bros. Records produced no other major hits, but "Then Came You" was issued by co-owned Atlantic Records, the Spinners' label. Two notable songs recorded during this period were "His House and Me" and "Once You Hit The Road" (No. 79 pop, No. 5 R&B, No. 22 Adult Contemporary), both of which were produced in 1975 by Thom Bell.
Warwick recorded five albums with Warners: Dionne (1972), produced by Bacharach and David and a modest chart success; Just Being Myself (1973), produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland;
Then Came You (1975), produced by Jerry Ragovoy; Track of the Cat (1975), produced by Thom Bell; and Love at First Sight (1977), produced by Steve Barri and Michael Omartian. Her five-year contract with Warners expired in 1977, and with that, she ended her stay at the label. A Man and a Woman is a duet live album by American singers Isaac Hayes and Dionne Warwick, released in 1977 by ABC Records. The album was recorded during one of the concerts of the artists' 1976 joint tour. Warwick's dry spell on the American charts ended with her signing to Arista Records in 1979, where she began a second highly successful run of hit records and albums well into the late 1980s.
Heartbreaker and move to Arista (1979–1989)
With the move to Arista Records and the release of her RIAA-certified million seller "I'll Never Love This Way Again" in 1979, Warwick was again enjoying top success on the charts. The song was produced by Barry Manilow. The accompanying album, Dionne, was certified platinum in the United States for sales exceeding one million units. The album peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard albums chart and made the top 10 of the Billboard R&B albums chart. Warwick had been personally signed and guided by the label's founder Clive Davis, who told her, "You may be ready to give the business up, but the business is not ready to give you up." Warwick's next single release was another major hit. "Deja Vu" was co-written by Isaac Hayes and hit No. 1 Adult Contemporary as well as No. 15 on Billboards Hot 100. In 1980, Warwick won two Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "I'll Never Love This Way Again" and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female for "Déjà Vu". She became the first female artist in the history of the awards to win in both categories the same year. – and the album peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard albums chart.
thumb|left|upright|Dionne Warwick by Allan Warren, s
In January 1980, while under contract to Arista Records, Warwick hosted a two-hour TV special called Solid Gold '79. This was adapted into the weekly one-hour show Solid Gold, which she hosted throughout 1980 and 1981 and again in 1985–86. Major highlights of each show were the duets she performed with her co-hosts, which often included some of Warwick's hits and her co-hosts' hits, intermingled and arranged by Solid Gold musical director Michael Miller. Another highlight in each show was Warwick's vocal rendition of the Solid Gold theme, composed by Miller (with lyrics by Dean Pitchford).